Interview with Siba Shakib

Funny how the Internet changes not only people's lives but also their friends. siba and I both lived in Iran, both lived in Germany, both went to the same school. However, we met in NYC.

it was friend-ship on first sight and both of us were wondering at the end of our first meeting how lucky we were to have met eachother. The fact that each of us gained a new friend.

I was very happy to interview Siba, who is not only a friend, but an author and film-maker for the persianmirror.


1) Tell us a little about your background.
a. Where were you born, when did you leave Iran
b. What is your best memory from Iran?

I am happy that I was born in Iran, in Tehran. Why happy? Because despite the political and social injustices that we were facing in Iran at all times - it has also always been a very interesting place.

Tehran is a huge city with diversity in social matters, in characters, and structure of its people. It is diverse in its architecture, art and even in its nature. The south of the city is already in the desert; in the North we hit the almost 5.000 meter high mountains of the Alborz. They are majestic, beautiful, and rocky with their peaks covered in snow for most of the year.

Unfortunately, Tehran has grown so much in the past 30 years that houses, even skyscrapers are climbing higher and higher up the mountains.

I think having grown up in a city like Tehran makes a person strong and it marks you for a lifetime with patterns and tools of survival.



My strongest memory is a visual of these Mountains, combined with the clean air, the wind the majestic impression of the rocky slopes. When I look at them (or when I am not there, even just imagine them) long enough it is as if I become them, and they become me.


2) While living in Italy, Dubai, and the USA, what kind of stereotypes did you have to face? On the personal as well as the professional level.

Oh Boy! I could write a book to answer this question. In short: people have all kinds of images about women in Iran. And I do not blame them. How should they know? The regime in Iran and the political and social circumstances have never been very inviting. Who wants to go to a country where people are imprisoned as soon as they say what they think. Who wants to have to obey a forced dressing code just to see a country and meet its people.

So, foreigners are not to blame that they do not know and are full of prejudice. I see it as my responsibility to tell our stories – which is the reason why I am writing books and making films.

I feel I have the responsibility to be a representative of my country and I try to be that in a way that people know, Iranian women can be strong, modern, intelligent, and knowledgeable. We too have free spirits and can innovate things and styles and that we too are creative and constructive. And that we – because we have been born and raised in a suppressed situation and had to liberate ourselves from it – often we have an even freer spirit and live then even our European and American friends.



3) What brought you to writing?
a. What did you do before becoming an author?
b. Maybe add some experience from Afghanistan and working as a consultant to the NATO.

Whether with my movies or my books, I have always been a storyteller and I always will continue to be one. Even as a little girl when I could not write yet, I was telling stories, or I would memorize poems and play and perform them for my audience, which in those days was my family and their friends.

The only time when I did something else was when I became a political advisor to the NATO from right when they began their mission in Afghanistan until my influence was not strong enough anymore. Things started to go the wrong direction and they started to be a fighting force instead of a peacekeeping troop – and I stopped working with them. But even when I was with them, I would write. I already had the story for SAMIRA and SAMIR lined out and I wrote it while I was flying from place to place with the soldiers.




4) Tell me more about your new book Eskandar.

ESKANDAR is a dream come true for me. I have always wanted to tell his story but I did not dare. Because it is so close to me and it is so vast and large and so many things are happening. After all we are talking about a period of over 100 years. It is very difficult to tell a story this big filled with so many historical events and political changes and technical and social developments.

But it has always been in me, I was walking through my life telling people bits and parts of it so they know the truth of my home country Iran and its history – of course as I see and interpret it.

And eventually four years ago I gathered all my courage and started writing the story of ESKANDAR, this fantastic man, who carries us through over one hundred years of the history of Iran.



5) Who is your target market for your books?



Target? Hm! I have never seen my readers as targets. But of course I know what you mean. I want everyone – really I mean everyone - to read my books. Just EVERYONE! I believe that when I learned so much by writing the story of ESKANDAR – even on personal level I learned to much from him – people who read it can learn all of that too. And for the reader it is even much easier, because they do not have to invent, do research and compress story and history. It is all there, gathered and told, ready to be consumed.


