Ali interview transcript

Ali discusses his journey from Iran to the United States during the Iran-Iraq War.

Ammon: Hello, my name is Ammon Morgan. I'm a student at the University of Utah I am here today to interview Ali Hassanzada. It is currently November 24th at 9:17 am Ali could you tell us a little bit about yourself? Ali: Hi, this is Ali Hassanzada. I immigrated from Iran to United States in 1987. Ever since then finished part of my school and I got involved with my own businesses and currently I own a jewelry doctor here. And Orem Utah and have a beautiful wife and three beautiful children. Ammon: So you were living in Iran up until 1987, did you live there mostly with your family? Ali: Yes, all these years. I live with my mom and dad. Ammon: And what inspired your family or what caused your family to move from Iran to the United States. Ali: First off the Islamic Republic have a lot to do with it. After the revolution the country actually went down the hill and my father was working as a judge he did not have the actual security to just you know have his freedom and live there with that being bothered and also there were assassinating and killing a whole bunch of Iranian, you know people that were in you know, In touch with Shaw working for Shaw. Simply I just wanted to have a better life and since I've been in the state like what prior to the actual revolution at least six or seven times. I knew what this country was all about and I was looking for better opportunity better life to make myself a better person. Ammon: I can definitely see how that could be a challenge. What was your life in Iran up until the war happened? What was your life like? Ali: Well, I was going to high school and the last year of my high school. I was actually kind of drafted mandatory draft to go to serve the military at the Air Force. So I did serve war for short period of a time and I was the one of the victim of the chemical weapon that was supplied by Reagan to Saddam Hussein and I burned my back with the mustard gas and I got my permanent military excuse and, I needed that to be able to leave Iran but I life was okay for me, you know typical you know life that every single teenager goes through the you know up and down but in general, I was very happy to you know, get my permanent military excuse I could you know, leave the country. Ammon: So, how was the process when you decided to leave Iran? What did you have to go through and what was that process like? Ali: Well I consider myself one of the luckiest one since most my siblings lived here for gosh over 50, 55 years, my father was smart and he actually did get our green cards way before the revolution so we did have the green card and because of the there wasn't any kind of Iranian ebmassy I mean American embassy in Iran I had to leave. To go to Turkey and get my green card and come to the state and as I said consider myself one of the lucky ones. Because not very many people had the opportunity to just legally, you know, leave the country and they had to do it illegally, you know through the borders and get a political asylum, you know, a different countries. Ammon: So you had to go to turkey. In order to get your green card. Ali: Yes as I mentioned on there's no American embassy in Iran for me to go to the actual final interview for my green card, so the closest country was Istanbul Turkey, you know, Turkey Istanbul and yeah. I was there for about six months. Ammon: So with your family you said you're siblings have been living in the US for a while since before the Iranian revolution, so you came to visit them frequently prior to that revolution. Ali: Yes, we used to come here every summer for at least, you know, three months of a summer vacation that we had but yeah, I've been here for at least five or six times. Ammon: So with your family, you said your siblings had been living in the US for a while, how long had they been in the US? Ali: They had been there since before the revolution. So the 60s. They all came here for a better education, better life. They all went to school and all graduated for a better life here. Ammon: okay and did your parents move with you, did your parents move before you? Ali: no, it was a transition that I had to do alone. I moved by myself, they were still there because they had their whole entire life there so iit took them some time but you get here 5 years after I was here. But yeah, I moved here before everybody else in my immediate family back home. Ammon: and when you moved to the US, what was it like when you first got here? Ali: I wasn’t surprised because I had been to the states like five or six times prior to my final move here. And so I knew what the states were about since I would come here about every summer for 3 or 4 months at a time, and it was exactly what I expected. It was a little hard at the time too because Iran and the US did not have any great relationship at the time because of the revolution and it was kind of hard being iranian in the states. Ammon: and when you first moved here, where did you live at first? Ali: I lived in upstate New York for a very short period of time but I did not care for it. It was extremely cold and so I moved to Monterey California after 6 months and I lived there for about 6 years. Ammon: And you lived in Monterey and from there you moved to Utah? Ali: I moved from there to Utah, yes. Ammon: and how has it been just living in the US, do you feel you've been able to make friends and integrate into society with few problems? Ali: oh, absolutely. You know, the first few years was a hassle, I tried to make friends and I tried to educate people and unfortunately a lot of people weren’t able to educate themselves and weren’t willing to know Iran and the actual people and so the first few years were pretty tough. I had to introduce myself as an italian because if I introduced myself as an iranian I would be a target. And people would hate me and it wasn’t a pleasant time but this is home and it’s been home actually since I moved here I called it home. I have many good friends, my kids are all born and raised here and this is home, that’s all I can say. Ammon: Right. I just had a question.. So you talked about the struggle that you had with getting people to understand that the problem isn’t the people, it’s the government. That seems to be a common thing that happens that a lot of Americans when they meet immigrants from places like Iran or the Philippines or even down in south and central america, they seem to think it's the people that are the problem, not the government. What problems did they associate with you when they found out that you were from iran over those first few years? Ali: some of them had pretty harsh remarks, ya know, go back home, you don’t belong here, you know, go back to your sand country… go back to your desert. To be honest with you I only experienced this like maybe the first two or three years. But after that I learned how to educate people, and handle people, and talk to people; and let them know hey look, the issue is not the people you know, people are innocent. Just like we have issues here and issues exist in our own country right now, but the people are innocent of the government and the people are in charge are the ones making the decisions, not the people, so same