داستان کوتاه انگلیسی

Escaping a Revolution to Find the “American Dream” (part1)



When you look back on your younger self, living in Iran, what compelled you to come to America?

As a kid, before the revolution, most people had hopes of going to America to go to school, and eventually, come back to Iran to establish their life/career. The general feeling was that an American education would allow us to come back home and create better futures for ourselves and our families. Anybody who came back with a degree from America in those days could establish a very good job and their life would be set.

That was my idea – to come, get educated, live here for a little bit, then go back. My plan was always to come to America after high school and go back. We all still had faith in our country’s future. After the revolution though, that idea died.

What were you doing in Iran prior to immigrating?

I did some military service in the army, which was cut short because of the revolution. They let everybody out earlier. So I started working with a friend of mine, we established a company importing beauty supplies from Germany. We were doing pretty well, expanding the business. And from there I was introduced to another person who was doing International transportation, and he invited me to go work in his company. I worked there and was introduced to other people from European countries working in the import/export business. I met people from Germany, from Italy, from France, England. We communicated in English.

How much did the events of the Islamic Revolution influence your decision to leave home?

The revolution killed any kind of hope we had for the future of Iran. From that point on, I’d say a couple of years after it started, the idea of going to America for school and coming back changed. At first we thought the revolution was going to turn our country into a democratic republic. As soon as it turned religious, we knew that things were going in the wrong direction.

It didn’t make sense to come back. What was happening to our country was against our beliefs. Everyone’s plans for their future changed a couple of years after the revolution.

Tell me about the American hostage crisis of 1979 – you were at the American embassy when this happened, right?

Well this was right when the revolution started, so a lot of Iranians were trying to get visas to leave the country. They were trying to get whatever visa they could get, everybody just wanted to get out. I went and applied for my student visa; they put your name down and give you a number outside of the embassy. Everyday there were people lined up outside waiting to get their numbers and have them called. They’d accept 150 people everyday.