E148 Yasamin Rohani

Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is my superhero. That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities, perspectives, and emotions about this world. In these difficult times in human history, we need to bring the cultures of the world together. And when we listen to real people, to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our humanity without our differences or stereotypes. And we get inspired by their stories to live a better life. That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Yasamin Rouhani. Yasamin was born in Tehran, Iran, lived in Malaysia, and now living in Lisbon, Portugal. Yasamin studies biology at the Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, but wants to change major because her dream is to become a doctor. Her favorite hobby is reading. She loves books more than anything, as well as doing sports like badminton and swimming. Yasamin, how are you today? Hi, Aziz. Thank you for inviting me to this lovely podcast. I'm great. Thank you. It has been a busy day at university because I attend biology at the University of Lisbon, but also a rainy day. I really adore rainy days, but it's been great. How are you doing today? I'm feeling positive, grateful, and very curious about you. So let's speak about the rainy days. Why do you love rainy days? Is it the atmosphere? Is it something you didn't experience much or is it the mood or you love water or what is about rainy days that gives you that good feeling? Actually, rainy days, I love cloudy weather, like when it's like cold, semi-cold, and also when it starts to rain, the splashes of water on my face. It just gives me that feeling that I'm alive and it feels very good. And also like on rainy days, it's always like you can have a copy and you can like read a good book. It gives a feeling that you like, you know, like I believe that every rainy day after it, it will be a sunny day, it will be a great day. And you know, like the sound is so suitable and so, you know, I mean, it's very meditative. Like when you listen to the sound of rain, I myself like feel much better in my day. I agree 100% and I notice it relates to your big love of reading books. So now I understand more. For me, I prefer more sunny days because a lot of people seem to get depression when the weather is gray, when it's rainy and then you're around people who are in a bad mood and then the mood is not as positive as when it's spring and they're smiling. How do you deal with that? When it's winter and rainy and people are depressed, is it enough for you to have a good coffee and feel the rain on your face and read a good book to feel good or are you an empath and you can feel all the energy of people and if they're depressed, it can affect you? Yeah. You know, actually I have this belief that if you have a good vibe, you can have a positive vibe, you can even affect your surroundings, the people around you. I mean, if you have gloomy vibes, if you have depressed vibes, you can also affect your surroundings, everything, not only people, like even objects, even, you know, everything in my opinion, everything has feelings, even like things that they don't feel like other people, I mean, other things, objects, everything. But you know, like, actually, you know, like on rainy days, it gives me that vibe that I can, I like rainy days and I can make people feel better by the love I feel over the rain if I give the impression that I'm positive, I like the rain, it's nothing scary and sun will come after it, you know? I know and it makes me feel you're a spiritual person. Do you feel, do you believe in destiny? Do you believe in manifestation? Do you believe in karma and those thoughts? What's your perspective since even rocks and things like that for you have a soul and have energy, so how do you perceive the world in a metaphysical way? Well, I haven't thought about it, but if I want to think about it, it's like, you know, I really believe in energies, the energies people give you, the energies you, you know, like when you go somewhere new, on where you go somewhere, like you haven't been there before, it's like you, you know, sometimes I myself feel like I've been there before, you know, like it gives me that vibe, that positive energy, like a homey feeling. I mean, like, you know, when you go to a place, I even sometimes I feel even the walls or even like the buildings, the surroundings, the trees, all that have life in them, and you know, it's very good that then you receive the energy from the trees, from the buildings, and I sometimes feel positive, like when I, I mean, then I'm low in the energy, I feel very good after like, I go to places like this. And also, actually, I really believe in karma, I mean, karma is a thing that, in my opinion, it usually happens because, you know, the energies, because the energy you give to people, the energy is surrounding them. Thank you. And it seems to me that maybe the environment itself, you feel it even more than the people that it affects you at a deeper level than people. Is this correct? Or have you add to the experience where you meet someone new? You feel that instant chemistry, like your soulmates, you know them all your life for like for a thousand years or in a previous reincarnation or something. Is that for you true? Do you love like meeting a lot of people or are you more introverted? And you're about spaces, locations, nature, and places where you feel like you have been there before? Actually, I have somehow two personalities. I mean, I'm introverted, and I was also extroverted at the same time. I mean, I like my friends, I like to surround myself with positive people with different kind of people, not only positive. I mean, if they're negative people, I usually dissent myself, but like, if they're really important to me, I rather to affect them with my energy, like if I have a good energy, I could even like give them that energy, like, you know, affect on them, you know, I believe like somehow I, I try to give the energy to other people, but usually when I see people that have the same vibes, the same energy as me, I usually get like attracted to them, like my friends, you know, the same, the vibes that I totally believe that the vibes has to match, it's very important, but you know, even sometimes that the vibes don't match, you can like