This is my Iranian family from the 1990s (well, it’s at least some of them…roughly fifteen percent of some 160 family members, if you count my husband Mahmoud’s parents, his parents’ parents, his parents’ siblings with all their spouses and children, and his own eight siblings with their spouses and children. At the time of this photo, I had reached my fortieth birthday, and Mahmoud (who took the photo) had reached his forty-third.

The picture was taken January 1995—about four months after our son Nikiar (“Niki”) was born. Although he is the youngest person pictured above (on his mother’s lap), he celebrated his thirtieth birthday this year in September!)
 
Oh, and as I hinted--I’m in the photo as well (I bet you can spot me if you really try!) It was a season when my hair was “big” and the color of coal (instead of “little” and the color of snow, like now!) A time when whatever color my hair was on a given day (yes, I let my mother and sisters-in-law try out a few shades on me, for the sheer fun of it), people stuck around to get to know the “me” inside—and, lucky for me, they cared enough to keep coming back for more!

                                                             ***

In my upcoming memoir (Road Between Two Hearts: A Black American Woman Discovers Iran), scheduled to be released spring of 2025, readers (which I hope will include you!) will pick up a little about nearly every person in the photo above—and what they taught me about Iranian culture and customs, dynamics of American/Iranian relations, the hazards and rewards that come with crossing cultures when living in Iran, the gifts and surprises that can come from interfaith dialogue, and their special brand of cross-cultural love, family style!
 
For example, you’ll read about:

• A time or two someone behind me tugged at my headscarf till I was scarf-less (like in the photo above)—and the reason behind the tug!
• What our daughter Parisa did at one year old when she saw her Iranian grandmother in Iran for the very first time--and what her grandmother had to say about it. (Hint: her words inspired the book’s title!)  
• How, when Nikiar our son was born two years later, my mother-in-law (who never went to college) introduced and ultimately proved a genetics principle to me without actually trying (and taught me a lesson in humility in the process).
• Where I discovered a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, laughing amicably together—and its significance to the owner.  

Finally: if you’re a longtime reader of my newsletter or blog, I may have already introduced you to three young girls from the photo above in an earlier post—except that when you first saw them, they were in an online interview—and almost thirty years older than as pictured in the photo! All three of them—each one now a beautiful grown woman—are nieces to Mahmoud and me and include the following:

• Roxareh (the girl in the above photo sitting next to our daughter Parisa and wearing a red dress), who proudly presented a charming introductory overview of Iran  (on YouTube, embedded in my June blogpost from 2022.)

 

• Ghazaleh (the girl in orange with her face propped in her hands), who explained her life in Iran, how her parents raised her, and the impact her upbringing has had on her life (on YouTube, embedded in my August blogpost from 2022.)

 

• Ghazal (the small girl sitting beside her grandfather [Mahmoud’s father] at the back and center of the photograph), a scholar and artist who presents and interprets for us her favorite original abstract painting (again on YouTube, embedded in my November blogpost from 2022.)

In short: if today’s post sounds like I am getting excited, it’s because I am excited! I am eager to share my story with you—a story I never expected to be able to tell! So, in my first post for 2025, I will share more details about the progress of the book and when it will become available in the new year!
 
In the meantime, wishing people of all traditions a meaningful holiday season and a happy new year in 2025!
 
All best,                                                               
Leslie
                                                                                      
--Leslie Powell Ahmadi

​(or, How One Develops a New Set of Eyes)
 
As I announced in last month’s newsletter, my first book is scheduled for publication in 2025! Its title? Road Between Two Hearts: A Black American Bride Discovers Iran.
 
The story? It’s about me, a Black American Christian woman too ashamed to admit I am terrified to start a new life with my husband in his homeland: post-revolutionary Iran (1992-1996). The rest is what happens when I deny my true feelings, leave Columbus, Ohio, and follow him anyway.
 
So, it’s a memoir, a love story, a cross-cultural analysis, and a self-reflection—all rolled into one!

Finally, Road Between Two Hearts is about how I developed a new pair of eyes toward the country, the culture, and the people of Iran. Just as a pitch black room at night gradually becomes easier to see as our eyes adjust, and just as an intricate painting, a complex movie, or the subtle range of colors along a mountainside become more distinguishable with each subsequent view, so my eyes perceived Iran differently over time.
 
Maybe that’s why when I was writing my story, I imagined telling it to fellow non-Iranians like perhaps many of you—most who have not had the opportunity to experience Iran and its people firsthand like I did. And while your reading my story as seen through my eyes may not lead you to the same impressions as mine, I hope it will at least leave you with new perspectives to ponder.  
 
