Before the West

This is not just a book; it is a journey.

A long, difficult journey of a man forced to leave his home, his family, his friends, and every place where

his memories lived, simply because he was a journalist.

He wrote about social issues the government did not want to see in print: women's rights, children's

rights, abortion, and the realities of everyday life.

Those articles, those truths, cost him his safety.

They forced him to walk away from everything he knew and to burn all the bridges behind him.

In these pages, he shares what it looked and felt like to leave Iran, to survive in Turkey, and to finally

have his refugee status recognized by the United Nations and the United States.

This is a story of life.

A story of struggle and hope.

A story of darkness and light.

It is the story of a man who may never again stand in his childhood home, see his loved ones freely, or

walk through the streets he still carries in his heart, unless a miracle happens.