Iranian transplant urges different view of country
As the world grapples with the news of a civilian airliner being unintentionally shot down by Iranian missiles, killing all 176 onboard, a Penticton resident whose second cousin was on the Áight hopes her story helps change people’s perspective of her home country. Mehrnaz Massoudi, an emotional healing coach and author, remembers the moment she knew she had to share her story of growing up in Iran before, during and after the revolution. “I took English literature in Iran, before the revolution,” she said. “I’m a storyteller. My friends always told me I should write my memoir, and I was like, ‘Nah, everyone should write their memoir.’ But in 2015, I was doing a dream board, and there was this voice, like this energy, (saying) ‘Write your memoir.’” It was Ànally published last summer. Massoudi said she takes readers through the streets of Iran’s capital, Tehran, to the cafes and dance clubs. She discusses the challenges women in Iran face but also the turmoil her family experienced at the hands of the Revolutionary Guards. It shows a different side of Iran, a country Massoudi says is depicted in media to be a “desert country.” “I’ve been in Canada for 36 years, but my beloved home of Iran . . . I am just (hoping) people will sit and read, so they get the perspective of Iranian (people), and they don’t judge (Iran) of what they see on the main media. “We have not been justified fairly. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a regime of dictatorship,” she explained. “Two months ago, there was a huge demonstration