Interview with Alice Azzam

I met Alice Azzam few months ago at a beauty salon. She is a hair stylist that moved few years ago from Los Angles to Reno. She is originally from Iran, but her family used to go back and forth between Iran and Spain for business. Her father was a very rich and influential person in Iran in the times of the Shah prior to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. In 1979 during the revolution, her family was in Spain, and they decided to stay in Spain instead of moving back to the new Iran. Of course, the family lost all of their assets in Iran and had to start new life with no financial support.

Alice went to school in Paris and became a hair stylist, she used to work both in Paris and Spain until she and her husband decided to join the rest of their family in the United States. Most of Alice’s distance family is still in Iran, beside of occasional phone calls, they have no way to reconnect with the family or even visit them in Iran.

Alice feels that although it was her decision to immigrant to the USA, she was forced originally to leave her country. She misses her family and friends; she misses the culture prior to the revolution. She knows that the culture that she was accustomed in Iran, does not exist anymore and she and her family had to adapt to a new reality and develop new culture here in the USA.

Alice is very close to her family in Los Angles, she visits them often and they come to visit her here in Reno. She said that while she meets many people in her profession, her true friends are other Iranians that their life story is similar to hers.

Alice is not a religion person, and her family does not go to the Mosque or practice any of their old tradition. She is upset that her kids that were born in the USA are becoming fully Americanized, without knowledge about their heritage and background, but she says, that she believes that with the current situation in Iran she feels much safer living her in the United Stated and not in Iran.

She does pray that one day, she will be able to go back to Iran and reunite with her family and friends, but she knows that her children will not fit in the Iain culture in Iran, and she is happy that her kids will have a brighter future here in the USA.

Reflection
Alice’s story is very similar to other stories that I read and heard. This is a story about immigrants that were forced out from their countries and were looking for the best place to reestablish themselves and provide their family better opportunities. I feel sympathy to those people, I do not see them anymore as the enemy, I do see them as equals members of the society that try to live decent life while supporting their families and securing their children’s future.