Sareh Oveysi

full interview

Hello, I am fine.

You can answer the questions in Persian, but not the easy ones. Like, how are you? Haha. 
Okay. Hello.

You can answer any question in any languages. 
I can speak Persian and English.

When you answer the first questions, speak in English. When you are comfortable, speak in English anytime. Ahh… First of all, I hope you are doing well. We are friends and today is your last day here in Istanbul. This is an emotional day for me. Let’s get into the topic. So, this project is named One Thousand Dreams. The purpose of this project is to share the story of one thousand refugees interviewed by other refugees. The goal of this project is that the refugees interview the other refugees. It is a kind of interview where a refugee interviews another refugee. Since I am active in music and media, I am trying to interview artists like you. So, the topic of today’s interview is refuge. I know art and you are an artist. Whatever you do is in art, art, art… We will mention the word art in this interview a lot. The organization that organizes this program is called Witness Change. We are recording your voice and the transcriptors will write your interview. Do you want us to take a photo of you? Do you want your story to be realized on other magazines and social media platforms like National Geographic and Time Magazine? So, do you accept it? 
Sure, I do.

Do you agree to share your name? You can hide your name or use a fake name. 
I have suffered a lot in my life, so I want to use my real name.

Speak louder.
Yes. …

Okay. Do you accept your face being revealed? We can cover your photo. 
Yes, I do. I trust you. Haha.

I have to say it. You accept that we have your photo and share your story. 
Yes, for sure.

Let’s go. Before going deep, it will take much time. It takes more time in English than Arabic, haha. So, in what kind of house do you live right now? 
What do you mean by asking what kind of house?

Like where do you live? 
In Istanbul.

Okay. In Istanbul. Tell me about the conditions of your house. 
It is not what I want. I have rented a house.

Is it a rental house? 
Yes.

Do you have any problems with neighbors? Do you like the neighbors and the owner of the house? 
I am connected with them.

Are you comfortable with them? 
Yes, I am. But it is not so easy to contact them. Their behaviors are not the same.

Oh, their behaviors are not the same as you in terms of culture. 
For sure.

Do you try hard to connect with them? 
Exactly.

Do you live alone? 
Yes, I do.

How does that make you feel? 
What?

How does that make you feel? 
About what?

Living alone.  
Actually, I feel good. I could find myself in these five years better than those years. I was with my family. Here I have understood life better and deeper. It is nice living here.

That is nice. How do you spend your time here in Istanbul? Do you work here? 
Hmmm… I spend my time here at my work. As you know I am a photographer. I was not allowed to be a fashion photographer in Iran. That is why I moved to Istanbul. I spend 90 percent of my life dedicated to work. 

That is nice. From now on you speak in Persian. What makes you happy? What do you enjoy doing? 
Hmm… ahh… wait. I want to speak in Persian.

Yes. Speak in Persian. 
Ahmm… Actually, I want to talk in English. Because I wanted to be connected with you. Is there a problem?

No problem. If there is a problem, I will ask you to explain it to me. Talk to me in Dari. 
Okay. The first thing that is very important to me is my job, it takes me from my real world to a fantasy and dream world.

How has life been since you have arrived here? 
My life has been so hard. Although I said that I enjoy living here, it has its difficulties living here. Being separated from the place where I belonged has traumatized me.

What were the challenges? 
Hahah.

You were talking about the challenge. Right? 
I was talking about things you asked me. Haha. Being away from my family hurts me, which I think is irreparable. But they make me grow up and become stronger. (Mumbling)

Go and have a break. It is time to break. So again, Sara. You felt emotional. I have to say that these are the hardest days for you because you are leaving Istanbul. When did you come here?

In these four years you have achieved a lot here. 
Thank you. After four years, you are leaving. These days are emotional days to you. I am sorry for opening these doors. (Mumbling)

No problem. My question was how life was here. What has been good and difficult? Let’s focus on difficulties. You talked about the difficulties in the first recording. Do you want to mention them? 
Yes, for sure. Then I will speak in Persian.

Okay. 
Living outside the country where I was born has many problems.  The first problem is that I do not belong to this country.  My desire in life is to have a stable life, but I cannot achieve this desire.  I don’t even have access to my simplest request.  This is a very disappointing feeling.  This is the biggest problem that every refugee has. And … Other problems are in the next categories. You just asked me about the difficulties.

You can talk about the good points as well. I am afraid that you will get emotional again. Hehehe. You can talk about that. 
When I am happy, I switch to English.

It is up to you. 
In the other interview, I mentioned that Istanbul is small for me. I am connected with different people from different countries like Syria.

