Sima Raisi was born almost blind in one eye. Sadly, despite going to various doctors around Iran, her condition went undiagnosed until the sixth grade, by which time it was far too late to treat.
Born into a conservative community in Iran’s Balochistan region, the odds of Sima living an independent life and reaching her dreams with her disability were stacked firmly against her. Miraculously, through the encouragement and support of her father, as well as her personal strength and resilience, Sima has gone on to achieve a great deal in a short amount of time.
Today, Dr Sima Raisi holds a PhD and is a passionate advocate for the environment, women, and disabled people in her community. Despite her personal suffering, Sima says, “I learned the value of hard work. I learned that disabled people are no less than the rest of the population and I want to make sure they are given a chance.”
Sima’s story is just one of many inspiring and eye-opening memoirs in Tara Kangarlou’s debut The Heartbeat of Iran. Each story details the life of a remarkable person living in the country and delves into various social, cultural and political issues in Iran today.
Tara was born and raised in Iran until the age of 16 when she moved to the US to complete her education after which she pursued a career in journalism. Having worked for outlets such as CNN, Al Jazeera and NBC, her journalistic background is clear from the contents of the book, with each story embedded in historical and cultural context, as well as eye-opening facts about the issues addressed.
In writing the book, Tara sought to offer an alternative insight into the lives of Iranians to that presented by the mainstream media in the West.
“As I often say, Iran is a country of 80 Million human beings, rather than 80 million nuclear heads; and in that distinction lies layers and layers of texture, colour and nuance that remain a mystery to the rest of the world,” she tells The New Arab.
Some stories in the book are from famous individuals such as Zahra Nemati, a paralympic gold medal-winning archer. Zahra’s story is not simply a success story about a female athlete in Iran, but through her story readers are transported to Kerman, home to the largest pistachio farms in Iran and the devastating Bam earthquake that hit the region in 2003 killing at least 34,000 people and injuring a further 200,000. Her story highlights attitudes towards disabled people in the country, as well the challenges associated with being an athlete, and a woman in Iran today.
“The Heartbeat of Iran is not just a collection of personal profiles nor paints a rosy picture of the country, but rather it is a multi-faceted narrative that exposes an Iran within an Iran, within an Iran, through the realities of life of its ordinary citizens,” explains Tara.
Tara spent four years working on the book, from research and reporting to writing and getting published. A process she labels as “daunting and challenging.”
She says it was “extremely hard. I didn’t travel to Iran given that I felt it may have put me at risk, as many other American journalists would be if they went solo and without network credentials.”
For this reason, all 30 interviews she conducted (of which 24 made it into the book) were done via Facetime, WhatsApp video calls and Skype from Istanbul over a total of 2.5 years.
“It took about three months for me to narrow down the direction and to incorporate the hundreds of social, cultural, historic, political, ethnic and religious layers I wanted to weave into the book, and then nearly 2.5 years to find the individuals in the book before spending hours and hours conducting interviews with them,” she details proudly.
Other stories in the book include that of Khalil Koiki, a painter from Qasre Shirin in Kermanshah, Rabbi Harev Yehuda Gerami, and Iran’s first female race car driver Laleh Seddiq.
Publishing the book was also no easy feat for Tara. Some publishers she approached wanted her to focus the stories on women’s oppression or other narratives they already had in mind about Iran.
“It was quite frustrating and unfathomable to see how Western editors and publishers wanted to fit certain places and stories into a black and white frame and control the narrative,” she says.
Even when she did find a publisher who agreed to publish the book, Tara described the process of working with a publisher who had no idea about Iran’s history, culture and politics as “excruciating.”
Her experience amplifies the need for more diversity in the publishing world and is something Tara tries to raise awareness of through her work as a journalist and writer.
Despite the challenges she faced, the positive feedback towards The Heartbeat of Iran has really cemented its success.
“The feedback has been so kind, so generous, and so humbling,” she says. “It was a true reminder of how desperately a book as such was needed for the Western readers. It acts as a bold reminder of how nuanced human voices from under-reported or partially covered places are so critical in shaping the minds of people around the world.”
Tara is currently working on her next book.
“I strongly believe in the power of bridging divides, crossing cultures, and connecting barriers through storytelling. In my next book, I once again take my readers on a journey, except this time it’s not to one country and one nation.”
You can purchase The Heartbeat of Iran here
Sahar Esfandiari is a British-Iranian writer focused on the Middle East and its diaspora
Follow her on Twitter: @saharesfandiari