Iran Is the Place I Call Home, Yet It’s Somewhere I’ve Never Been
For many in the Iranian diaspora, the war has intensified a familiar tension: feeling deeply tied to a land they haven’t visited.
An Iranian decorates a table with “Haft Seen” in Tehran on March 17, 2024, in preparation for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
Growing up, the highlight of Nowruz wasn’t the Persian new year rituals, the food or even the dancing. It was the moment later in the evening when tea cups were filled, plates pushed aside and everyone settled around the table as the stories began. My grandmother, my mother and other relatives would reminisce about their lives in Iran — the streets they grew up on, the markets where they bought their groceries and the nearby towns they’d visit for weekends away. There were animated debates and friendly interruptions. The room quickly filled with laughter, sighs and long, nostalgic pauses.
Listening to them describing their vivid memories of Iran, it always felt as though I knew the country intimately — every street, every sound, every smell. But when people ask if I’ve ever visited, the answer is no: I have never set foot in the country I feel most connected to.