give it time, see what will happen after, like maybe after a few, I don't know, months, few years. I mean, I usually, if I don't cling to someone at the first sight, I usually give it time, but like after that, I convince myself that our energies don't match, I have this belief, and also, you know, I was talking about being extroverted and introverted at the same time. Sometimes I like to read, especially when I'm reading at my home, like without any noises, like just being like alone and like relaxing with my books, with my thoughts, but on the other side, I like being surrounded by people, by my loved ones or going to like places that aren't like, are crowded, there are like people, usually, you know, that's why I have luck, I think I have two personalities in this house. That's so interesting, and also it's interesting that you lived in Iran, in Malaysia, now in Portugal. How are you culturally? Are you like a mix of these three countries or even beyond that? Did all the books you have read create your culture and personality, and therefore, you're cosmopolitan, you're from every place that you read about in the books, every culture that was mentioned, even maybe science fiction and things that don't exist, and therefore, you are the product of all the books you have read and consumed? Or are you more like traditional Iranian or are you international? How would you describe your personality and the way you view the world through your own unique culture? Sure. Actually, I was born in Tehran, Tehran, and I was there since until I was five. I lived with both my parents, but when I came to at the age of five, my dad decided it would be better if we relocated to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. We went there and my mom and dad got divorced there. And so after that, I used to live with my father for eight years. You know, as an Iranian girl, it was a good place for me there. Like in Malaysia, I had a lot of friends. I used to attend an Iranian school there. So my culture was still Iranian, even though I was in Malaysia. I mean, not like traditional. I mean, it's how like because, you know, I think it depends on my family because my family were like old school Iranian, my family were modern and like they were usually and trendy. I'm sorry. I mean, like they were modern parents. They had new mindsets, like, you know, not new mindsets on the positive way. I mean, on the positive, not a negative way. And after that, after eight years, I decided to live with my mother. My mother lived in Tehran, Iran at the same time. So I went to Iran when I was, I think, 12, 13. So I used to live there again for four or five years. And then I came to Lisbon, Portugal to live with my father because my father relocated to Lisbon. So I usually traveled a lot. So since I was five, I relocated a lot. I think between these three countries, I stayed in Iran yet. I mean, my mindset didn't change because, you know, Iranian women, especially in this time, are really brave, in my opinion, because, you know, the situation in Iran isn't that good. And like Iranian women are living in revolution. So usually I'm really proud of that fact that I stayed with my Iranian mindset, my Iranian culture. But like, you know, in these three years, even the books I read, like, I try to, I mean, I try to absorb the good and the positive things that I read in books or like if I had a favorite character in the books, I wanted to learn from the things they did, like the positive things they did, the things that I wanted to do like to me, I don't know, like to have good other things to learn because, you know, we always have to learn new things because we are never like, we can't say that I learned enough. You should always have things to learn more. So when I read books, it's like I'm learning something new in each book, like, you know, I have different favorite books, I mean, in every genre, drama, romance, even horror, every kind of book. And from each one of them, I try to learn the positive things, the positive things from the characters or even the negative things, like from the, you know, like I learned from the negative things from the like bad characters in the books or like the villains in the books. Like I usually try to think about them psychologically, like what goes on in their brain happened in their previous lives, the trauma that affected them to do these things. You know, I even learned from them too, because, you know, every person, I believe that every person that comes into my life, it has to be a reason behind it. And also I can learn from them the negative, the positive, each one of those insights about them. It like, it's negative, I can learn to like, if I have that personality inside me, or if I don't have it, I can prevent myself or I can work on myself on that negative side. Or is it, or if it's positive, I know like, I can improve it or like it's a good thing. You know what I mean? I know 100% and that's so wise and interesting. You mentioned, you speaking about your Iranian culture. Imagine someone is listening, they don't have Iranian friends, they never visited Tehran. How would you describe it? You have lived in Malaysia, you know, maybe notice the difference between Tehran and Malaysia. Now in Portugal, imagine someone doesn't know. How would you say, an Iranian girl, you in your age, what characteristics do you have? What attitudes? What makes you unique? What makes you Iranian? So that someone can imagine if they had you as a friend. Sure, I love to talk about it. You know, like, whichever of my friends are international, when I talk about them, when they ask me like where I'm from, I usually, when I say I'm from Iran, like, they're very confused. Like, at first, they don't know, like, before, before this whole revolution problems, the whole thing, they didn't, mostly people, they didn't know even where Iran is. And usually, like, they confused it with Iraq. So I usually told them, no, Iran and Iraq is different. But you know, nowadays, like, I try to tell them more about Iran, like how it is, how is the weather, how are the people. But if I want to talk about it, it's like, I've been born there at 8th of January in the winter. So, you know, it was in Iran, we have four seasons, being summer, spring, fall and winter. So many people don't know that actually, they usually think that, like, Iran is