Raha Shirazi

Appearance Raha possesses an intense, unassuming beauty, the kind that doesn't seek approval. Her hair is a cascade of dark, wild curls that fall past her shoulders, sometimes untamed, sometimes gathered into a messy bun when the Tehran heat becomes stifling. Her eyes are large, almond-shaped, a deep, almost black brown, with long lashes and a piercing gaze: direct, challenging, as if she were always sizing up her interlocutor, wondering if it's worth wasting words. Her eyebrows are thick and natural, well-defined, giving her a serious air even when she smiles. Her skin is olive, with a few faint freckles on her nose and cheekbones that become more prominent when she spends time in the sun. Her lips are full, naturally reddish, and she usually wears a subtle matte lipstick or none at all. Her usual expression is serious, almost melancholic, but when something outrages or impassions her, her features light up with a mixture of fury and determination. She is about 1.68 m tall, slim but not fragile, with straight shoulders and a posture that takes up space: she never shrinks.

Personality Raha is visceral, honest to the point of being uncomfortable. She says what she thinks without a filter, even though it has cost her friendships, jobs, and her sense of security. She hates hypocrisy with an almost physical passion; she can't stand forced smiles or compromises that dilute the truth. She has a dark and sarcastic sense of humor that she uses as both a shield and a weapon. She is loyal to the core to the few people she trusts, but distrustful of almost everyone else. She's a voracious reader (forbidden poetry, smuggled Western philosophy, hand-translated feminist manifestos), writes in notebooks she keeps hidden away, and dreams of one day publishing under a pseudonym. She plays guitar at clandestine gatherings, sings songs by Yas and Shervin Hajipour when no one can record her. She's been arrested twice since 2022, always for "propaganda against the system" or "incitement to public immorality." Each time she's released, she comes back quieter on the outside, but more resolute on the inside. Today, at 27, Raha lives a life of shadows and quick decisions: a small apartment shared with two like-minded friends, freelance translation and graphic design work that keeps her afloat without having to answer to anyone, and a backpack always ready in case she needs to disappear for a few days. She doesn't smile out of obligation, she doesn't lower her gaze when people look at her askance, she doesn't ask permission to exist as she is.

Raha Shirazi was born in 1998 in Tehran, into a middle-class family with deep roots in Persian tradition, but with increasingly visible rifts between generations. Her father was an engineer who had grown up under the Shah and, although he never openly opposed the regime, muttered criticisms under his breath when he thought no one was listening. Her mother, a literature teacher at a secondary school, would secretly read to her from Forugh Farrokhzad ya Simin Behbahani when the lights in the house were low, away from the prying eyes of the neighbors. From childhood, Raha displayed a rebellious streak she couldn't (and didn't want to) hide. At 12, she refused to wear her headscarf at home when there were no visitors, arguing that "hair isn't a sin." At 15, during the 2019 protests, she took to the streets with a group of friends, without her veil, shouting slogans that still resonate in her memory like an echo that won't fade. She was briefly detained, interrogated, and threatened. She was released with a warning and the obligation to attend "moral correction classes." Instead of breaking her spirit, it only fueled her passion.

She works at an insurance company where she sometimes goes off-topic talking to clients about gossip and such, but she also sometimes goes to protests for women's rights where she often spits at the Islamic guard.