Name: Amirali
Nickname: Uggla (Owl in Swedish)
Age: 29
City: Tehran
"I left Iran once already, and I hope I don’t have to do it again, but you never know what tomorrow will bring. From 2006-2009 I was living in Malmo, Sweden, with my cousins who moved out there a while back. I went for a 2 week visit, and ended up staying for 3 years, doing freelance graphic design. I fell in love with the atmosphere there. The openness of the culture and the people, the diversity and the fact that everyone is so interested in who YOU are, as a person and as an individual. In fact, Sweden is where my love for my Iranian lineage really blossomed, that is where I recognized my pride in my culture.
"In 2009, I decided to come home and visit for the first time since I had left. I missed my family, my friends and the country, especially my father’s sister’s cooking. No ‘Tachin’ in the world is more delicious than hers. Just a week and a half into my homecoming visit, the election protests started, chaos was commonplace, and our moral was high. We knew we’d change things.
This, in addition to my family’s situation (my older brother is disabled and was having a tough time), lead me to choose to stay home and not return to Malmo. I had no doubts; I’d resume my freelance graphic design work for a living and begin my new passion, photography.
"Its four years later, and I feel like I’ve regressed four years. My career in graphic design was moving forward for a short while, as I was getting little projects here and there. But as work started to taper more and more, I didn’t have a choice but to start working at my uncle’s jewelry shop, soon after my father sold his antique business after having back surgery. I came back to Iran thinking a brighter future was just around the corner, but today that seems even farther away. I feel cheated. Luckily I have my photography, my medium to express how I feel.
"I watched our lives go downhill during Ahmedinejad’s second term, and I can’t watch this spiral continue. Its time our government takes our lives and our need seriously, so we can move forward and not backward. It’s time to end the nuclear issue, because we don’t need it as a nation, and our economy can’t handle it. Not only is it so expensive that it’s diverting funds from the people (little government assistance for my brother, and no disability pay for my father), but the sanctions are a second hit. Our country needs to move into another direction but backwards, or else I fear I’ll have to move out of Iran, again, with my family."
© WeAreTheMartyrs 2013
Nickname: Uggla (Owl in Swedish)
Age: 29
City: Tehran
"I left Iran once already, and I hope I don’t have to do it again, but you never know what tomorrow will bring. From 2006-2009 I was living in Malmo, Sweden, with my cousins who moved out there a while back. I went for a 2 week visit, and ended up staying for 3 years, doing freelance graphic design. I fell in love with the atmosphere there. The openness of the culture and the people, the diversity and the fact that everyone is so interested in who YOU are, as a person and as an individual. In fact, Sweden is where my love for my Iranian lineage really blossomed, that is where I recognized my pride in my culture.
"In 2009, I decided to come home and visit for the first time since I had left. I missed my family, my friends and the country, especially my father’s sister’s cooking. No ‘Tachin’ in the world is more delicious than hers. Just a week and a half into my homecoming visit, the election protests started, chaos was commonplace, and our moral was high. We knew we’d change things.
This, in addition to my family’s situation (my older brother is disabled and was having a tough time), lead me to choose to stay home and not return to Malmo. I had no doubts; I’d resume my freelance graphic design work for a living and begin my new passion, photography.
"Its four years later, and I feel like I’ve regressed four years. My career in graphic design was moving forward for a short while, as I was getting little projects here and there. But as work started to taper more and more, I didn’t have a choice but to start working at my uncle’s jewelry shop, soon after my father sold his antique business after having back surgery. I came back to Iran thinking a brighter future was just around the corner, but today that seems even farther away. I feel cheated. Luckily I have my photography, my medium to express how I feel.
"I watched our lives go downhill during Ahmedinejad’s second term, and I can’t watch this spiral continue. Its time our government takes our lives and our need seriously, so we can move forward and not backward. It’s time to end the nuclear issue, because we don’t need it as a nation, and our economy can’t handle it. Not only is it so expensive that it’s diverting funds from the people (little government assistance for my brother, and no disability pay for my father), but the sanctions are a second hit. Our country needs to move into another direction but backwards, or else I fear I’ll have to move out of Iran, again, with my family."
© WeAreTheMartyrs 2013