2022 PLV Scholarship Winner Aran Zakeri on Immigrating to America from Iran & Striving to Create a More Just World
In recent months, civil unrest in Iran has been front and center of the global political stage, galvanized by the unlawful murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Aminî. The young Kurdish woman, an aspiring lawyer whom family called by her Kurdish name Jîna (also spelled Zhina), was targeted by Iran’s morality police in September. After mere hours spent in police custody, she arrived at a hospital braindead before succumbing to her injuries. Her crime? Showing a few strands of hair beneath her hijab (headscarf) in a way that violated the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women.
The Islamic Regime’s sheer brutality and utter disregard for the fundamental human rights and liberties of its citizens has marked its 43-year reign since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However, Iranian youth are increasingly speaking out against the country’s authoritarian clerical rule and ongoing atrocities against its own citizens, sparking an unprecedented wave of solidarity and support for those facing oppression in Iran. Thousands of journalists, media figures, and activists have been arrested and subjected to cruel abuses in recent months. Since Aminî’s death, protests have sprung up in more than 80 cities across her homeland, inspiring kindred rallies in Persian diaspora communities across the globe. Protesters proudly wave the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag with the lion and sun emblem while chanting the feminist Kurdish slogan Jin, Jiyan, Azadî, or “Women, Life, Freedom.” These words have an especially powerful resonance since Aminî’s Kurdish name Jîna meant “life.” But in the Islamic Republic, Jîna could not be legally registered under a Kurdish name and was therefore Mahsa.
Demonstrations have taken place here in Orange County — a region with many Iranian-American residents — and local municipalities are taking these cries for justice seriously. The City of Irvine officially condemned the Iranian government on November 22 for the murder of Jîna Mahsa Aminî, following the cities of Mission Viejo, Fullerton, and Costa Mesa. On November 17, a candlelight vigil and silent protest was held near the Irvine Spectrum in memory of 9-year-old Kian Pirfalak, who was shot dead in an anti-government demonstration. Family members of those killed by government security personnel are often forced by the Regime to lie on national television about the causes of their loved ones’ deaths. The family of 16-year-old activist Nika Shahkarami was denied the basic right to receive and bury their family member’s remains — her body was stolen by Iranian security forces and secretly buried in a village. Remains of protesters are often used as leverage to silence families and prevent places of burial from becoming pilgrimage sites. Under duress, her family could not even hold a funeral.
Change, however, may be on the horizon, with reports recently surfacing that Iran may have abolished its morality police after months of brave activists speaking out. At the time this article was published, the facts are still unfolding.
Meet Aran
When 2022 PLV Scholarship winner Aran Zakeri applied for the PLV Scholarship last spring, the rising tide of political outrage against Iran’s Islamic Republic had not yet rippled through the international media. Knowing little about life in contemporary Iran, my husband Shawn and I were captivated by Aran’s story, which was unlike that of any other application we had received. Aran grew up in the Iranian capital Tehran and entered one of Iran’s most prestigious high schools, an institution reserved for exceptionally gifted students with a 1% acceptance rate based solely on students’ performance on a national exam.
In spite of his stellar GPA, valedictorian status, and impressive research experience in the field of neurogenetics, Aran’s safety and wellbeing in his home country were threatened due to a key aspect of his identity: his sexual orientation. Because Aran is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, he was told by school authorities that he needed to disown that part of himself or face dire consequences. But the bigotry he faced didn’t end on his school campus: Aran’s parents disowned their only son for the same reason. In his application essay, Aran described his situation as follows:
…[M]y parents closed the door on my face, telling me why I didn’t deserve to have a shelter in their place and I was a deviant. I had to stay the night in the cold, using my biology books as pillows, and soon I realized why they didn’t want me. I was a deviant to them because I had violated their traditional norms. I was a bisexual person with opposite beliefs that neither the Iranian government nor my parents accepted. I was threatened with being kicked out of the country and suffering all my life behind bars and in cells designed for deviant people. Yes, those cells where almost none of the prisoners saw the sunlight again because of the massive executions committed by the government against people with different sexual orientations.
Aran’s swift action allowed him to escape this fate. By himself, he made his way to California and began his senior year at Mission Viejo High School. In America, he was free to enjoy his civil liberties without fear of political persecution. Although Aran faced certain challenges as a 17-year-old immigrant in Orange County, he continued to excel academically, achieving straight As and scoring within the top 99th percentile on the SAT. Living in the States, Aran had to support himself, working in fast food and retail.
Shawn and I had the pleasure of meeting Aran last July in San Diego, where we enjoyed a delicious Mexican food lunch in honor of what would have been my mother Patricia’s 70th birthday. Aran is now a freshman enrolled at UC San Diego studying Human Biology with a Cognitive Science minor. He can speak five languages, works as a lab research intern, and volunteers as a crisis counselor in his spare time. To learn more about Aran and his values and experiences, check out his interview from last summer below.
Aran in His Own Words
What advice would you give to youth whose family members are not accepting of important aspects of their identity?
