A young girl or woman living in Iran in the 21st century will quickly understand what it means to be a second class citizen. She has experienced the true meaning of disgrace and humiliation in a country where her value has been reduced to the size of man's left testicle.
My name is Afsaneh Rostami and I am that woman! I am 40 years old struggling to survive with hopes and dreams for my son's future. I am a single mother with the difficult task of raising him all alone in a male-dominated culture without any support from my family.
I have been fighting my entire life against a corrupt system of "anti-woman Sharia laws" that devalues and disgraces a woman and treats her like a sexual slave. The longer that I live, the more that I realize that there is no hope in the darkness. My family forced me to marry at an early age and I had a child when I was just a young teenager. Very soon afterwards I was divorced not understanding the true meaning of love and marriage. My family separated me from my son declaring that I was unfit to raise him. For eight long years I was prevented from seeing him because of my gender under existing Islamic law.
I had to escape in order to find hope and freedom. I stayed awake every night crying because I was unable to hold my son in my arms. Desperate and afraid, I escaped from my family who wanted to kill me because I didn't fit the role model of an Islamic woman.
"I have not lived for 40 years. I have been miserable and unhappy. I have not danced for 40 years. I am tired......"
I finally arrived in Turkey to seek refuge in a safe country but my pain has doubled since my arrival. I have no income so I had to find a job, but unfortunately refugees are not allowed to work in Turkey. They are prohibited from obtaining a work permit. When the Turkish police discovered that I had a job on the "black market" I was arrested and my residence card was revoked. After living in Turkey for eight years, the government has given me a deportation notice despite being accepted by the UNHCR. If I am deported back to Iran the government will execute me because I am political activist.
Iran was once a civilized country but with the Islamic Invasion centuries ago and the Revolution in 1979 that caused the Shah to be exiled, now my beloved Persian nation is filled with death, destruction, and poverty. When the Shah was in power, the face of Iran was changing into a western secular nation that had gender equality and freedom. But when Khomeini seized power, Iran was transformed into a theocratic nation with the iron-fisted rule of Islamic Mullahs. They have suppressed our freedom-seeking heroes, scientists, and educators, silencing their voices. The government is killing our youth out in the streets because of their peaceful protesting. They are imprisoning and executing our sons, our daughters, and our young women, simply because they want freedom and the right to make choices.
Now that you've read my story, I only have one request of you. Please be my voice! If I am deported, I will no longer have a voice. For forty years, I have struggled and fought in a culture that hates freedom and hates women. I haven't danced in 40 years. Please be my voice so that I can dance again!
