It was the fall of 1978. I was a sophomore at Grand Blanc High School. It was the start of a new school year. At the lunch hour, on the first full day, I look for people I knew to sit with. After getting my salad and fries-yes, they served fries at GBHS, in a cylinder cardboard container with a photo of fries on the outside. Yes, there was a table with three gals I knew and two I did not. The two I did not looked middle eastern to me. Both had gorgeous dark shiny curly black hair-when you have curly hair, you notice other girls who have curly hair and you wonder what they do to make they curls looks pretty and not frizzy. Anyway, I went over said hi to the girls I knew, sat down and introduced myself to the “new girls.” They were sisters, one a year older than myself and they other girls and one a year younger. The details of were they new to they area or just new to me, are not clear in my memory, but their parents were from Iran. Their father was a specialist in the area. Later I would find out that he was one of the favorite Pediatricians in the Flint area, known to be a gentle and kind man. I never met him but their Mom was a very beautiful petite woman who wore beautiful clothes.
Students took the hostages the American Embassy in Tehran. Ted Koppel And his program Nightline gave a count on what day the hostages were held. Bottom left, The Shah of Iran on the right the man who would lead the regime change.
As things heated up in Iran during that time period, riots of sections of the population rising up against the Shah and his modernization and westernizing of the country, I would see it on the news. Our lunch group of my three friends and now two new friends, Ozzie and Fifi (their full names were longer Iranian names, I know that Ozzie’s real name was Azita, and I don’t recall Fifi’s full name) would talk about all kids of things like clothes, plans for the weekend, the school play, colleges we were thinking of and sometimes the girls would talk about what was going on in Iran. As the school year went on, in January, the Shah went into exile in January of 1979 and the Ayatollah Kohmenhi seized control of Iran with his regime, they put a “personal interest” on the story. We all became good friends, getting together on the weekend and during the summer. I recall high school kids making a few posters when the new regime took power with photos protesting the Shah. Ozzie and Fifi would fill us in on who they considered the bad guys (the Ayatollah) were and what they represented. Some of the kids said things to the girls, nothing bad, much of it was out of not knowing the details of the conflict. Knowing Ozzie and Fifi and that their father suspected that trouble might be brewing he had made arrangements to get his family to the US. Again, I don’t recall or even know if I knew the details, made me take an interest when I heard new of Iran. We often had ABC News on and on some nights I stayed up to watch Ted Koppel on Nightline. When the Hostages were taken at the US Embassy in Iran in November of that same year, Koppel would start each show with the number of days it was that the hostages had been held. I worked at the local library and when we got the new TIME and NEWSWEEK magazines, I would put them aside to read on my break in the lounge. I didn’t understand all of the details of what was going on in Iran, but I knew the characters, the geography of the region and the gist of the conflict…
The Martha Cook Building was an ideal residence for international female students a at the University of Michigan. With lovely antique furniture in the rooms, a full meal plan-most dorms did not provide dinners on the weekends or limited weekend dining- and an ideal location on central campus, there was no need for a car or the usual things a young woman would take to college. In addition, MCB was noted as a Michigan historical site complete with a plaque out front describing it’s significance. With the grounds designed by famed Central Park landscape architect, Samuel Parsons, a friend of William Cook, alumni who gave the money for the first official female residence at U of M. Cook was a graduate of Michigan Law and a prominent and very successful attorney in New York City. Possibly, Hanan and Moshda two young women from the Middle East I encountered at the beginning of my junior year at U of M decided on this residence for these reasons.
Hanan was from Palestine-Israel. He father was an active member in the PLO (the Palestine Liberation Organization) and Moshda was from Iran. Her father was member of the new regime that took over after the Shah departed. In the fall of 1983, I recall a few encounters with these two gals who were either friends before they arrived at MCB or they had quickly become friends. Interestingly, neither one of these gals dressed in the traditional attire for women from where they came from. They wore attire very much like their American CoEd’s. I would see them and the other female residents at meals, in the libraries in the dorm of 153 women or in the tv room in the basement. Keeping up a little with what was going on in the Middle East, as much as a twenty year old would at that time I would ask them questions about where they came from what their homelands were like, as I was curious, not having been there but knowing a little from my high school friends, Ozzie and Fifi. Very often these two would speak either Arabic or Farsi (Persian) right in front of you sometimes even laughing. Maybe they weren’t always laughing at me, but I often I felt as if my questions were humorous to them (after seeing on TV and reading that the Iranian regime often chanted, “Death to America” it wouldn’t be out of the realm if they didn’t like us). Both gals had very much a sense of superiority. Several times in the two years I knew them, living in MCB with me, they would make comments like, “You Americans are so stupid,” or other negative comments about my country. I found it interesting that their families SENT them to America, the land of freedom when many women from their part of the world had no or very little freedoms. I wrote it off, with their fathers both so high up in their own regimes as “the rules apply to those beneath us but NOT to us.” It was very irritating to me.
