Meet Nadia
Behind the Words
"I was born in Tehran Iran, - 6,426 miles away from my home today in Buffalo New York. I was sent to America as a student by my parents to become a journalist I learned the concept of civic duty without knowing those words.
My mother and grandmothers would hear, over informal tea gatherings at our home, grievances from female friends who needed to borrow money, interest-free, for a variety of reasons without the knowledge of their husbands.
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As these community members would share their stories, I not only heard with my 6 year old ears one on each side of my head, I listened with my heart. Without realizing, I was observing my first lessons in life and civic community engagement.
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Fast forward- during my 4 years undergraduate and then 3 years of studies at the University Of Buffalo School Of Law, I discovered the infinite possibilities that I had learned from my mother and grandmothers. They had returned to me enabling me to concentrate on the purpose of my legal studies with acute awareness of the transformative power of change. I was able to become the activist that my mother and grandmothers could not become because of the culture into which they were born.
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Maya Angulo said: "When you learn you teach and when you get, you give.
We get not what we hope, but what we believe." - it is our belief that will create action.
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Each of us has the ability to do great work no matter how small.
I lost the love of my life, the one who gave birth to me, my precious mother suddenly, on April 29 2016, 2 whole years from past Sunday. After a year being in shock, I have redirected my profound grief and unbearable pain into this bowl of energy to serve the less fortunate. I choice consciously. No time for do-overs. I am committed to serve the refugees as my neighbors in the buffalo community. I am committed to tell some of their stories.
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To reclaim the heart of humanity we need to love each other more. When we love, we don’t ask why, we just love. For those of us mothers, we know about selfless love. The first time I held my newborn babies, Natasha and Melanie, I knew how much heart and soul my own mother had poured into me. I knew right then that I would sacrifice all for my daughters. It is this kind of love that would create a base for understanding compassion not tolerance, human dignity and gender equality."
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- As a speaker at the Citizenship Ceremony on August 26, 2019, in the Chapel of Women, Seneca Falls, NY.
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