Entangled Lives: A Generation, in Rebellion for a Better World

This is the story of a young woman and two men who belonged to a generation who fought against two savagely despotic regimes in Iran: The Shah and the Islamic Republic spanning the second half of the 20th Century, from the overthrow of the last democratically elected regime of Dr Mossaddeq in a CIA-engineered coup in 1953 to the massacre of thousands of political prisoners, already serving long sentences, at the end of the Iran-Iraq war (1988) by the Islamic regime. Nayyer, Ahmad and Changiz were ordinary people and fell in and out of love as normal people do. They wanted normal lives. But they also saw the intense poverty and spiralling inequality around them, and when they spoke out against these injustices they were savagely repressed. Nayyer, Ahmad and Changiz, alongside thousands of others, yearned for freedom and a better future for all the people of the country they loved. For this, they were prepared to face savage torture and execution or to spend many years behind bars. Entangled Lives tells their stories and witnesses the central paradox of a generation who consciously deprived themselves of a normal life and accepted intense hardships and an uncertain future precisely because they loved life with a passion. Their lives, struggles, and sacrifices deserve to be heard around the world. Theirs is the little told and little-known history of modern Iran as told by themselves or by those who knew them closely. Entangled Lives aims to give an insight into the tumultuous history of modern Iran through the eyes and experience of three real people. This is their story.

M.S. Kia is a retired medical doctor and academic who trained in the UK and went back to Iran to teach in Shiraz (formerly Pahlavi) University. He participated in the revolution that overthrew the Shah and was later imprisoned by the post-revolutionary regime for his defence of freedom. After release he returned to the UK to work as a medical doctor in the National Health Service. He describes his experience in the Iranian Revolution of 1979 in his book Sliding into Revolution (Lulu Press, and available in Amazon and other outlets). He is currently preparing a collection of his poems, Echoes of Life and Love, for publication. He is also an amateur artist.