Years before I met Mahmoud or knew I would fall in love with him, marry him, and start a new life with him in Iran, my sister Sylvia happened to share a favorite quotation of hers: “The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” (Marcel Proust). Little did I know how deeply relevant its message would become in my life, or how often its wisdom would challenge and enlighten me.
 
I hope you will follow me on my authoring journey—from now till my memoir is a published book! I can’t wait to share it with you; that’s why I wrote it! Please stay tuned for updates as they develop!
 
--Leslie

Today, dear Readers, I offer you something a little different. It’s a happy message, short and sweet (although not necessarily soft and sweet; you’ll know what I mean once you hear it!)

​I hope you will take a moment to listen!

Thank you, Readers, for listening as well as reading! And please stay tuned to future blogposts for additional details regarding this message!

My very best,
​Leslie Powell Ahmadi

This year for my birthday, Mahmoud surprised and delighted me with the living, breathing gift of a cockatiel—something akin to a small parrot sporting a proud crest on its head plus an attitude to match, and colored in shades and shocks of yellow, gray, orange, and white. Torn between naming him “Charlie” (for the “regular guy” character he was) or “Mango” (for his plump, mango-shaped body and sweet blush of mango color on each cheek), we knitted the two names together and started calling him “Chango”—the name that stuck.

But when Chango came to his new home and his feisty little whistle soon dwindled to a sullen silence, we impulsively returned to the pet store and bought him what we thought he needed: an avian companion in the form of a zebra-striped blue parakeet with a neon-white circle on the crown of his head. Miniature in size compared to his towering new roommate, he was nonetheless curious, persistent, even insistent about keeping watch over Chango as if he were the bigger one—a doting, nurturing caretaker! Wherever Chango would go, so would his self-appointed little sidekick—often sidling up close, invading Chango’s “personal space,” imitating Chango’s cockatiel gurgles and mumbles, and otherwise getting into Chango’s business. It wasn’t long before he had aptly earned the name “Snoopy.”

Suffice it to say, the two didn’t start off on the best of terms—so much so that we decided to buy little Snoopy his own separate living space to keep him safe from Chango’s lunges. But, wouldn’t you know, when we walked in on them with the new cage in hand, we witnessed a most unexpected scene: a moment of Snoopy and Chango interfacing as friends! Not only that—but that moment marked the beginning of a flourishing bond between them—one that endures to this day! They have even chosen to remain together in the same living space!

Take a peek at the “before” and “after” scenes of their interpersonal interactions:

“Baba”—that is one of the first words I learned in my Persian class at Ohio State after marrying my Iranian husband Mahmoud. The word is the equivalent of “Daddy” in Persian. And that’s what I came to call my father-in-law when we moved to Iran in 1992 (In a similar vein, I came to call my mother-in-law Maman too). You would think I’d have noticed that Mahmoud and his siblings addressed their father as Aqa (“Sir”), as was common practice for children to do in Iran at the time, but no, I did not! And no one ever corrected me—including Baba—so, happily for me, the name Baba stuck! (Of course, while Baba never took the place of my father, it was such a comfort to have a father figure like him to look up to while in Iran.)
​
And just as I called him “Baba,” so I treated him as would a very young child who looks up to her daddy with simplicity and trust—asking him anything and everything that came to mind in my very basic Persian. I asked him to explain lessons to be learned from different figures loved and revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike-- figures like Abraham, Moses, Joseph. I asked him if it was really true that in Islam men were permitted to have more than one wife. I even asked him what he thought would happen at death to a person like me who loved God but was Christian rather than Muslim. His candid answers usually surprised, often amused, and consistently delighted me. Part of the reason is that with every response I always saw love, acceptance, and often a fun-loving spirit in his eyes. And I couldn’t help but recognize my husband’s deep-ridged smile and shining eyes in his father’s.  
 
In these deeply troubled and troubling times, how I wish Baba could be here to answer my questions, to share his heart, his wisdom, his example. He is no longer with us. And yet…
 
…I still remember the day I asked Baba what he thought was the secret to our two countries (i.e., Iran and America) getting along, given the ongoing history of tension between our two governments. I can still hear the thoughtful pause before his answer, then his slightly crackly voice, then his simple words resonating:
 
“Ms. Leslie, the secret to our two countries getting along … is for them to truly want it.”
 
Wow. Such a simple answer. And yet rife with profound challenges and implications. Not just for Iran and America, but for so many parties throughout the whole world. Like between countries at war, between spouses or among other family members, between people of different faiths—even in the relationship between God and me. My dear Baba—he showed us how it worked.
 
