04/24/2021
Meet our of the week, Mahshid Fashandi Hager!
Mahshid was just 10 years old when her family had to flee Iran during the Iran/Iraq war and crossed the border into Turkey through refugee smugglers. Their journey didn’t stop there, robbed and traumatized by the whole experience, as they had to continue on to their final destination of Germany. They left everything they loved and owned back in Iran.
The family hoped to reach the United States, but the country’s process of getting a visa is nearly impossible. She eventually made it to San Diego, CA where she ended up going to college. There, she took a memoir class that changed her life as opportunities to share her story grew.
Mahshid recalls her family being in survival mode during her younger years and the trauma they all faced as they tried to find a safer life. She now has turned that trauma around and wrote it down. With a memoir written and a play on stage about her experience, it has been nothing but success for Mahshid since then. She is now a trauma therapist, author, storyteller, mom, and wife.
She hopes that, for Iranian Americans, her sharing her story through the play would open up their discussions on the Iran/Iraq war and the Iranian Revolution. For many Iranian Americans and Iranian refugees, sharing their experiences and trauma was something they never did, they didn’t know it was allowed. Many end up not being able to grieve their past lives and move on properly. As for Americans, she hopes that they would be able to take away that Iran was Westernized at some point and that life was beautiful before the pre-Iranian Revolution that stole their land, families, and uprooted them all. She wanted to show everyone what a refugee actually is.
SOURCE: Vanguard Culture