How does it make you feel? 
It is amazing because my country is not a diverse country and tourists don’t come. People are not connected with each other like us here. Being with people is so good to me. (Mumbling) is the good side of it.

After all, how does that make you feel? What is your feeling? 
Sorry I didn’t understand it.

After the challenges that you experienced, what does that make you feel? 
With good and bad things together. Actually, …

Speak in Persian.  
It is a feeling … ah… suffering …. (thinking). How do I say this? I also enjoy the pain I suffer. This is a sentence that may be difficult for other people to understand. 

Oh my God. 
This is the hardest feeling I had. You don’t know when this enjoyment will stop. (Thinking) exactly it is like enjoying pain to me.

How did it come from? 
When I am alone, and thinking, I understand these things. I had this bad situation in Iran as well. I understood that I didn’t have freedom in Iran. At that time, I knew I had to enjoy these painful things as well.

Accepting reality? 
Kind of, yes. (The interviewer and interviewee speak in English. Their sentences are grammatically wrong and don’t have meaning.)

We can add these to your skills actually. You turn the difficult reality into your skills. You can deal with it to continue your life. 
Exactly.

I move to the next question. 
Okay. We will talk about other questions as well.

How does being away from your family affect your life? 
I switched to Persian.

Okay. 
We all have a strong attachment to those we belong to.  And this separation from dependents causes illness for us.  For example, separation from a lover, or parents.  When I got out of my country, I realized that my country is dead.  I don’t want to say this about the family.  But I have this feeling.  And it’s a very painful feeling.

Are you done? 
Yes. (Mumbling)

What? 
Sorry?  

Okay. Mm… 
No, no, no, I want to explain it shortly. I said it is kind of like losing someone when someone dies. When I came here and couldn’t go back to my country, I did lose my country. 

Yes. 
I have lost my country, and it is dead to me. I don’t mean that my family is dead. But the feeling is the same.

Yes, yes, yes.
Sometimes I think that I missed my country a lot. When people die, we cannot do anything. Now it is the same for me. I miss my country, I cannot do anything. The feeling is the same. 

Do you think that you have been able to handle this situation? 
Handle?

Yes. When you came here, did you imagine that these hardships came to you? Did you imagine that you could handle them?
Never.

So, you didn’t expect it. 
Nobody knows what will happen. I came to a place that I thought I could achieve my goals easily, but by the time being I faced lots of problems. A person who came this way should be super strong. 

I am sorry for interfering. You talked about your skills. Do you think you developed your skills to succeed in life? What are the skills you had? 
When you are alone, you trust yourself. When a person is alone, he thinks like he has to do it because he is alone and doesn’t know the language. Haha. This is the first technique. And the second one, …

(Phone ringing) sorry. 
No problem. The second benefit is that the person is connected with international people. I am from Iran and my country is closed to foreign nations. I am connected to people from different nations. I live in a developed country. Haha.

(Mumbling) Yeah, I can learn from them.

That is good. Why did you leave your country? Describe what happened. 
Yeah for sure. I should talk in Persian. You know about my problem.

Yeah. Go ahead in Persian. 
I was a fashion photographer when I was in Iran and I also worked in other fields.  But my favorite subject was fashion, which is forbidden in my country.  One day I was contacted by the IRGC organization and told that I should go to the IRGC office.  And I have to answer for the photos I took and posted.  They weren’t even nude photos, they were wearing hijab.  After I went to an IRGC office, they took my Instagram ID and changed its password and completely blocked my page.  And this one thesis was my worst memory of that day because I had worked hard and my business was going that way.  I was completely disappointed.  I was very afraid that they would catch me again and take my information.  Through my friends, they threatened me that if I post any more pictures, I will be imprisoned for 6 months.  From that day on, I was very afraid to do my work.  That’s why I decided to leave my country.

Describe how that makes you feel? 
Ah…

At that time, at that time. 
When they shut down my page,

Yes, yes, … 
It was like I lost my hope.

Oh, we can call them challenges and difficulties that you had.  
Exactly. When you beat something, ah…I don’t know in English.

Go ahead in Persian. 
Okay. I will say it in Persian. It’s like I have a dream in my mind and someone comes and destroys that dream. This was a very bad feeling for me. We have the same word in Arabic. We also say in Arabic “Kharab”. (Kharab means to destroy.) Haha.

How was your journey? Did you face any challenges? 
What do you mean?

How did you come here? 
First, I went to Georgia from Iran. 

Why? Because Iran wasn’t secure for me and I didn’t have another choice. 

Okay, okay. 
I could just go to Georgia and Turkey. I moved to Tbilisi. And made my life. 

