This is the third in a series of articles about a Reston family's journey from Iran to the United States.
Their first-ever airplane trip took 24 hours to complete, but when the Fattahi family finally touched down in Nashville, Tenn., there was cause for celebration. The head of the family, Sadollah Fattahi, had one thing on his mind.
"This is it. Now I don't have to fear," recalled Sadollah Fattahi through an interpreter. What he had feared prior to the family's departure from Turkey to the United States was that the Iranian intelligence officers might cross into Turkey to arrest him. When he was in native Iran, Sadollah Fattahi was in the custody of the Iranian intelligence, but managed to escape into Turkey, where he was accepted as a political and religious refugee. Once he entered the U.S., Sadollah Fattahi felt he was out of their reach.
Six-and-a-half years later, the entire family of six are naturalized U.S. citizens. His oldest son Loghman Fattahi, 18, and his daughter Fatemeh Fattahi, 16 — both students at South Lakes High School — were the last in the family to receive their citizenship certificates. The ceremony took place on Jan. 10.
"The United States is the first country where I truly feel relaxed and comfortable to call my country," said Loghman Fattahi. "The identity here is not one of you belong to this ethnicity or you belong to this religious group, it's one of individual identity," he said.
When the Fattahis first landed in Nashville in May 2000, they found the culture alien to them and had troubles adjusting. Their stay in Nashville lasted a mere 45 days, and they decided to move to Minnesota. They chose the North Star state because a friend they knew in Iran was living there. He told them Minnesota offered a good welfare program, including a five-year period for food stamps. Also, said Loghman, "It's more of a prairie, an open area, which is what we were used to [in Iran]."
The family's new life began in Moorhead, Minn. They did not speak the language, and they relied heavily on the welfare system. Loghman Fattahi said he and his siblings — a sister and two brothers — had no problems assimilating to the culture. They learned English quickly and made friends in school. Their parents, however, struggled to learn the language, and due to injuries sustained while at the hands of Iranian intelligence services, Sadollah Fattahi was unable to work. After four years in Minnesota, the family moved to Reston.
THE FATTAHIS ARE satisfied with their life in Reston. Sadollah Fattahi is happy that his children are in school, and that the U.S. government continues to support him. He remains unable to work, and is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome. He and his wife, Manijeh Karami, 42, have limited English language abilities. "My parents have more difficulty with the language and fitting in [than myself and my siblings]," said Loghman Fattahi. "As a result we keep in touch with the Kurdish community in the area, which is quite beneficial to my parents." He said there are roughly 100 Kurdish families in the region, and the family often attends Kurdish festivities.
Regardless of some difficulties in assimilating to the United States, the Fattahis are now American citizens. "I am grateful to the U.S. and the U.S. government," said Sadollah Fattahi. "No one can discriminate against me for my beliefs [in this country]," he said. Now that they are Americans, he added, they could go anywhere in the world and have the backing of the local American embassy. "Before we were Kurds and nobody cared about us," he said. Despite his troublesome past, Sadollah Fattahi said that life goes on. "The children are in school, and [my wife and I] are on benefits for health reasons," he said. They are able to make a living.
LOGHMAN, A SENIOR at South Lakes is applying to colleges. So far, he has been deferred from Georgetown University, but accepted to James Madison University. He recently won a $10,000 scholarship from the In Hope Freedom Rings Foundation and is counting on financial assistance to attend a college. He plans to study international relations.
"I would like for [Loghman] to attain a useful degree, so he wouldn't have to hunt for a job, but the employers would hunt for him," said Sadollah Fattahi. "I would like for him to have a universal degree, one that wherever he goes he could use it," he said.
Fatemeh, a sophomore at South Lakes, said college is not on her mind yet. Like her older brother, she is enrolled in the school's International Baccalaureate program. She is also a member of the school's basketball team. She plays the sport because it is fun.
Ali Fattahi, 14, is an eighth grader at Langston Hughes Middle School. While algebra is his favorite subject at Langston Hughes, one of his favorites pastimes at home is reading books. He is currently reading "How to Kill a Mockingbird." "I keep having a lot of homework, so I can't finish the book," he said. He is looking forward to South Lakes next year.
The youngest of the siblings, Azad, 12, is a sixth grader at Terraset Elementary School. Like Ali, Azad's favorite subject is math. Outside of school he plays football with his friends, or video games at home.
The Fattahis have not been back to Iran since their departure. They stay in touch with the family left behind, but phone conversations last only a short time. "Our relatives still have a sense of feeling they will be persecuted for contact with [my father]," said Loghman Fattahi.
Loghman Fattahi is very happy to enter his final semester at South Lakes as a U.S. citizen. "I love the whole philosophical establishment that really generated the whole American system," he said. "It's not the power we have, or the number of wars we win, it's the respect for the individual freedom and that open society." He is still waiting to hear from Mary Washington College, the University of Virginia, Harvard and Princeton. Any one of those destinations is a world away from nomadic farming in Iran.
This concludes the series of articles about a Reston family's journey from Iran to the United States.