6) What is the message for your audience?

Read my books! But here is the short version: Freedom. Democracy. Love. Iran. Mountains. Beauty. Women. Men. Equal rights …


7) While talking to you, I felt that you talked about Iran in a very emotional manner. Do you feel Iranian or German?

My heart is definitely Iranian. There is no doubt about that what so ever. My mind and my intellect are influenced by the world and definitely German way of thinking. The Germans are so precise and analytic and smart and liberal – I am learning a lot from them and their culture.


8) How do you feel about the present political situation in Iran?

Freedom and justice will win. Eventually they will. But it is not easy and it is not going to be given to us as a gift. We have to fight for it and as we can see tragically we are paying for it with out blood and our lives.

The new quality of this movement is, instead of one leader everyone is leading and everyone is following the others. That is a very high quality of democracy. The movement is very people-orientated , it is very smart and creative and it is totally international and modern.


9) Can you see any parallels to the Islamic revolution from 1979?

Yes and no. The new movement is more aware, more educated. After all 30 years ago we had only 20 % of illiterate people, now we have 80%. That alone makes a great deal of a difference.

Then again, all political upraises and revolutions have similar patterns. Starting with the French revolution and ending with what we are seeing in Iran right now.

People start to fight for freedom better lives, self determination and democracy. And the establishment, the government cracks down on them, kills them, tries to control them with even harder methods and more brutality - which again leads to people to raise their voice even more, to fight back even stronger.

Because the problems today are similar to those 30 years ago, of course the slogans of the movement today are the same or very similar to the slogans of thirty years ago: Allaho Akbar – god is great! Justice, justice for who killed my sister / brother! No fear, no fear we are all together! In Farsi, the main language spoken in Iran of course the slogans sound very powerful and energetic and they have a fantastic rhythm – almost like chants or songs.

I never understand why the establishment, the governments do not react a bit smarter. If they continue doing what they do, they will not only shed a lot more blood and take so many more innocent lives. But if they would be a little smarter, they would give in and cooperate with the people – after all they need the people. They can not kill 70 million Iranians. Iran is such a rich and vast and wealthy country. There is enough of everything for everyone.

But the “hakemiyat”, the rulers, the regime is not wise enough to see that they could become even richer and more powerful and survive until justice day if only they would share and give a bit more to the people.

10) Is there anything you would like Iranians outside the country do for Iranians inside the country?

The solidarity and the sister-, and brother-hood is fantastic. And I am sure that it will even grow further.

Unlike in the past, we Iranians who do not live in Iran are not just observers anymore. We have become equal participants.

Whether we are in the country or outside, we all have something very important to lose and equally something very important to give and to gain. We need each other and depend on each other in order to create a free and democratic Iran.

Fortunately, there are not many people who are quiet and passive like in the past. That old way of thinking is dying out and this is very good – not only for us, but for the world.

“No fear no fear, we are all together.”


11) Who is the most interesting person you have worked with?

A very nice question. And I have to say that I have been very, very lucky. There must have been an early teacher or influence in my life (who unfortunately I do not know who that could have been) who has taught me that there is something to learn from each and every person, that each and every person has something interesting to offer.

Hence I am learning from the women and men in Iran, from my friends, my family, I have learnt something from the soldiers and Generals I worked with. I learnt from the Afghans I worked with in Afghanistan. I learnt from the rock-, and pop-stars I used to interview for my TV and radio-shows – I learnt important lessons from every single persons in my life. And I believe that if I keep my mind and heart open, it will continue to be like that for as long as I am around.

But to give you a name, Rahela, an afghan friend of mine, an activist for social rights is one of the most interesting and intelligent people I know. And all the main heroes of my films and books – Shirin-Gol, Smaira, Eskandar have had a tremendous influence on me.


12) Any new projects?

So many that I am having a hard time to decide which one I would like to realize next. But I guess it is finally time to make my movie, the adaptation of my second book, SAMIRA and SAMIR.