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Introduction, Chapters One & Two, & FAQ #1

Summary: Introduction

Sara, who’s almost thirteen, worries about outgrowing her training bra, getting rid of her acne, and competing with her best friend over a boy. Her life changes one afternoon in 1993, when she hangs out in the kitchen with Samira, her older sister. Samira, who wants an after-school job, complains that she’ll never get one without a Social Security number. Sara has never heard of Social Security numbers.

Samira lets Sara in on a family secret. Kia, their little brother, was born in the United States, so he is a U.S. citizen. But Samira, Sara, and their parents are illegal aliens, or undocumented immigrants. They can be deported at any time. Sara’s parents try to reassure her that deportation will never happen, but Sara now has something serious to worry about.

Summary: Chapter One: A Brief (but Juicy) History of My Birthplace (and My Birth)

Sara corrects a common mispronunciation. Iran, where she was born, is not pronounced i-RAN but rather e-RON. She then explains the political background to her family’s immigration. In the early 1950s, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh ruled Iran. He nationalized the oil industry and promoted democracy. With the help of the United States and Great Britain, a military coup took Mossadegh out of power and installed a monarchy led by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The extravagant, corrupt royal family and SAVAK, the secret police force, sparked public protests. The Shah went into exile in 1979.

Iran, a secular modern society, endured another revolution when the Ayatollah Khomeini took over. He established the Islamic Republic of Iran and introduced rigid Islamic law. In 1980, war broke out between Iran and Iraq, and Sara was born. Two years later, Sara’s parents decided to leave the country. As the borders were closed, they spent $15,000 to get special passports for Sara’s mom, Samira, and Sara. They made their way to California, where Sara’s maternal uncle lived. Three months later, Sara’s father joined them. When the family’s tourist visas expired, they applied for political asylum and began their long journey toward U.S. citizenship. Sara now begins her search for identity.

Summary: Chapter Two: Partners in Immigration Crime

In a diary entry for August 7, 1996, Sara records her mixed feelings about Samira. As a child, Sara hated Samira and fought with her all the time. Then, in the fall of 1994, Sara entered Lynbrook High School, where Samira was a senior. Sara became “Little Sami,” the younger sister of one of the coolest girls in the school. 

Sara and Samira get work permits, which in turn allows them to get Social Security cards. Sara possesses her parents’ work ethic and soon gets her first real job. She feels independent and equal to her sister.

Samira now has Sara’s complete loyalty. When Samira takes a secret trip to Mexico with friends, Sara endures days of fear that Samira will be detained at the border. But her sister makes it back safely, and their parents never know the trip happened. On another occasion, Samira and her best friend get Sara to spy on the friend’s boyfriend, Connor. Sara catches Connor with another girl and basks in Samira’s praise. Yet Sara believes she will never be as strong and brave as Samira. When the family drops Samira off at her college, Sara cries.

Summary: Frequently Asked Question #1: What’s the difference between being Persian and being Iranian?

Sara explains that the term Persian describes an ethnicity, while Iranian describes a nationality. In practice, however, the terms are interchangeable. Persia was Iran’s official name until 1935.

Analysis: Introduction, Chapters One & Two, & FAQ #1

The central conflict of the book is the Saedi family’s struggle to gain legal status as immigrants in the United States. In the opening of the book, Saedi introduces this struggle through Samira’s explanation to Sara that they are undocumented immigrants. The revelation shakes Sara’s sense of self, and she feels afraid of and vulnerable to both government deportation and rejection by her friends. Even the unity of her immediate family seems in question, given that her little brother, Kia, is a natural-born US citizen. Saedi demonstrates the impact of the term illegal alien through descriptions of Sara’s panic that she is a criminal or somehow an extraterrestrial. Being undocumented makes Sara feel that she may not belong in the United States. At the same time, learning her immigration status causes her to question whether she is culturally Persian enough to live in Iran if they are deported, given her mediocre Farsi skills and her assimilation to American culture. As an Iranian immigrant growing up in the United States, Sara constantly tries to reconcile the parts of her hybrid identity.

The value of strong family relationships is an important theme throughout the book. These relationships are especially significant in Saedi’s family because of the precarious status of their US residency. In this section, Saedi describes the transformation of Sara’s relationship with her older sister, Samira, which develops from one of conflict to one of collaboration and friendship. Their relationship is characterized by a strong sense of loyalty, demonstrated by Samira’s protectiveness of Sara and Sara’s willingness to keep Samira’s secrets. This section of the book also emphasizes the value of sibling connections in Shohreh’s family. Saedi notes that her mother is cared for by her older siblings and that she chooses to live close to her sisters. Shohreh’s older brother, Dayee Mehrdad, provides invaluable help to her family, giving them a place to live when they first immigrate and later sponsoring their application for permanent US residency.

The memoir genre allows Saedi to analyze anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic prejudice through the lens of her lived experiences. This sub-genre of non-fiction also provides a platform for Saedi to explain aspects of Iranian history and culture that give greater context for the difficult decisions many Iranian citizens were forced to make. Although her family left Iran for the United States because of increasing oppression in their home country following the Islamic Revolution, Saedi rejects the idea that the US is a fundamentally better place, instead describing the role that Britain and the US played in creating the unrest that led to the revolution. She presents a complex analysis of Iran’s shift from a cosmopolitan country with European sensibilities in its capital to the current, authoritarian rule of the Islamic Republic by emphasizing how colonialism and imperialism undermined the regime after the prime minister sought greater independence for Iran. Saedi uses the example of women’s education to demonstrate the complexity of political change in the country, arguing that while her mother enjoyed greater freedom of movement and expression in pre-revolution Tehran, the overall rise in the country’s literacy rate indicates that the same regime that oppresses women with strict dress codes also offers freedom to girls from conservative families, who are more willing to send their daughters to school under sex-segregated Islamic rule.

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