thing back in Iran. But mostly the remarks that they make, they make you feel..uh you will definitely notice that and you can definitely tell that they favor other people, other races versus being eastern european or Iranian. Ammon - Right, now, how do I phrase this. So you managed to overcome those difficulties, you’ve settled here. The United States is now your home. Have you ever thought about going back to Iran or have you ever wanted to go back to Iran to visit or anything like that? Ali - Actually I visited Iran like 17 years ago, it was different but there’s actually no United States is home. This is actually, as I’ve said, it’s been home for the past 30 something years for me, I’ve lived most of my life here and in Iran. And as far as living back there with the existent regime, absolutely no. I can’t even take my kids there to see where I grew up and all because of the existing regime. It’s still the Islamic republic and I just don’t trust the government. Ammon - So it’s a situation where you feel that you or even the life of your family if you were to take your family there would be threatened. Ali - uh since I’ve been living here for quite some time, yes. As i said, unfortunately it’s not a very stable government. They could do anything and everything to you. They could take you away, they could put you to jail with no logical reason so yea, as of this time, going there is absolutely off the chart. Ammon - Yea, that definitely does not sound like a place you would want to go, even for a visit if it’s gonna run you the risk of going to jail. Ali - Oh yeah absolutely, now 17 years ago that was a different story when I visited there. But now they’re very uptight with everything and I don’t know I just don’t trust them. Ammon - So let's go back a little bit to your family. I remember when I, cause I used to work for you, and I remember you telling me that your father used to be a judge, and that was before the current regime change? Ali - He was working for the actual court system when shah was around. And during the revolution, that was right before our very last move, you know, we just fled the country and came to the state for about 6-8 months. And the reason we did was because the Islamic republic was executing anybody that had anything to do with the actual shah’s regime. No matter whether you were a low down there or if you were a supreme court judge or whatever you were, you would be targeted by the government, and they were executing people for no reason. So when we moved here and I was, you know, when we just came here for a short period of time, 6 months. I think bythe time we were here the Islamic republic were more in control and they realized that okay they were executing a lot of people they need some people to hold the system. So they went out and actually investigate people to see who was actually loyal to shah would they give them jobs. But the people who were honestly working, like my father, he was a judge. They actually sent him an invitation, they asked him to go back and work in the court system again. And not knowing what we were putting ourselves into, my father agreed. Even though he was not a fan of the islamic republic to begin with but because that was his home country and it was hard for older people to come here and adjust. Not like us, us younger generation was like so easy for us to adapt and learn the new country and new everything. But for the older people that established themselves. People that have houses and work, people respect you being a judge and that. You know it was hard for him. So he moved back and that was a time he offered me to stay here but I was too young, I was too young at the time and I refused and said no i’m not gonna stay here. So when we went back, he worked for the government for the actual courthouses as what he did before. And we weren’t bothered by the government anymore. Nobody bothered us, we had a decent life til the actual war started which, that was the issue. Ammon - And you said that you served, at least for a time, in the Iranian military. What was that like, what was the experience of actually being in the military there? Ali - uhh not very pleasant. Right at the gecko they have to train you. It was a very informal training you know. We weren’t properly trained. We were just getting dressed up as a soldier and giving us a brief training with a gun and ammos and stuff like that. And umm since it was a wartime I got drafted to go to the actual air force branch, which at that time, they were offering that they were not sending anyone to the front line. The air force was different, the soldiers job was defending air bases which was way behind the actual front line. But the war got so bad that they actually, as soon as i was enrolled there, I was sent to the actual front line. Umm I’ve seen people die right in front of my eyes, I’ve seen unhlahs, the religious people, interfere with all these youngsters. I was a soldier but they were getting a lot of volunteering. People the age of 13 14 15 16, they were all brainwashed to go and kill themselves, get a grenade, go into the tank, Iraqi tank, you know to have this and that. It was a bunch of empty promises to these kids, that they were treated brainwashing these kids. So a lot of kids died during that war. And it wasn’t a pleasant scene to witness that, but the first time I witnessed a lot of that stuff Ammon - Sounds like a really good reason to want to leave the country too Ali - Oh my gosh yes haha Ammon - Well I really want to thank you Ali for taking the time and doing this interview with me. I really appreciate the story that you’ve shared with us. And really it’s… It’s powerful to be able to hear these kinds of things from people who have come from situations like your own, from your background. Ali - Yes Ammon - Sounds like you were on the lucky end. You had a bit of an easier time immigrating to the United States when you did. Ali - You know honestly I did have a very easy transition compared to most other people that I know. There were a lot of people like me, people that didn’t agree with the government, that want to leave the country, But since they had not had their. See the rule, the regulation is that you have to serve in the military for two years before you get your passport and do anything you want to do. During the time, they extend that time to three years, at that time it was three years. I’m not sure what it is now if it's going back to two years or not. But a lot of people, they decided to pay, you know parents were paying money to these smugglers you know, human trafficking. They were like getting paid to get their kids right through the mountains and border to go to either afghanistan or pakistan or even turkey. Turkey was a very hotspot for people going there to ask for political asylum with different countries and stuff like that, which is a lot of people did that. And unfortunately a lot of people did not survive in the mountains and they got robbed they lose their way. It was it was awful. Honestly I consider myself a very lucky person, I shouldn’t feel bad for people who suffered to make it here and didn’t make it, my heart is with them but I was very lucky. Ammon - Yea… again I just want to thank you for doing the interview, I’m gonna be stopping now the recording Ali- Okay