My life story, Part 35 Rejection of my London scholarship and the fact that I had to go to a poor part of the country to do my mandatory work for the ministry of health and medical education for 36 months in return for my free education, had made me very depressed. Being away from my family and living with my aunt once again was something that I didn’t dare to think about even for a minute. Sadness had filled my heart and there was no room in my heart to love. I could not have any feelings for Dr. Maasumi who had supported me kindly facing all kinds of problems all this time. Therefore, when I found out that he was inquiring about me in the hospital from one of my coworkers whose husband was a close friend of his it got me just very mad. After that, I just tried keeping away from him. No to sound selfish, I was always in the center of attention of my male colleagues and my female colleagues hated me for that. I felt more and more lonely and more depressed every day. A few weeks passed like that and I talked to no one on work, headed straight to my room, did my job and headed right out. Until someday a propaganda center was established next to my room, which its noise interfered with my job -I was an audiologist if you recall- and I decided to face them about it.

My life story, Part 34 I was extremely happy for this opportunity, and went to deliver the good news to the chief resident, but to my surprise, he didn’t take it well and was upset to loose me. He gave me his phone number so we can be in touch, but I ignored that and never called him back. I went to Tehran where my family were staying in refugees’ dorm, and went to scholarship office and fulfilled the missing documents and did an interview which was successful. In the documents, there were required to introduce 3 persons who knew me closely and could testimony of my loyalty. One of the persons who I introduced as my close friend who could endorse me and was a member of Islamic committee, despite my anticipation, not only endorsed me but voted against me and took the opportunity of the scholarship for herself. As always my happiness didn’t last long and I received a mail from scholarship office that my application for the scholarship to study in London was rejected. Once again I was betrayed by friends who I thought were true friends. Despite my anticipations, I was assigned to Bushehr (a provenance in the south) where I knew nothing about and although Ahwaz was in a war zone, I wanted to do my internship there. I went to Ahwaz and told them that I was assigned to Bushehr for my internship, But the chief resident who loved me very much, tried his best to keep me in Ahwaz and finally succeeded. I returned to the war zone once again but this time in the hospital which was behind the front-line I encountered with many wounded of war. Death and blood everywhere and worriers who suffered from wave of explosions and had lost their hearing and mental stability. There were not enough supplies to care for all the patients, so many of them were hospitalized in the corridors with minimal medicine and supplies. The doctors and personnel did their best to provide the optimum care possible for the patients despite the lack of medications and supplies. It was when I realized that as refugees we were in much better situation than these heroes who honestly were defending our country against the invaders. I was heartbroken and decided to do all in my power to help them and reduce their suffering.

My life story, Part 33 As I mentioned earlier, I and my brother went to Ahwaz, to my aunt’s. I asked my cousin, Zohre (who married my brother later on), Whether there is an audiology department in any hospitals that I could pass my internship there? She replied: Imam Khomeini hospital has an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) ward that may need your expertise. Some days later, I went to the hospital and met the chief resident of ENT ward. He was visiting patients in the clinic. The weather was very hot that day and clinic was crowded. The doctor was busy visiting patients and never looked up. After about an hour of waiting I got tired and was about to leave. He finished with his patients finally and noticed my presence. I introduced myself to him and explained that I just graduated in audiology field from Tehran university of medical sciences and I’m looking for a place to pass my internship. He kindly welcomed me and came with me to the head of the department’s office and introduced me to him. He interviewed me and asked me a few questions about my field and was very satisfied with the answers and told me you can start tomorrow and set up our new audiology lab. I had some time before my internship officially began, so I started working there and helped the department to design and set up an appropriate acoustic room for audiometry lab. A few weeks later I received a mail from scholarship office to complete my documents an interview for a scholarship to London. Our field was newly founded and most of our professors were foreigners who fled the country after 1978 revolution. So the faculty decided to send the most elite students who were fluent in English to study in London and after earning their postgraduate degree return to Iran and teach the next generation of audiologists as their professors. But it was not as straight forward as you might think…