Shining the Light on Iranian Women

Ida Panahandeh, Iranian film director (right), Mrs. Rakhshan Bani Etemad, Grand Dame of Iranian cinema (middle), and me

The stakes are high in Iran. Children, young men and women are risking their lives….pure pain in a country that’s as beautiful as any I’ve ever known. Their parents and grandparents living in such unimaginably sleepless days and nights.

This morning at 2 A.M. Minneapolis time, I received the following message from one of the greatest artists I’ve had the pleasure to know, and learn more about my culture of origin, Ida Panahandeh:

“Hi Sima. Don’t be sad. Hardship, suffering and catastrophies have been a part of Iranian nation’s history and destiny. Except, right now, because of social media, the world is seeing everything. For years, decades, and millenial our mothers, fathers and ancestors have been subjugated to oppression yet no one has seen it, always kept hidden…..and no one has shed tears of blood as we see today………………....Ida Panahandeh, 11.21.22

This is the kind of pain and emotional helplessness many of us are receiving from Iran. I happened to receive this from an artist who’s a prolific writer and has created characters that are so dear to her followers. In her last movie, Titi, she brought to life an unforgettable young woman of the Roma lineage who spoke the truth to the world. Titi sits deep in my heart. The Roma, like many minorities have always been looked down upon. Of course Ida would give light to the ones who’re so voiceless and unseen. Every day I pray for that specific unconditional love that Titi showed the world, a persisting love she reveals to the audience despite living a life full of such unbreakable barriers as patriarchy, hierarchy and power.

Titi. My favorite heroine for 2022.

What can I do?

The question that comes to the mind and heart of any immigrant who’s connected emotionally, spiritually and in friendship to loved ones in another land. In time, my answer has been a commitment to the voices of artists who have been committed to witness the entirety of their culture, good and bad, and then share their work with the rest of us, never stopping, despite the pain and restrictions.

What the world hasn’t done?

When I hear Iranian-Americans asking our government, or UN or any other global organization “to do” something for Iran, I wonder, what has the world or any other outsider has done for Iran’s destiny in the last century that you think it will happen now?

Here, in America, we can’t get guns out of the hands of our citizens who’ve created an unbearable fear for our children, grand children and loved ones!!! We WON’T commit!! We still can’t look back at our own history and admit to our own wrong doings, let alone what our failed foreign policies have done abroad.

Actions speak louder than prayers, guilt, sympathy, compassion or any words anyone says, including so many empty promises from politicians so that their constituents, connected to other lands ‘feel’ better. I don’t want to feel better. I want to see change. Change, first in our own community.

The most important lesson in my life came to me from my children. Do as you say. Honesty, self-reflection and acknowledging our wrong doings is the start of change.

So, today, I just want to tell my friends and the world that women like Ida, Mrs. Bani Etemad, Mrs. Golestan and Tara are the gems and light carriers of their mothers and grandmothers and the rest of us in Iran. They are all women who could have left Iran, but have chosen to be artists, writers, mothers, and citizens of a country that they love so much with all the pain they’ve had to endure. Not one of them wants America, Europe or any other nation to “DO” anything for them. However, they want to be respected, and be known to the world for the dignity by which they live their lives, to be acknowledged for the thoughtful leaders that they have been to their communities, families and homeland. To be noticed for creating beauty and living life fully, yet sharing the truth of the injustice that they witness.

I am humbled, grateful, much more compassionate, more active, and broken to know them. They are sisters and mothers of a land that I love so much. Unlike the nostalgia, guilt, and helplessness that exists in many in the diaspora; they live moment by moment, fiercely, even if they share helplessness with us.

Tara Behbahani (Iranian artist), Mrs. Lili Golestan (Gallery owner, translator, and Mentor to thousands). Tara is a young artist who has her own practice, teaches and is raising her children, while living with a chronic and at time accute debilitating health condition. Mrs. Golestan opened a gallery out of her garage in 1988. She is one of the most beloved women, translators, artists, and mentors to so many in Iran.

Ida, Arsalan and a crew member, September 2020__Arsalan made his first movie, Zalava, during the Covid shut down. He had been waiting for almost a decade to make this movie. A labor of love from this talented young man. Zalava won the Grand Prix in Venice, 2021. It also won multiple awards from Fajr Iranian Festival. Arsalan is from the Kurdish lineage. Arsalan and Ida work as a team. They collaborated on making four of Ida’s movies. This time, it was Arsalan’s movie they collaborated on.

My mom (left), me, Mrs. Niazmand (the first woman in my life who showed me to always stay true to my own voice, to stay grounded in who I am, never doubting authenticity. These last three visits in Tehran, I got to spend time with her as an adult and receive so much of her wisdom).

A proud moment of meeting and sharing some time with Mrs. Lili Golestan at her gallery.