Aran: I have been thinking about the concept of identity for a long time. I have researched and gone over all of the resources on my hands. However, there was no explanation of what Identity stands for and why it should be preserved, even though the person is exposed to new circumstances. Briefly, identity is defined as qualities, beliefs, and expressions that characterize a person. But does identity only describe a person? My answer to this question is a certain no. Identity is part of your whole entity. You exist because you have identified yourself with something. Without that, you are no more different from a lost individual in a world of nonsense. When I first realized that I have a distinct identity and preference compared to my peers, I knew that fighting for this new identity could risk my whole life, but I kept fighting because I knew that there’s no life without identity. Yes, it costs so much when you stand against a family, let alone a government thirsty for your blood. You want to be different, but your family doesn’t acknowledge your existence. You want to be free, but you’re tied with a chain called traditions. You want to be you because nobody can see how you are different from their fake perception. My dear peers, all I can say is that you should constantly fight for your identity. No matter who you’re fighting or what you’ll be facing, please keep your head straight up and be whatever you want to be. Keep in remind that as Audre Lorde explains, “My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.”
What motivated you to persevere in spite of the difficulties you faced on your journey?
Aran: Now that I’m reflecting on what difficulties I have been going through, I realize that the only reason I’m able to survive is that I had hope for my future. Life is always compared to a marathon. Although some people get to start at better points with certain privileges, the majority have to face significant obstacles alongside the competition. Therefore, it’s predictable that the majority will always take risks to shorten this gap between those who started ahead. But how should we define risk? For some people, the risk is just about buying a lottery ticket, but for me, the risk was all over my journey, starting from the time I took steps outside of my comfort. Every day that I took steps out of my comfort zone, only one thing encouraged me to fight in this marathon: hope. I was confident that no matter what difficulties I faced in my life, hard work always paid off. I hoped for a better future, and I even dreamt about every single moment of that future. I dreamt about getting my post-graduate degree and starting a life where I could fight for my dreams. Never forget that it’s not your dreams that come to you; you keep fighting for your goals.
Speaking from your own experience as a teen immigrant from Iran, what, if anything, surprised you most about living in America?
Aran: When I came to America, I had some pre-arranged thoughts about the whole society here. Although I knew it wound be a new experience, I already had prepared myself for this new society by reading different books and following news that explained modern America. Now that I have lived in America for less than a year, I have touched on some facts that I had been exposed to earlier. Unfortunately, what I saw in the new America was no more the idealistic American dream. What I saw in America was a polarized society where no one cared about anyone. This apathy for other individuals was never something understandable to me. I remember when biking to my school, how I observed this scene daily, where some latest-model cars were passing a young homeless teenager, lying on the ground, with his shopping cart beside him. I can’t understand why a nation of free people and free entitled rights has come to this point of life where nobody pays attention to what’s going on in society. I wish society were the only negligence of these individuals. We have also forgotten our ideals and why we call ourselves Americans. When I first heard about the Capitol invasion, my whole dreams and hopes disappeared in front of my eyes. Now the Capitol was not being taken over by the British army. Americans were taking it over. Yes, the same Americans sacrificed their precious lives to save the country from British tyranny. This is an excellent example of how misinformation can destroy our identity.
What inspired you to want to become a healthcare provider who serves low-income individuals as part of a global business venture?
Aran: As a low-income family member myself, and feeling the sense of not having a family in a new country like America, I started searching around for new families. Throughout this year, I met different people with a diversity of backgrounds, and all I can say is it was a fantastic experience. I sympathized with all minority groups, and I can profoundly understand how they face unequal treatment solely because of their socioeconomic status. I chose biology to get myself on a track to create a new non-profit medical, pharmaceutical company to address some of the healthcare issues that low-income minority groups face. To specify, my pharmaceutical company will be centered on promoting life quality within these communities by educating and distributing essential medications that can help individuals have a better quality of healthcare.
Furthermore, I have exceptional plans to partner with government-supported healthcare insurance companies such as Medical RX to produce essential medications such as insulin and offer them to low-income individuals with diabetes. Ultimately, I chose healthcare, not to seek materialistic goals in the future. I chose medicine because I want to end the endless healthcare discrimination and the unequal society we’re in now.
What three things does the world need more of?
Aran: Seeing how and why we have come to this point as a nation, I believe only three things can save us and unify us: diversity, truthfulness, and hope for a better future. Starting with diversity, I can confidently say that a country with a diverse background and a variety of opinions will always thrive against misinformation and people who are trying their best to spread it. We should become more alert to how every individual has unique characteristics and why we should respect their identity, even though we disagree. The second is truthfulness. We should never lie to each other. Reality will not be changed just because we want it to be different. Time is a flowing mechanism, and no one can stop it. Let’s stop lying to ourselves and create a society of honesty. Lastly, hope for a better future is the most crucial factor that the world needs more of. Hope supplements all other factors, and it helps us to crave a better future. I hope for a better future. I hope for a better America!