Living at MCB we had numerous international residents, from China, Great Britain, Germany, Russia and girls from all around the country and it was fun to hear about their lives. Dinners served family style with waitresses-myself and my friends occasionally worked for extra spending money) were fun times to hear about where fellow residents came from and what their families and lives were like, it was an amazing place to meet and learn about our neighbors and classmates. Aside from Moshda and Hanan, the international students I encountered were glad to be in the US studying at the U of M. Maybe they felt differently and didn’t say, but I never got the feeling/vibe from any other international that I got from those two. Hanan had dark curly hair, tall thin and she had dark piercing eyes. Moshda also had curly hair, lighter, a medium brown and she had pretty big blue eyes. Neither girl had the shine in her that I remember Ozzie and Fifi, my friends from high school had…
At the club I teach at and workout at, we have very friendly members and staff. From the time you walk in and are greeted at the desk to the locker room attendants to my friends who teach the classes to the managers to the tennis instructors, it is just an upbeat and fun place to be and workout at. Since I teach and enjoy the dance fitness classes, I know those who members participate or at least their face. A few years ago, I met a new participant or at least new to me. After class one day, I introduced myself to a beautiful woman who appeared to be about my age give or take a few years younger. Gals take such good care of themselves these days you just don’t know. She had the most beautiful, shiny dark, wavy hair that she wore in a pony tail. She told me her name was “Zahra.” Each time I saw her either before or after class, I learned more about her and I would share about my life. Our kids were about the same age. Eventually she shared that she had emigrated from Persia/Iran. She told me that her parents had help her after a divorce, she had majored in the sciences at the University level in Iran. She was now married to an American man, of Middle East descent, not sure which country. Her two adult children went to university in the US and she works for a major US company. We would talk about her travels back and forth to bring/take her mother to visit and her love and respect for her parents who helped her so much. I would ask her about life in Iran and she would tell me that her family (brothers and sister still there, father had passed away) had a nice life, all very close, they didn’t get involved in the politics, kept to themselves. “Zahra” now a grandmother like myself, would tell me on numerous occasions how grateful she was for the opportunities she has had for an education, immigration, ability to support her children, her loving husband and her very close family. When she talks with such gratitude, her face shows that appreciation as does her body language. Knowing the little I know from my reading and experience through the years-like my friendship with Ozzie and Fifi, it must be a difficult feeling to know the danger in parts of Iran and the hostility of the Iranian regime. for “Zahra” to have such optimism tells me that her parents must be incredible to have raised such a smart, industrious and adventurous woman. I can only imagine what she and her family must have lived through in Iran and how difficult it would have been to get a divorce and get passage to the US. Wow!
I have never traveled to Iran. The only place in the Middle East I have been to is Israel, just before the attacks on October 7, 2023. The reports back to our kids was, “You know, I was concerned about safety here, but there are young soldiers in fatigues carrying machine guns everywhere-both men and women, even in Old Jerusalem outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.” We had a wonderful experience in Israel! I learned so much, found the people to be kind, friendly, aware and watchful. It was much more advanced and progressive than I ever would have expected. My biggest take away was that within the walls of Old Jerusalem, Jews, Christian and Muslims lived and worked together in harmony. One of our guides was a very kind Muslim man who lived outside of Jerusalem. His knowledge of history was amazing. An interesting fact was that he had just had his teeth done so that he looked good for his job. My husband noticed that and complimented him. He said that he was glad to spend the money as his customers deserved a pleasant looking guide with a nice smile. What a guy. We say near him at meals and as we traveled. What a knowledgeable man!!
Just a couple of days after we landed back in the US, Israel was under attack, by Hamas terrorists funded by Iran. In fact, numerous experts on the Middle East have reported that “Hamas would not have been able to plan and conduct such an operation without years of Iranian training, Iranian weapons and hundreds of millions of dollars in Iranian funding.” (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Matthew Levitt, November 2023).
Many of us only know what we see on tv or read about when it comes to conflicts around the world. Unless we are fortunate to have traveled to or have spoken with or know people from the region, we are counting on people to inform us who may or may not be sharing correct information. Of course, depending on who we know or what our experiences are, we too can be tainted. However, my feeling is that when we get to know people and hear their experiences we developed empathy and that can inspire us to learn more on our own. We all have our own internal ‘barometer’ that (in my opinion) sifts out the “phoney baloney” if we will take the time and effort to think for ourself.
As I read and watch accounts from the Epic Furry Excursion, I am grateful for Ozzie, Fifi, Moshda, Hanan and “Zahra”. I am grateful to our military (Israel) and their families for the sacrifices they make and have made to pursue this mission, years in the making. It is amazing to see the technology intelligence and man/woman power it takes to carry this off. To see the countries of the Middle East come together for the greater good of the world, is a good feeling. To see those world leaders sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see how the wind blows, I feel sorry for them to have compromised themselves by letting too many immigrants in to their country to make the appropriate decisions. They must feel so conflicted/divided and the need to keep stability in their own countries and avoid chaos in their homelands must make their decisions tough to make.
Addressing the evil now, almost fifty years after the first Ayatollah and his regime took over, is a large destructive undertaking, but having let it go so long, it has grown to great proportions. The regime has funded and inflicted so much evil in the world. The can has been kicked down the road long enough by numerous American administrations. Evil cannot be pacified, bribed or tolerated. It needs to be erased from the face of the earth. It’s not just our generations that benefits, but those to follow. Leading to many…Great Days for the citizens of the world to enjoy a sense of peace.