Did you travel by airplane? 
Yes, I did.

So, you are a lucky refugee. 
Yes, exactly. I worked a lot in Iran.

How often do you think about those memories of Iran? Do you remember the situation you had in Iran? 
I remember those memories when I am alone and feel homesick. I think if I were in Iran, I would be more successful.

Do you (describe) consider yourself a refugee? (He used the word describe but the word describe doesn’t dot in the sentence well.) 
To?

Do you (describe) consider yourself a refugee? 
To whom? To me? To the world?

Let’s start like this. Who is a refugee? 
What is the meaning of refugee to me?

Yes. 
Hahah…

Hahaha… You remember the situation that happened to you in Iran. You think about it a lot. What is the impact of those memories? 
It helps me. Let’s switch to Persian. This problem made me bear all the hardships and say that I enjoy my suffering. These things happened to me then I am saying that I am enjoying the pain. 

Ah-hm. Do you think it is a part of your personality and character right now? 
It is exactly a part of me. It is always in my mind. 

That is a very big thing. You know. 
Exactly.

Okay. Ah… I have a couple of questions. (Mumbling) What is your … strength? Do you understand? 
Yeah.

So, what are your strengths? Can you describe your strengths? 
What do you mean?

Power points? 
Aha.

Not that PowerPoint. Haha. 
My points. Yes.

Yes, your skills. The things that you are good at. 
My character?

Yes. Sara’s skills. 
Okay. I will never give up. I never lose my hope. It is the best for me. I talk to myself. A person can achieve his dream one day before he dies. Then you should go for it. This is why I don’t give up until one day I die. Somebody came to me and said that you could achieve your goal one day before you die. I will wait for that day. 

(Mumbling) Haha…

What were your strengths? 
(Mumbling)

You can say it in Persian. 
I am a human. (Incorrect phrases) I don’t know what that was. I really don’t know. I had many bad memories. I was just fighting with them.

Difficulties? 
Yes.

What were the difficulties that you had? And what are the difficulties you have now? I asked two questions. You talk in Persian. 
Okay, let me think. The difficult things. Ah…. One difficulty that I had was that I didn’t have freedom. I didn’t have a job. 

No freedom? 
Sure. Here I don’t have a home. I am not… ah…

You are not stable. 
Yes.

What was your dream before the trip? 
I …

Sorry, can you start with the phrase that my dream was. 
When I was in Iran, my dream was to have a good life. I was looking for something very special in my life. I was happy. (Mumbling) Do you understand what I am saying?

Yup, yup. 
Here my dreams have changed and become bigger. 

What is your dream for the future? 
My dream … for the future. I want to be the best director. Haha.

You love art. What will help you to be a good director? 
The subject I am looking forward to studying is related to life. I want to work on freedom and peace as an artist. I want to make art nicer and more touchable. I want to mix art and life. The way I look at my life…

How does that impact you? 
I want to express my experiences about my life and the pains I suffered using art to the world. 

That is understandable. You talked about your dreams before the event and your dream for now. When you were leaving Iran and traveling to Georgia, what was your dream? You are going to Germany. Haha. You have a story there as well. 
Hmm…

When you were moving here. Before Istanbul, what was my dream? When you were not in Istanbul, what were you thinking? 
When you are moving, … I am confused. I am feeling nervous now. I know it. I think I am the weakest person. When you don’t know what will happen in the next step of your life, you don’t have time to think about your dream. 

But your hope… 
Yes, for sure. We all have dreams. As I said, my dreams are to be the best director in the world. If you are going to different countries, it gets harder.

You face more challenges. 
Yes.

I get you. 
To be flexible.

You can say it in Persian. 
Entering any country and adapting your life to the conditions of that country is a very difficult task.  At that moment, you don’t have time to think about your dream.  There are interruptions in life.

The final part. It is the most important part. You talk in Persian. Do you want to add something to this interview that should be added? Do you want to give a piece of advice? You can speak in Persian. 
I have many words. If you … (Mumbling)

It is up to you. I don’t want to add anything. 
Hm… I can only say. It goes.

Haha. 
Hmm… There are a lot of things. But Now they are not in my mind.

You talked about emotions a lot. So … 
I think I have enough time.

It is up to you.  
In the future, I want to write a book about my life. Haha. About my things.

I think people can use… That is cute.
This is also one of my dreams to write a book.

Thank you so much, Sara. I appreciate your time. Now I want you to go to the photo section. 
Oh my God. I am so excited. Hahah.

Hahah. You are the best photographer. The interview was about 35 mins. That is good.