There’s a tower in central Tehran that rises until it touches the first layer of what could’ve been. A dilemma, so much so, a question radiates over The Milad: how different Iran would’ve been had the same man who had laid the foundation stone was still in power.
For Maryam, however, the tower signifies something far more personal.
She had led quite a different life before she came to Jacobs - something she has common with those who come from the better side of the world.
Maryam has been working on her start-up nowadays. She was, however, happy to talk for the university blog. I asked her about her home: she took a second to reply and told me that she missed it. She described her building where she lives to be perfectly placed between three highways that interlink the great city.
“You can see the two horizons of Tehran from there,” she told me. “The city I’m from comes second to none. I’ve witnessed the sanctions, political bans, and propaganda slapped on my people, and yet I’ve never seen a community so connected, so kind, and so generous anywhere in the world.
“Iran ceases to let the unfair, biased, and politically-motivated projections turn a single leaf into anguish.”
I remember meeting a different Maryam from what now she has become. Some years ago, she was still in search of what she was achieved now. She told me that she has worked day-in and day-out for her achievements and that this is only the beginning.
When I asked her about her plans, she told me that she had several outcomes covered: from acquiring new project opportunities to elevating her current start-up Uniq Master to new levels.
“I want to invest in education,” she told me. “There’s a plan, of course, and it involves years of struggle and success equally proportioned.
“My mother’s family is from Northern Iran. The socio-economic situation in Ghassemabad is much worse than it is anywhere else in Iran. I want to change that through education.”
In the end, she said that no matter what happens and no matter where work takes her, she will come home eventually. She plans to retire in the city that she loves more than life itself.
“I will go back when it’s time,” she told me in the end. “I will go back to my city.”
I know she will for there’s nothing in this world, no brick nor stone, that can replace the feeling of feeling at home.
There’s a popular folk tale in Persian that sings about giants where Iran lies. And now I can say that I’ve seen one. And even though, Maryam’s story is far from being complete, I know it’s going to be a story impossible to repeat.
BY Muhammad Shahzaib Tahir awan (Pakistan) | CLASS OF 2022
