About the author
In 1977, I married one of the founders of the Iranian student anti-Shah movement in the United States and my political horizons broadened. In 1978, I took an inaugural flight to Tehran—and it changed my life forever. I met a young nephew who would later participate in the seizure of the U.S. Embassy that fateful day in November 1979. I experienced the palpable electricity of a nation on the verge of revolution. I returned to share and to warn; however, cautionary impressions were met with polite disinterest.
In 1979, after twenty years in exile, my husband returned to his country with ten suitcases and me, his American bride. Three short years later, in 1982, we fled with our new infant son, one bag and $500 sewn into the waistband of his pants. During the intervening years between my arrival and escape, I learned the language, experienced the culture, watched my husband being taken from our home in the middle of the night by local vigilantes, secretly aided the anti-regime activists, was appointed an "official" delegate to a conference attended by Ramsey Clark to help get an American woman out of jail, had an Ak47 pointed at my pregnant belly while thugs searched my home and, regardless, came to love the subtle nuance and grace of a people we now love to hate.
Forty years, two more sons and an amicable divorce later, I continue my almost evangelical love affair with Iran. I am a seasoned public speaker and have made appearances on "The Phil Donohue Show" and "The Merv Griffin Show." I worked as the public relations director of a women's clinic, organizing interviews and features with Geraldo Rivera, Playboy magazine. I completed a national speaking tour on Iran with programs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Birmingham, Madison, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Portland, Seattle, Honolulu and appeared on innumerable local television morning shows, in all major market radio stations. I am no stranger to marketing. A practicing family law attorney in Pleasant Hill, California, I am compelled to think on my feet while addressing controversy on a daily basis.