Reza’s Story– Iran to Idaho

Reza was only 18 years old when he left Iran. He didn’t know any English, he had no extended family outside of Iran, and his future was teeming with uncertainty. All he carried with him was a belief that pursuing education might lead to a chance at a better life. At such a young age, Reza has had to persevere through political terror, religious turmoil, and cultural alienation. 

“We were facing a situation that I would have never imagined I would face in my entire life,” he explains, “and I was faced with this at age 19.”

Today he is 23 years old, living part time with an Israeli family in the Bay Area and studying computer science at BYU Idaho, sharing his story with anyone who is willing to hear it. _________________________________________________

“Born and raised in Iran,” Reza came from a family that had been forged by adversity and resilience. At only 16 years old, his father’s life was turned on its head when both of his parents died in a car accident. Suddenly, Reza’s father had become responsible for raising his four younger siblings. Among them was a child only two-year-olds. Reza’s father never had a chance at an ordinary childhood.

“He had to start working full-time to support the siblings, doing night school at the same time to get a diploma to be able to work in the daytime,” recalled Reza. 

Reza’s father married young, having met his mother around the age of 17. She played a crucial role in assisting him to raise his siblings, and they worked tirelessly to pave opportunities for their children. Reza is one of three siblings, having both an older and twin sister. In his home, the value of education was critical. 

“That's the way that you can always kind of have a better life, is just to have education, right?”

Though education would prove central to Reza’s journey, the obstacle of religion was the first he had to overcome.

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Reza’s Religion

Reza was raised Muslim. In post-revolution Iran, there is no other choice. Your cultural identity, community involvement, and national standing were all inextricable from religion. 

“There is no other option in Iran, since the Islamic Revolution in 1978. So, whoever is born and raised in Iran, they have to practice Islam and be part of it as well.”

Reza describes how lucky he felt that his family were not fundamentalist, and family values always came before religion. At around age 16, his worldview began to change as he was exposed to social media for the first time, leading him to begin questioning the corruption he saw. This provided him with a perspective that was until then, unavailable to him. 

“I had first-time access to social media, including Instagram and YouTube, so I could actually see the world outside of Iran. At that time we have open access to all these platforms, but since I left the country in 2021, they've changed some rules that have filtered all this social media.”

Reza began to question the Islamic faith together with the politics of his country. 

“And I think that was the time that I started questioning about Islam, and just, like, questioning everything about the faith. And, after doing a lot of research, I totally lost my faith to the Islamic belief, and I don't exactly remember the details of the timing, like, how long it took me to kind of, like, lose the faith. But I kind of lost the faith and the hope at some point too, like believing in God. So I kind of became, like, atheist at around age 16. But of course, I was never open about it, telling anybody, since there is no religious freedom back in Iran. But, like, this was my religious story until the age 18.”

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Reza Leaves Iran

Reza was 17 years old when he first began researching ways to leave Iran, pursuing work and opportunities to study abroad. He had known some people who had done the same, and believed that this path was right for him. He began researching high schools in Eastern Europe, as he believed they had the right balance between a good education system and affordability. But as no one from his family has ever left Iran to study abroad in this manner before, convincing his parents was not easy.

“I had an issue because my parents were not satisfied and happy with it, and they didn't want me to do that since I was like, 17 when I thought about doing this. And so they were a little bit concerned about all that, and not sure if it's good. But I kept going, and I still tried to research, and I talked to a lot of different people to be able to convince my parents that studying abroad is a good thing, that it's not a bad thing, necessarily. And it was a little bit of a hard decision for my parents because before I immigrated, there's been nobody who has gone… Everybody's just stayed back home, close to family, So, what I was doing was, like, a very new thing to their eyes.”

After ultimately convincing them, Reza was accepted into a school in Slovakia. However, there was a 9-month delay for his visa due to the COVID situation in 2021, and he would not leave until August of that year. He left with a friend that was also going there for school without knowing any English; any language other than Farsi.

“Without knowing any English or any other language than Farsi, I had to go just study in the senior year of high school. So it was pretty challenging, and I just didn't know the language, I didn't know a bunch of different things, I didn't know how to cook food on my own, I didn't know how to use the laundry, I just didn't know how. I was pretty much from scratch, and I was only 18 that time.”

Reza emphasized the difficulty of living in a new country, not knowing the language and being unable to communicate. 

“I had to learn a lot of things on my own, specifically the language. It was pretty difficult to kind of learn from scratch, because people were constantly communicating with me, but I could not respond, because I didn't have that ability to understand what they were exactly telling me. And so I had to study both English and Slovak, because I ended up getting a job. I worked in McDonald's, and then I worked in a clothes shop, so I had to learn Slovak to also have an ability to serve as a customer service in those job positions as well. So I had to learn all those languages, and it was pretty challenging, but I'm happy that it worked out.”

