Insights and Inspiations of a Perian Poet

Description

I was born in 1960 in the industrial province of Khuzestan in south-west Iran, in Abadan. I was in the last year of high school when the revolution broke out in Iran in 1978. Two years following the revolution (1980), the Iran-Iraq war broke out which lasted eight years. I lived, worked and married in Khuzestan, the centre of the war. The six years leading up to my arrival in Canada I lived in Tehran with my family. It took almost four years to get accepted by the Canadian Embassy as immigrants, and after many attempts we (my ex–husband and my sons) arrived in Canada in 1997 and ever since we have been settled in Ottawa, Ontario. To find a stable job, I have had to go back to school twice and have since attained two diplomas, one in Accounting and one in Early Childhood Assistance. I have served Canada in the war in Afghanistan, working for SNC Lavalin PAE in Kandahar as a civilian with the DND and have received a General Service Medal. Throughout these years I have continued to write poetry in Persian and English and have been an active member in the Persian community in Ottawa. Writing has been my best friend and still is.