Ahmad Norouzi

Ahmad Norouzi was born on April 4, 1939 in a small village in Iran where he lived for 20 years and worked as a farmer with his father. He later moved to the capital of Iran, Tehran, and joined the army for two years until he worked as a bartender for 18 years. He lost his job as a bartender and became a taxi driver until he moved out of Iran.

Norouzi chose to move out of Iran because since his religion is Bahá'í and not Muslim, the Iranian government would not allow his son to attend college. In 2001, Norouzi and his family fled Iran to move to Turkey as refugees in order for his son to go to college and then moved to the United States in March 2003 because there weren’t many job prospects there. “My life now in the United States is very good, there is nothing that I do not like about it,” said Norouzi, “I have the freedom to be who I want to be and do what I want. My wife can wear what she wants here and not have anyone say anything about it like the people in Iran would.” Norouzi believes that if he had stayed in Iran, he would have continued to be a taxi driver.

Since he left Iran in 2001, the political climate has changed so much that he could not go back today. “Moving to the United States was the best decision for me. It saved my life.”