# @ggxnews on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CMs3zhcLCmr
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/9077559-ggxnews-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/492491d52a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-03-22T00:36:25.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Golden Gate Xpress (@GGXnews) — https://gondola.cc/GGXnews

## Caption

The return of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from Paris to Iran for the first time in 15 years in February 1979 is a memory Reza Esmaili, who was four years old at the time, remembers well.

@ananassf watched Khomeni’s plane land at Mehrabad International Airport on the rabbit-ear antenna TV sitting on the corner of the counter at a local bakery. He was with his father, and the two were getting pastries and delicacies in preparation for #Norooz, also referred to as the Persian New Year.

“I just remember vividly that day, my father was like, ‘With the arrival of that guy’s airplane and his party, this country and our lives will change forever,’” Reza said. “And by the following Norooz, we were literally escaping our home and trying to get visas to leave everything behind.”

Political upheaval, protests and mass unemployment in the country led to a general feeling of uncertainty of the future of Iran and its government, which in part prompted the return of Khomeini and a total of an estimated 4.5 million Iranians to flee their country, including the Esmailis. 

In their migration to the U.S., Reza relied on the console and guidance of his mother, Mehrbanoo Esmaili. Through moments including a middle-of-the-night travel to the airport, in which they were met at various checkpoints by men with machine guns, Mehrbanoo acted as her son’s rock, reassuring him with the false notion that many who make up the Iranian diaspora, including Mehrbanoo, believed in: that they would one day return to Iran. 

According to Reza, it’s what gave her the strength to walk away from her career, life, and everything she knew for a nation she was hardly familiar with. 

📝 @chris.jramirez 
📸 Courtesy of the Esmaili family
🔗 link in bio for full story

#norooz #nowruz #persiannewyear #bayarea #iran #iranian

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## Tags

nowruz, norooz, iranian, persiannewyear, bayarea, iran

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