LIFE AFTER THE REVOLUTION IN THE WORDS OF SIROUSH AMIRIAN

Now at forty-seven years old, after living in Tehran, Iran for twenty-three years, Siroush Amirian is very grateful for the fact that she now lives in Glendale, California.  Unlike many of her family members she had the opportunity of escaping out Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule.  She could not be any happier for now she is a devoted wife, mother of two, and she has the freedom of owning her own hair salon.  Still to this day, as she thinks about all of the hardships she has gone through with her family and friends, she gives thanks to her parents for sending her to America. 

  Life before the revolution, under Reza Shah Pahlavi, in Iran was just like life in America.  But you were just not allowed to do anything that went against the government and if you had a problem all you had to do was bribe the government and they would take care of you.  Bribery was a very common thing.  People would bribe anybody to stay away from the government and not get in trouble with like the government.  There was a time when uh we were on vacation and we would get held over by the same police guy every day.  My dad gave him money to leave us alone.

Life after the revolution, under Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule, was harder even though we had like some freedoms.  People could go on strike but they would get punished if it were against the government’s ideas.  People would get captured and go to jail.  We had the freedom of choosing our own religion.  We couldn’t practice our religion freely.  The government disliked every religion other than Muslim. It was better to be a Muslim because you had more rights and you were more like “important.”  Being a Muslim in Iran gives you a better opportunity to get a better job uh get a better education and get paid better and also they treated you better.  Also many of their religion’s beliefs affected our daily living.  There was a time in summer, imagine it being the hottest it can be, you had to still cover your entire body wearing dark colored clothing and when you got out of the house it was depressing because outside there were rituals Muslims practiced.  There were these chains they would use to hit themselves with in the chest till they would bleed.  This way they thought they would get closer to God.  One month at specific times they would eat and they wouldn’t eat meat.  And you had to be careful not to eat in front of them.  During this period of time stores would sell water.  And if you were to drink water you were not to drink in front of them.

 Most of all of minority schools such as Armenian and Hebrew schools were either closed or converted to schools completely managed and controlled by Muslims.  In order for students to get accepted into universities they had to take a test, which tested their knowledge about the Muslim religion.  It was bad because you had to know information about the Muslim religion even if you didn’t go to a Muslim school.  Yet people, definitely couldn’t change to another religion that was a very scary thing to do, especially changing from Muslim to another religion they must have been out of their mind because that was unacceptable and they could have been killed for doing that. 

Life after the revolution was like much worse and less democratic.  Like we could not have picnics in open areas and have male and female play volleyball together because women had to cover themselves and that made it had for them to play.  Males and females could not go to the beach together.  Females could not go and watch males play soccer in an open stadium.  Women could not have any jobs they wanted to have for example women could not be judges, um soccer players, women weren’t allowed to be truck drivers either.  Men were also picked over women most of the time.  You could be a lawyer uh if you wanted to, as a woman uh you were like at the end of the line.  First men had to get accepted then women could apply for it.  Women had to dress completely differently than men, they had to wear veils.  Women could not participate in a lot of sports activities like swimming and running in public. As a result women could not do a lot of stuff men could do.  Being seen with the opposite sex wasn’t comfortable.  The police had to know their relation.  For example if a man and a woman were sitting in a car together the police might come and ask questions to find out what their relation to each other was, like to see if they were siblings or married.  Most women were forced to stay home rather than go to work and do what ever they wanted because of change in social standards. All laws were put in place by men as a result many laws did not take women in consideration in what they desire.   Often very young girls including fourteen to fifteen year olds were forced into marriage with older men.

Before the revolution everybody had a job.  After the revolution a lot of people lost their jobs.  When there weren’t jobs around at home people would make alcohol because it was made illegal to sell it in stores.  People would cut hair in their homes since women weren’t allowed to cut men’s hair and men weren’t allowed to cut women’s hair.  I remember I used to help my mom make rugs and help with the farm to grow crops to sell them for money.   

Before the revolution a lot of movies and television programs such as Colombo, Wild Wild West, Mission Impossible etc. were always broadcasted in Iran. After the revolution, television stations were monitored; you couldn’t say everything you wanted freely.  After the revolution none of the western movies were allowed to be shown and all government propaganda type movies and programs were shown.  “Pop music” shows like Soul Train and VH1 were on all the time before the revolution.  Illegally people would go and get satellite dishes to watch American channels and if anyone of those people were caught they were sent to jail.  Also newspapers were strictly controlled.  You could not say or write something bad about the government or you would go to jail and get severely punished even killed.  There was this one time, I remember, this guy wrote that he didn’t like Khomeini and he didn’t like his idea of keeping every old tradition and how he didn’t want to modernize Iran.  The very same day his newspaper was out the police killed him.  There have been many similar situations like that.

I don’t think I will go back to live in Iran.  I would probably go to visit but I don’t think I would live there because after having all this freedom here, why would I go back to live there?  I lived there once and I didn’t have an easy life.  I’m happy here. I don’t see any reason for me to go back.

Interviewed by Eileen Amirian