I Felt at Home
I felt at home during the South, Central, and West Asian Workshop led by Azi Khalili. The other Iranian women felt at home, too!
I led a support group with seven Iranian immigrant women. I discharged heavily about assimilation. I remembered that at the age of four or five I was put in a colonial French Catholic kindergarten in Iran, where all the children were made to think that Farsi was inferior to French and that Muslims were less than Catholics. We were made to think that everything French and non-Muslim was superior and everything about us was inferior.
I loved Azi’s talk about the difference between assimilation and “making a home with everyone.” I want to build a home with every person, on my terms.
I also loved her talks about leadership—in which she said that every child, every girl, is born a leader!
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of South, Central, and West Asian-heritage people
(Present Time 205, October 2021)