As a woman from Iran who carried shame about her country of birth for four decades, watching the widespread protests turn into a feminist revolution in Iran has raised feelings I thought were deeply buried. The protests, sparked by the death of Jîna Amini, also known as Mahsa, an Iranian Kurdish woman who was reportedly beaten by the "morality police" for improperly wearing her hijab, have transformed into a nationwide revolution led by women and school-aged girls. Some in the Iranian diaspora, including my family, have stayed silent. Not because they don't support the people fighting and dying every day, but because they are numb as a result of the decades of suffering the regime has caused.
My mother always says I was American before I knew what America was. She tells the story of when I was seven and stormed into our living room where my relatives were having a meeting to divide my grandfather's substantial estate and declared, "Why is everyone saying my mom and my aunts get less than my uncle? Why should they get less than the one man? It's not fair!"
