Lily Ayman left Iran in 1979, the same year of the Iranian Revolution. She was visiting Chicago at the time, and realized she couldn’t go back without risking her life. She was one of Iran’s most celebrated authors. But she was also a Ba’hai and her religious beliefs had already marked her on the government’s blacklist. Nadine Shabeeb reports on how that has affected her life.

Hear the audio report [audio:https://immigrantconnect.medill.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Lily-Ayman-Bahai.mp3]

[Read the companion story “Lily Ayman: The mother of the Persian textbook“]