As the world is told about the war between Iran, Israel and the United States in the language of strategy and security, my prism is memory. For many, this is geopolitics. For me, it never really is.
All my grandparents were Persian Jews. They left their homes when the country they had known most of their lives had become home no longer. They felt unsafe under a regime that was fast becoming more rigid and fundamentalist.
They left behind property, wealth, community and family. Some relatives who stayed were imprisoned. Many others were killed. In our family, those stories are not told as political history, they are told as personal experience.
Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran back then was a rapidly modernising country, vibrant and sophisticated with an incredibly rich culture. Under the rule of the Shah, it blended ancient heritage with a booming, Western-influenced urban culture – and the Jews were protected.
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Op-Ed From the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology UK Chief Executive Officer Alan Aziz.
