“A woman who fled to the Amazon forests after the 1979 revolution.”
Louis Baruch, BBC
Translation: Foaad Haghighi
More than 40 years have passed, and Parnaz Imani, now 53 years old, still vividly remembers when she left Iran. Recalling those days, she says, “My sister, her husband, and I fled Iran with the clothes on our backs and a suitcase, without anything else.”
Parnaz is now a member of the small Iranian community living in Manaus, the center of the Amazonas state in Brazil. She remembers how the Islamic Revolution disrupted her everyday life as a schoolgirl outside the city, saying, “I was 9 when the revolution happened. I remember that before that, boys and girls sat together in class. But a year later, they separated them.”
In 1986, at the age of a teenager, Parnaz left Iran with her family, fearing religious persecution as they were Baha’is. She explains, “We’ve always faced harassment and persecution as Baha’is, but after the Islamic Revolution, these mistreatments became institutionalized.”
“The government began to harass, arrest, and kill Baha’is. They confiscated our homes and properties. They treated us like lower beings. We didn’t have equal rights. We couldn’t attend university, and they cut off my mother’s retirement benefits. We were worried they might arrest my father, who was born into a Muslim family and later embraced the Baha’i faith. We lived in secrecy. If we stayed there, there was no future waiting for us.”
She continues, “My maternal uncle, a politician in Tehran, was killed [after the revolution].”
Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has reported that “members of the Baha’i minority community are facing violations of their human rights in expressing their religious beliefs” and has urged the Iranian government to “protect all the rights of members of ethnic and religious minorities and immediately address all forms of discrimination against them.”
“In Search of a Better Future”
After a short stay in Pakistan, Parnaz and her family left Iran and eventually made their way to Brazil, seeking “a better future.” They chose to settle in Manaus because a community of Baha’is was already there, primarily engaged in agriculture. Brazil quickly became a new home for her and 200 other Baha’i families.
Parnaz says, “Adapting to the environment here wasn’t very difficult. When I came to Brazil, I didn’t know a single word of Portuguese. I’m not good at learning other languages, but I was a teenager with enthusiasm, so everything was interesting to me. Brazilians and Iranians have much in common; we are all hospitable and sociable.”
“Despite that, when you are in your own country, you understand the underlying issues, but here in Brazil, I knew nothing. I had to start from scratch.”
Imani studied chemistry and data processing in Brazil and obtained a degree in administrative sciences. She got married, had a son, and later divorced. She now works as a government employee in Brazil. Despite having lived in Brazil for a long time and being away from Iran, she remains a strong critic of the Islamic Republic government.
She says, “In Iran, people are not free in their choices. I represent a community where people are free to act according to their wishes, so they are responsible for their actions and behavior. But it’s not like that there.”
She adds, “After the revolution, the government wanted women to marry and stay at home. There are women with university degrees but fewer job opportunities for them. You can’t choose what to wear, and any move breaking societal norms is punished severely.”
Parnaz has visited Iran several times since migrating to Brazil. During one of these trips, she experienced the regime’s “mercilessness” up close.
“With my sister and her Brazilian son, we went to Iran. We were in Tehran and found ourselves amid a student protest. We didn’t know what the gathering was protesting and weren’t there to protest. Despite this, the Revolutionary Guards attacked us.”
“The officers were lined up on both sides of the street, suppressing the crowd. My nephew, who had never been in such a situation, had no idea what was happening. The officers beat us with batons just because [our crime was] being there at the wrong time.”
She says, “After the revolution, they took away our freedoms to live and pursue our dreams. The ability to have a promising future has been taken from us. Unfortunately, such a mindset and perspective on life are not possible in Iran today, especially for Baha’is. But Baha’is have endured.”
“Life with Family”
Parnaz says she has become accustomed to life in Brazil after many years, except for the “hot and humid Amazon summer.”
She says, “Sometimes the indoor temperature in summer reaches 37 degrees.”
But is there anything in Iran that she misses? She immediately responds, “Family life.”
“It’s a part of understanding and experiencing life that cannot be learned from books and can only be experienced by living with family. That’s why I think I’ve learned a lot of things I’ve experienced, thought about, and considered in my life from my parents, uncles, and grandparents. And all of this is passed down through family life. I’m very sorry that my son has been deprived of this privilege. But time cannot be reversed.”