Reza had to be resourceful, working wherever he could while simultaneously learning both English and Slovak. The pressure was intense, and the feelings of isolation were growing. He had finally made it as a high school student in Slovakia. There, he was fortunate enough to have made a friend whose father worked in the U.S. Embassy. After being accepted to a Christian University in Nashville, Tennessee, he began attending church meetings with this friend. The more he attended these Church meetings, the greater his interest in the faith grew. After about 5 or 6 months, he no longer considered himself Atheist.

“Everything was going pretty smooth. I was in a new faith, I was having a new hope in life. Things are different than I was expecting, you know? I was optimistic at that moment, and I was able to get the U.S. visa and go to Nashville for college.” 

When Reza had finally found himself in the United States, things had escalated back home. After the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, protests for women’s rights spread like wildfire across the nation. Thanks to a 6 month delay on his visa, he elected not to visit home at the time. This decision would prove critical, as Reza would later find out that conversion from Islam to any other religion in Iran is considered Apostasy, and can be punishable by death. 

“I was only 19 when I found out about this. So I was pretty, like, I feel like I got hit by a bomb.”

After deliberating with church leadership, he realized how serious of a danger going back home was. He discovered the U.S. had humanitarian programs of asylum that are designed to help people who would otherwise face serious persecutions back home. He found a lawyer based in Idaho that would help him. BYU Idaho happened to be affiliated with his church, and seeing as his lawyer was based in this state as well, Reza ultimately decided to begin the process of transferring schools. 

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Reza Goes to California

After staying for a while with a friend and studying at BYU Idaho, Reza began making plans for a trip to California scheduled for January 2024. 

“Everybody talks about the California Dreaming, right? Which is a new world, and everything is different in California. So I traveled to California in January of 2024 for the first time, and I went down in Los Angeles and I was pretty happy seeing, like, the beautiful palm trees and Santa Monica, all the beautiful beaches and everything. Pretty exciting, and I found some friends, met some people, I actually even accidentally found the synagogue as well. And I went there to see what it was like. I think it was Sinai Temple, probably one of the biggest synagogues that I know in SoCal. So I went there, and that's when things were a little bit more, uh, I guess a little bit more sensitive, because it was right after October 7. And so there were guards with the, like, guns, machine guns, and everything, so I was a little bit scared, like, okay, is this a military place? Maybe I shouldn't go.”

And after visiting Wiltshire Boulevard, Reza described his fascination at meeting so many people from Iran. For the first time since leaving home, he found himself among a great number of people speaking Farsi once again. 

“I started talking to some, and I found that they were Persian Jews. That they immigrated to the United States after the Islamic Revolution, because they wouldn't have the safety anymore of staying in Iran. Since religious freedom didn't exist anymore after the revolution.”

Reza found a sense of warmth and familiarity with these Persian Jews, something he never would have dreamed of since leaving his family in Iran.

In time, his life experiences sparked a decision to change majors from Political Science to Computer Science, and he decided a trip to the Bay Area would prove illuminating. 

“And I was just sleeping in the car at that time, because I mean, I didn't have any place to stay, and Silicon Valley is not a cheap place to live, so I was sleeping in my car, and I had, like, a box of canned foods I brought all the way from Idaho. And, uh, was basically just traveling and just sleeping in my car, and seeing different places”

It was at this time that Reza would make an Israeli friend who would invite him to stay with his family.

“I felt like because I'm from Iran, Israelis are gonna be, like, you know, have a very distinct kind of, like, a perspective towards me, because I'm from Iran, and because of political issues. Which was not the case. I was actually a lot more, uh, I guess, welcomed because of the fact that I was from Iran, which was very surprising for me at that time.”

“And I remember he was wearing the t-shirt of ‘Bring Them Back Home’ for, I guess it was for the hostages, if I'm not mistaken. And they offered me and my friend to stay with them without knowing us, which is an absolutely crazy move, like having somebody from Iran. That's probably, like, the biggest risk someone can take in their life. And, um, and we just stayed there, and we were there for, like, probably a week or two. And we just made a great relationship that time, and it was an amazing time.”

After returning to school, Reza would continue to visit and stay with this family in the Bay Area. One of their children even attended BYU with him, becoming his roommate. Reza considers them his second family, and suffice it to say, has finally found a true second home outside Iran. 

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At the Intersection of Cultures and Religions

Reza has been a Muslim, an atheist, a Christian, an Iranian, an immigrant, and a student. The question of identity will always be one that is core to his journey. He has experienced the plights of propaganda living in an extremist theocracy, and has emerged from it with values that are truly inspirational.

“I think each religion can have some good things and have some bad things. I think what is the most important thing is to keep the open-mindedness, and question things, and not blindly believe in anything just because you're being told.”

In 2026, Reza continues to maintain a close bond with his family. His twin sister has since also left Iran, now studying dentistry in China. Reza continues to build a new life in the United States, studying computer science and telling his story while preaching his hard-earned truth of open-mindedness and the pursuit of freedom. Reza’s story has truly inspired me personally, and at only 23 years old, I believe he has lived a lot more life than most people out there. 

“We have the same goals. And we all want to go in the same direction. We want the freedom for ourselves, and we want to live in peace, in freedom, and be happy.”