As resistance to the monarchy grew, Nooriala's young family joined in the massive street demonstrations. They defied 9 p.m. curfews and clambered atop rooftops, chanting "Allahu akbar." A grainy photo of Sepanlou portrays a grinning 6-year-old flashing a victory sign in one hand and holding a tambourine in the other.
"We were not for a fundamentalist regime," Sepanlou says. "We were for people to be free." Within 18 months of the Islamic revolution, Nooriala says she realized it had all been a terrible mistake.
Sepanlou noticed the change too. Schools were suddenly segregated. She had to cover herself from head to toe -- even when swimming. A photo of her at the Caspian Sea shows her dripping wet while fully veiled and clothed, "a terrible feeling," she recalls.
"I have a vision of a colorful Tehran up to 1979," Sepanlou says. "After the revolution, everything became black and white."
In 1986, the family immigrated to the United States. To make ends meet, Nooriala obtained a data processing certificate and went to work for the county court as a deputy jury commissioner.
Sepanlou graduated from UCLA in sociology, married an Iranian American radiologist and had two daughters, now ages 4 and 10 months. Beyond her blogging and singing, she helps her husband, Amir Fassihi, promote nonviolence in Iran; he has recently completed a book on the topic. On a recent Sunday, the couple gathered about 50 Iranian Americans in their home to discuss ways to get the message of nonviolence to protesters in Iran.
Over the weekend, Nooriala read two poems at a candlelight vigil at UCLA for the Iranian protesters. She views her 1981 poem "Lady Liberty II" as her most prescient.
In it, Nooriala laments the loss of freedom under the Islamic regime. But she ends with a vow that the people of Iran will someday rise again to reclaim it.
Until they do, the women say, they will continue to offer them their poems and songs of support.
And in tomorrow's ruins
A phrase will be written
Which today
Is being repeated
In the depth of our memory
Over and over and over again
--
teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
