It's Our Story, Too: The Iranian Diaspora and Our Parents' Revolution

In her book, They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents, Neda Toloui-Semnani delves into the history of Iran and the U.S. in order to understand the intimate choices her parents made; choices that also changed the contours and the fate of her family and, by extension, her own personal journey. Their choices also contributed to upending one regime and introducing another. She found that the stories the Iranian diaspora holds tight are rich, unique, and stand apart from the history of Iran or that of the U.S. They must be collected, put down, and studied. Neda delves into how, through research and interviews, she pieced together her own family's history and how that quest illuminated her understanding of her parents, their movement, their countries, and so much more.

Neda Toloui-Semnani is an Emmy-winning writer and producer. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Washington Post and VICE News. She lives in Brooklyn. They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents, published in 2022 by Little A, is her first book.

If you need a disability-related accommodation for this event, please contact us at iranianstudies [at] stanford.edu (iranianstudies[at]stanford[dot]edu).  Requests should be made by November 29, 2022.