As the American saying goes, “The proof was in the pudding.” Little did I know then that  “Baba,” (whom everyone outside the family called Firooz Khan [“Sir Firooz”]), was famous across multiple surrounding regions for the kindness and wisdom he shared with those who sought it—how he was frequently asked to be an arbitrator when differences between parties seemed irreconcilable. He had a gift—and heart—for helping others understand the benefits inherent to people getting along with each other … and the unlocking power behind truly wanting it.
 
Baba, I miss you! We could truly use your example and wisdom now in the world.

​And finally:
 
SALE NO MOBARAK!

A happy Persian New Year to everyone who celebrates it!                                          

PS For those who would like a brief explanation of the meaning behind the haft sin symbols:
 
It’s not hard to see how the green sprouts of sabzeh would tie in with the theme of the “new life” of spring. And in keeping with long-held Iranian tradition, at least six other items (all beginning with the “s” sound) should grace a household table with their symbolic presence:

• Samanu: a wheat germ pudding, standing for affluence
• Senjed: a dried fruit called oleaster, standing for love
• Sir: garlic, which stands for medicinal power
• Sib: the apple, standing for beauty and health
• Somaq: sumac, which stands for fertility, and
• Serkeh, vinegar, which stands for increased grace and patience with age

 
There’s a whole array of additional options that could make for an even fancier table: a polished mirror, shiny coins, brightly-colored eggs like you might see at Easter, goldfish swimming in a bowl. But between you and me, my favorite item will always be sabzeh, (like the sprouts Zari [pictured above] gifted me with as a centerpiece for the table, and like the shoots we used to plant in our milk cartons when I was in second grade!)

A warm welcome to everyone reading this announcement—whether you are new or a longtime visitor to this space!

This is Leslie Powell Ahmadi: a Black American Christian woman who met and married a man from a Muslim family—and for a period relocated with him to post-revolutionary Iran. Every month or so I enjoy bringing you information, an experience, an encounter, and/or a perspective related to Iran and its people. Something that may catch your attention. 

I have also written a memoir called Road Between Two Hearts: A Black American Bride Discovers Iran--where I’m the bride! But more about that in a later post!

Again, congratulations to you, Deb and Kathie! And for those who entered the drawing but did not win this time, please know that future drawings for other prizes lie ahead! What’s more, I encourage those of you who’d like tips on sparking a romantic evening, Persian style (complete with luscious recipes, poetry, and songs) to visit my homepage (leslieahmadi.com), where you can subscribe and download a beautiful free booklet on that Valentine/love-themed topic!

Incidentally—if you have not yet signed up for my newsletter, I encourage you to do so (which will also automatically enable you to download the free booklet referenced above). Since today’s message is more of an announcement than newsletter (or blog) content, please expect my upcoming “official” newsletter to arrive at your email box a bit later this month! 
                                                   ***
Kheilee Mamnoon (which means “Thank you very much” in Persian/Farsi)!

Meet Teratai—who answers the question in this Valentine’s season: “Cross-Cultural Romance: Is it Worth It?”

Introduction: I first met Ms. Teratai Hiep two years ago. It was through an online forum for trainers and coaches who help clients transition into new and unfamiliar cultural settings. She is an intercultural and English language trainer based in the Netherlands and runs her own practice at Prokompas Coaching & Training. She is also a genuinely compassionate person who passed on a particularly wise and helpful poem to me on a day she correctly sensed I might need it.
 
Originally from Singapore, Teratai loves tasting new cuisines, experiencing different cultures, and especially, listening to the stories of others. You can tune into her “At The Crossroads” podcast with Dr Leslie Ahmadi, when she interviewed me on my experience of moving to Iran for cross-cultural love!
 
But Teratai is also married to someone from a different country and culture! As today’s guest blogger, she was kind enough to write today’s special Valentine edition blogpost on the intriguing question: “Cross-cultural romance: Is it worth it?”  Drawing from her own experience, Teratai offers food for thought to anyone contemplating a cross-cultural romance—or who knows somebody who is. I encourage you to read her reflections below!

Here is what Teratai has to say:
(Note: If you would like to respond to Teratai’s post, please enter your comments at the end of the post below)
 
As Valentine’s Day takes center stage again this February, I remember the many couples across the world who are in love interculturally—and are also enduring a long distance between them. I was one such person. 
 
