My dream for Iran

For years now, I have held on to a very specific dream. I am somewhere in Tehran, my hometown, canvassing for an election. I knock on an apartment door, and an elderly woman answers. “Madar Jaan,” I address her, using the Persian term of endearment and respect. “Will you consider voting for the Left Party of Iran?”

- ARASH AZIZI

Sometimes, in the dream, she tells me to get lost. Other times, she shows interest, and I explain that our party is socialist, that we want to build more Metro stops and open a new factory in the neighborhood. She says she'll think about it. The biggest dreams sound so ordinary. The scene from my dream is commonplace not only in my adopted home, the U.S., and other liberal democracies, but even, in a constrained fashion, in neighboring Turkey and Pakistan. For it to come true in Iran, much would have to change.

I was born in Iran in 1988. For all but the first year of my life, my homeland has been ruled by the same man: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader who has final authority over every major decision but is accountable to no one. I have voted in the elections of the Islamic Republic, but every candidate on every ballot was vetted for total fealty to Khamenei. A political party sharing my own convictions of democratic socialism couldn't dream of legally existing in Iran. Neither could any political party outside the Islamist framework. This prohibition has kept me away from Iran for years now. My politics renders me persona non grata.