In his upcoming memoir “Passport To Freedom: From Tehran To Triumph,” U.S.-born Adult Cross-Cultural Kid Dr. Nizam Missaghi shares his harrowing escape from Iran as a youth.
Born in the United States and taken back to Iran as an infant, Missaghi grew up free on paper but trapped in practice. At age 7, he was expelled from school for the first time in Tehran — not for misbehavior or poor grades, but for belonging to a faith the Islamic Republic refused to recognize.
In post-revolutionary Iran, being Baha’i meant fractured futures: no university, no profession, no way to support a family. Yet hidden in a dresser drawer was a golden ticket: a U.S. passport quietly renewed every five years in secret.
As adolescence gave way to urgency, Missaghi had to decide whether hope was worth the risk of escape. With surveillance closing in and many doors slammed shut, he faced an unthinkable choice: remain invisible or gamble everything on a document that could save or destroy him.
Missaghi left his native Iran after the completion of high school due to being deprived of access to higher education as a religious minority in the Islamic Republic. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia and pursued his medical education at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
He currently serves as the chairman of the board for the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, where human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic are investigated, verified and documented. He is the author of multiple articles in Persian and English that focus on human rights and Iran-related matters.
In his memoir, Missaghi writes about being born a U.S. citizen but raised under a theocracy, life under the Islamic Republic as well as his escape from Iran.
At a time when authoritarian regimes cloak oppression in the language of culture and faith, Missaghi’s journey reminds us what is lost when conscience is outlawed – and why certain countries can be refuges worth choosing.
“Passport To Freedom: From Tehran To Triumph” will be released on September 22.
