I am from far far away, I am from bygone days. I am from Alborz mountain covered with snow until May. I am from Caspian Sea, from the Ocean, from the turquoise domes. I am from a little pale heaven arranged with honeysuckles, roses, dahlias, hyacinth, with an old fig…

I didn’t know why the beautiful Fiddle Leaf Fig that I named Lucy wouldn’t grow in the corner of the kitchen. *** Lucy was healthy under the sun behind the windows, she was green in her misty soil, she was charming in her shiny blue and white china planter. *** But Lucy didn’t grow at all. I didn’t know until I knew, her roots enthralled her, and there was no way to escape, to be free, for her to grow.

On 8 January 2020, an airplane was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shortly after takeoff from Tehran Airport and all 176 passengers and crew were killed. …

My grocery shopping list drives me crazy sometimes. It’s hard to believe a gigantic grocery store in town doesn’t have fresh fava beans and dry dill. When I want to cook Baghali-polo, a traditional Persian dish, I have to make a plan in advance. ‘Cooking like my mother does is…

A child is hungry in a village, a woman is raped in street, a drug dealer murdered in his home, a farmer loses their farm in the middle of a drought, a journalist is in prison, and an activist is tweeting: #FeedChildren, #Women’sRights #SubstanceAbusePrevention #ClimateChange and #FreeSpeech. Hundreds of child…

April comes with rain and green and birds and blossoms. Rivers intermingle with the roads and grasses and ground. Ponds and pools invite animals with mercy. Flowers lend their beauty to all kinds of scenes; pretty or ugly. …

The first time I heard about the pandemic I had no idea what it was. I am not a doctor nor have any medical knowledge at all. I thought it’s a myth, a rumor, a joke or an exaggeration of some kind of disease like so many other things that…