Juliette

She works as a book translator, a musician.

We are childless by choice.

And she lives with her husband in a well-off neighborhood in Tehran, in a home they didn't expect to leave.

On the morning of February 28th, F was getting ready to go to a yoga class when she looked out her window.

She gathered empty vodka bottles left over from parties she'd hosted to fill with water.

She read as much news as she could.

and prepared to hunker down.

But the sounds of the explosions became too much for F. She told me it felt as if a trauma in her body had been awakened.

And later, when she was out of her car and getting ready to go to sleep, she told me about where those feelings came from.

When F was a child, her parents were both teachers, living on a modest income.

They were supporters of the revolution that created the Islamic Republic in 1979.

And a year later, when Iraq invaded Iran, they did what they could to back the regime and its war effort.

After F and her sister were born, her dad took a teaching job near the front lines, and the whole family moved.

She said her dad even joined the fight for eight months.

It was intense for a child.

But beyond a few flashbacks, F says she remembers very little about the war.

And when it ended, she said she had a simple childhood.

Her household and school were modeled around the regime and religion.

F often went to Friday prayers and revolution anniversaries.

And she always wore a hijab, like the girls in her class.