After seven years of enduring a long-distance relationship, I remember how difficult the holidays were. I spent hours online, facing a 14-inch laptop screen with my loved one on the other side. My partner (whom I am proud to call my husband today) was in the Netherlands, and I was in Singapore. Divided not only by time (six to seven hours difference) and distance (6,500 miles) we faced other potential dividers as well, e. g.:
 
I was East Asian, and he was Western,
I was Malay, and he was Dutch,
I was a big-city girl, and he a small-village boy, 
and so many other differences as well!
 
We always managed to navigate through the differences together, though. One Valentine’s Day, we made cookies on Skype together—both in our own kitchens, following the same recipe, I at my lunch time and he at his dinner time. Busying our hands with cookie dough, we laughed while shaping our cookies. But in our minds we were constantly yearning to share the same physical space. 
 
So, the question, “When marrying across differences, will love be enough?” remains a tough one for me.
 
We have been together since 2010. And in 2017 we finally succeeded in my making the move to my new home country of the Netherlands. And now in 2024, as I write to you from my office in Leiden, my fingers tap heavily on the keyboard because of the gravity of this question. 
 
I can be super optimistic and tell you love is enough! But in sharing the timeline of our relationship just now, I feel it doesn’t convey enough all the times we planned and yet failed to come together over the years. Or the effort behind learning and accepting each other’s cultures and traditions and the many mistakes we made. Or the patience and kindness it took for each of us to let go of the what-could-have-been-if-I-had-pursued-my-career instead of choosing intercultural love. And all the above could be just the tip of the iceberg for some couples who could be facing many other considerations too.
 
But has it been worth it? My fingers feel lighter now – yes, it has been worth it for me. It can be painful in the short term, but as I look back on the years, it has been a beautiful journey. And I am sure it will remain beautiful as the years roll in and new chapters open for us. But we must acknowledge that there will always be sacrifices involved as part of the growing.
 
For me, that meant not seeing my family and close friends back in Singapore as much as I would have liked. A close family member died some weeks back, and despite rushing to the airport and catching the next direct 13-hour flight to Singapore, I still missed the burial. It’s a wound that is still mending, but I accept it as a consequence of choices I have made. Marrying across differences requires consistency, patience, kindness from each other—and, despite how boring it sounds, meticulous planning too. I count my lucky stars that my husband has been a rock-solid addition to my life.
 
So, I send my love and best wishes to all the couples out there, as well as to family and friends of someone who is going through such an experience on this Valentine’s. Please be kind to them during this period of their lives. Intercultural love and long-distance relationships can be difficult, but they can also be beautiful. And I hope at the end of it all, yours will be as worthwhile for you as it is for me. 
 
Sincerely,
Teratai Hiep

Note: Special thanks to Teratai for her wonderful post! If you would like to find out more about her, you can read her blog or follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram.

                                        [both made of wood and tile]
So, here are the steps on how to enter yourself and your friend in the “Unibrow Lady” Wall Hangings Giveaway (See below):

1. Invite a friend or colleague who might be interested in my website and related content to visit my website and sign up for my monthly newsletter.
   
2. If your friend/colleague agrees to consider it, direct them to my website at http://leslieahmadi.com, and ask them to subscribe (within 48 hours if possible) for a chance to win the Unibrow Lady—that is, one of the wall hangings that are pictured above. Actually, the prize will be one wall hanging for each of you!
   
3. Next, please do the following (yourself): Write to [email protected] to notify me of your friend’s or colleague’s intention to subscribe. How?

• In the subject heading of the email, write “Unibrow Lady.”
  
• And in the body of the email, simply type in the first and last name of your friend/colleague, plus the email address they will be signing up under, then finally…
  
• Under your friend/colleague’s name and email address, type in your own first and last name, plus your own email address.         
  
• Now hit the “Send” Button—and Voilà! I will have the contact information of both you and your friend/colleague.

4.     Once I verify that your friend/colleague has signed up for my monthly newsletter, I will place the names of you and your colleague jointly in a special jar for a chance to be pulled in a drawing on Friday, March 1. And if your names are drawn (results will be announced on Monday, March 4), each of you will win one of the wall-hangings displayed above of the charming Khatoon, or Unibrow Lady! (I will contact you both for your mailing addresses)
                  I hope you and your colleague(s) will choose to participate!
                                                            ***

                  As always, Kheilee mamnoon! (i.e., “Thank you!” in Persian),
 
FINALLY—A HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO ALL:
INCLUDING SWEETHEARTS, BELOVED FRIENDS, CHERISHED FAMILY MEMBERS, AND EVERY SINGLE OTHER PERSON!
 
