I had a good life and a career as an English academic in Iran before losing everything in the Islamic revolution of 1979, coming to Britain and re-training as a nurse and midwife.
Born in Switzerland and raised as a Muslim in a Persian family, I attended the International School of Geneva for ten years before we relocated to Iran. Many of its international pupils were, like me, products of two or more cultures. At school we were known as the “3rd culture kids”.
After my family’s move to Iran during my teens, I was obliged to switch my mindset from a permissive European culture to the more restrictive Middle Eastern one, and to adopt Persian and Muslim values and mores. To complicate matters I became a Christian in Iran in my late twenties, and was baptized in Tehran in 1978 during the final year of the Shah’s reign.
In the political turmoil and purges that followed in the wake of the Revolution, I was an anomaly: a female Iranian convert to Christianity. The new theocratic Muslim republic that my homeland had become had no place for me. I did not fit in comfortably anywhere within its social structure. A fortuitous move to England enabled me to start over again, training to be a nurse. This meant yet another cultural adjustment in order to integrate fully into modern British society. My subsequent happy marriage saved me from the threat of a rudderless existence. Husband, children, and a permanent home in Edinburgh finally enabled me to embrace a completely new identity enhanced by an intimate blend of different languages, cultures, and religions. I’m now a surprisingly stable adult “3rd-culture kid”!
If you want to know how I survived the Revolution, changed religion, adopted a different national identity, lost my homeland and family, started from scratch in a new discipline, and yet can lead a meaningful life in my adoptive country, then you should read In the Shadow of the Shahs published by Lion Hudson (2019)—it’s the story of my life and its cultural challenges.
