Tag: The Guardian

“Having grown up in different cultures with different expectations, my mother and I have often clashed. But as my daughter grows older, I have come to see our relationship in a different light.”

“When she arrived in the US as a 10-year-old refugee, Dina Nayeri found it hard to fit in. But that all changed when she hatched a plan to get into Harvard – by becoming a taekwondo champion”

Dina Nayeri was eight when she and her family fled Iran. Are today’s refugees treated with more dignity?

“As a child in Iran, Dina Nayeri belonged to a secret Christian church where the Rapture was welcomed as a rescue. Later, as a refugee in the US, she saw how apocalyptic prophecies masked a reactionary nihilism – which is why they are so tempting”

“I am a math nerd. “A maths nerd,” my partner corrects me, because we live in London now. Fine. I love puzzles and formulae and bullet-pointed plans… I don’t often make major forecasting errors, but I’m in the middle of my life’s biggest miscalculation.”

“Dina Nayeri was just a child when she fled Iran as an asylum seeker. But as she settled into life in the US and then Europe, she became suspicious of the idea that refugees should shed their old identities and be eternally thankful”