By Sheeva Azma
Happy Noruz!
I hope this will be the greatest year ever for the people of Iran, but I have no way of knowing what they are experiencing on this day. The reason for that is that I am actually writing this blog on January 12, 2026. I thought it would be fun to write a letter to my future self and the future Iran, whatever shape it ends up taking.
In case you don’t know what Noruz is, it is the Persian New Year and it is celebrated on the vernal equinox, which is the first day of Spring. I wrote about the history of Noruz, which dates back to Ancient Persia, for Persianesque. I was surprised to learn that it is celebrated in many countries worldwide, including in places like Israel, Ukraine, and Russia. You’ll have to check out my 2021 article for more about the history of this holiday, which is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate each year. It’s very exciting to wait for the new year to arrive, at which point you get to have a sweet treat and talk to friends and family around the world, wishing them a great year ahead. (If you are young, you also get money from older people, which is kind of nice, but I’ve aged past that point in life.)
As a freelance science writer, I have written about US policy towards Iran (is there anyone better to write about this topic than someone who has culturally followed Iran news her whole life?) and I even have a really fun memory of attending an Iran policy briefing in Congress. Clearly, my office sent me to this briefing because I was the only Persian-American in their office (incidentally, we also served Reza Pahlavi, who resided in our district — a point irrelevant to anyone except Persian-Americans at that point, probably), but when I got there, I was suddenly in a room full of young, quietly attentive Persian women ready to listen to a briefing on US foreign policy — people exactly like me who I never knew existed before. I think back to that briefing often when Iran is in the news — I wonder, whatever happened to all those young Persian-American women and what are they doing now? Are we all still just quietly and attentively taking in and analyzing all life has to offer these days?
I mean, probably. I also hope we are all celebrating a free Iran, but I really have no way of knowing.
Writing this from the past, it sure would be nice to have a crystal ball to know where we will actually be as a people on this day, March 21, 2026. I can imagine Iran being a place where people of any religion or ethnic group joyfully partake in Noruz celebrations, and I can imagine it as a violent bloodbath and crackdown on Iranian’s free speech and civil liberties, as had persisted for years before the newest round of protests began on December 28, 2025.
As of writing this, Starlink internet is shut down by the government, which has also taken to mass killings of people in the streets. The news is so bleak that I can’t even imagine getting to this day and being happy. The streets of Iran’s cities are bloody and violent and I am not sure where it has taken us. Hopefully to democracy…but maybe not.
A new year is a great time for a fresh start. I hope we can get a fresh start, as Persian-Americans, and finally have our culture celebrated for what it really is, after being cloaked under authoritarianism for so long.
!سال نو مبارک
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