Leslie Powell Ahmadi  

Dear Friends and Readers:

​A warm welcome to the January 2024 blogpost of Leslie Powell Ahmadi: a Black American Christian woman who met and married a man from Iran who was raised in a Muslim family.

I met Mahmoud at The Ohio State University, married him in 1988, and four years later relocated to Iran to start a new life with him. It was not an easy decision. But ultimately Mahmoud, our two young children, and I lived in the spectacular historic city of Isfahan from 1992 – 1996. And a lot happened during those four years. It is all captured in a memoir I’ve written called Road Between Two Hearts: A Black American Bride Discovers Iran (stand by for details regarding its future publication).

Every month or so I enjoy bringing you information, an experience, an encounter, and/or a perspective related to Iran and its people that may catch your attention.   

But this time--for the first time in two years--I depart from that agenda to ask for your help!

Here is my question:
Would you be willing to help me grow my community of readers—by approaching family, friends, and colleagues of yours who would be interested in the kind of content I offer in my newsletter and upcoming book?

If so, here is my request, starting today and lasting through the last day of February (which this year is February 29: a Leap Year Day!)

Would you …

• First sign up for my monthly newsletter at www.leslieahmadi.com, if you haven’t already  
• Invite at least one friend/colleague you know to subscribe to my monthly newsletter at the same address (someone you think might enjoy my content)
• Tell them that as a thank you for signing up by February 29 (the last day of the Valentine month), they will receive a complimentary booklet that they can download in honor of Valentine’s Day—a booklet called Menu for an Enchanted Valentine Evening, Persian Style--designed to celebrate an enchanting romance or an enchanting friendship. (Note: you can also access the booklet if you sign up for my newsletter, whether or not you have signed up before. And if you sign up a second time, you won’t receive any annoying duplicate messages or notifications.)
• Tell them (and also take note yourself) that as an added thanks to those who subscribe, I will enter both their name and your name jointly in a drawing for a bonus gift from Iran: a decorative wall hanging that features the charming and iconic images of what I like to call the “Unibrow Lady.”

What is the cultural significance of the “Unibrow Lady” (Khatoon)? Ask several Iranian women and you might just get a different spin from each one. But if I could sum it up briefly, my understanding is that
(1) She embodies the thick dark brows that many Iranian women have naturally before they choose to tweeze them (which traditionally in the past was when they got married, but nowadays many young women start to tweeze around puberty.)
(2)  She represents a dual sentiment of many Iranian women that full and bushy eyebrows are both a blessing and a curse: i.e.,

• a blessing in that full and bushy eyebrows are not only an emblem of feminine power, but are ample enough to allow a woman to sculpt her eyebrows in any number of stunning ways (if she so chooses), and
  
• a curse in that full and bushy eyebrows may be a pain to have to maintain in sculpted form! (again, if a woman chooses to)

(3)   She represents a Persian woman with not only beauty and charm, but the confidence and boldness to display her unibrow as a statement of self-determination and personal choice.

AND NOW… HOW TO ENTER TO WIN THE UNIBROW LADY WALL HANGINGS FOR BOTH YOU AND A FRIEND/COLLEAGUE
                                                            
So, here is how to enter yourself and your friend in the “Unibrow Lady” Wall Hangings Giveaway:
a.     Invite a friend or colleague who might be interested in my website and related content to visit my website and sign up for my monthly newsletter.
b.     If your friend/colleague agrees to consider it, direct them to my website at leslieahmadi.com, and ask them to subscribe (within 48 hours if possible) for a chance to win the Unibrow Lady—that is, one of the wall hangings that are pictured above. Actually, the prize will be one wall hanging for each of you!
c.     Next, please do the following (yourself):
--Reply to this email to notify me of your friend’s or colleague’s intention to subscribe. How?

• After you hit “Reply,” simply type in the first and last name of your friend/colleague, plus the email address they will be signing up under, then
• Under your friend/colleague’s name and email address, type in your own first and last name, plus your own email address.          
• Now hit the “Send” Button—and Voilà! I will have the contact information of both you and your friend/colleague.

d.     Once I verify that your friend/colleague has signed up for my monthly newsletter, I will place the names of you and your colleague jointly in a special jar for a chance to be pulled in a drawing on Friday, March 1. And if your names are drawn (results will be announced on Monday, March 4), each of you will win one of the wall-hangings displayed above of the charming Khatoon​, or Unibrow Lady! (I will contact you both for your mailing addresses)

I hope you and your colleague(s) will choose to participate!

As always, Kheilee mamnoon! (i.e., “Thank you!” in Persian),

Leslie