like a desert somehow, like somewhere, a very warm place, like, somehow, somewhere like Dubai, something like that. But you know, like, in Iran, like, there are like four seasons, there are also like, the people, if I want to talk about the people, the people are very friendly, most of them. They're very friendly, you know, Iranian people really believe in having guests, having parties, with like parties with relations, right, like, with your close relations, like cousins, like, even like, how can I say this, like, relatives that are wave art, like, your parents' cousins or your grandparents' cousins, they usually believe in that a lot, like having guests, having events with them. And usually, like, when they're, like, think about it, like, if a tourist goes to Iran, it's like, usually Iranian people all know English. So there is a good fact that a tourist that doesn't know anything about Persian and Farsi, the native language of Iran, they usually speak English. And when, like, Iranian people learn English, most of them learn English since, like, at the first grade, they start learning English until maybe even universal. So mostly people know English. That's a good thing. And usually people, people, I want to say that, sorry, people, like, with a tourist have a very friendly behavior, like, they get, like, if the tourist is lost, they get, like, they stay there and they tell the tourist every map, like, they should turn right, they should turn left, they should go straight, you know, the direction, like, where they should go with which metro, with which train, like, they are very, like, they feel responsible if, like, the tourist is lost or, you know, like, they're very friendly and, like, housewarming. And also, like, you know, in Iran, people, like, they usually think that the government and the people are the same, but, you know, it's very different because the government is, like, in the political way, it's different and the people are different. They have different perspectives, different ways of seeing things. And also, like, you know, the people are, like, somehow, like, they're obligated and they're, like, forced to act, like, you know, like, the obligatory hijab, like, they're, this is, like, somehow forced, so people don't have any matter of thing that they could, like, resist to it. So that's the whole reason of the revolution. And because of the obligatory hijab, and not only the hijab, a lot of other things, except that, like, the freedom, because people, the main thing that they're saying that is there, they want their freedom. So it's mostly because of the right of freedom for females, for males, I mean, for everyone, not only for women, but, like, you know, the people, in my opinion, are very warm and helpful. If I want to describe them in three words, it will be, like, friendly, helpful, and housewarming. But, you know, like, every time I visit Iran, like, for holidays, I mean, I never, I'm not like that, like, if I'm in Malaysia, if I'm in Lisbon, if I'm in Portugal, like, I won't ever go there. I'm not like this, like, I love Iran, it's like, you know, my birth country, and it's the place that my grandparents were there, my great-grandparents were there, you know, there's much history, a lot of history, a lot of great history, a lot of old and touristic places that, like, you know, they don't pay attention to it, like, you know, the people should, I mean, you know, like, the first destination for people is, like, they want to go to, like, even myself, teenagers, we want to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, we want to go to, I don't know, we want to go to New York for the winter, but, you know, like, I think, especially for Iranian girls and Iranian people, we should, like, see the places, the touristic places in our own country first, and then go to the other places that we intend to go. I mean, because we have a lot of beautiful historic places there that we, me, and I'm really ashamed to say that I didn't even know, and I was just learning it from my parents, and learning it from the internet even, so I felt ashamed that, like, I didn't get to see those places, those other cities, beautiful cities in Iran, and I was dreaming of going to other countries to just see them, so I believe, you know, there's many beautiful things there, and I really, each person that I met, they said, like, they painted Iran there, like, it was a beautiful place, the people were very cultured, you know, and I'm very proud to be an Iranian woman, especially now, because of the whole Iranian women that are dead, they're leading revolution, and, you know, it's the first revolution that is led by women, and also there have been many people that died, because, and they weren't even guilty, they didn't, because they wanted their freedom, and they killed them because of their freedom, and, you know, I'm very proud to be an Iranian woman. I've always been, but I'm more than just now, because of the things that are happening, and I also, like, feel, I mean, I'm far from them, and I'm living in another country, but still, you know, it's like, I can feel each emotion, I feel, and nowadays, I'm just surfing the internet, just looking for any news I can find from my family, from the internet, they have the situation there, and I'm really worried, it's just, you know, the situation isn't that good. So, but I'm very proud of the women, the men, they're just fighting for their rights. It's just, I feel like they should, other countries should be more, I mean, more involved in the fact that the things that are happening in Iran, because, like, the people don't have a good internet there, the internet is very slow, and they're, like, they disconnect very fast. I haven't talked with my mother for about, I mean, I talked with her, but, you know, the internet is very awful there, so I can't get good connection with her, but, you know, I feel that people, other countries should be more involved, okay, the Iranian people have a voice, I mean, to talk more about them, to talk about the situation there, but, and if I want to go to a conclusion, I'm really proud of being a woman. Thank you so much, Yasamin. I wish for every Iranian peace and freedom. I wish for you success. I'm privileged and honored to discover more about you, about your culture, about your people, about your life. This was very insightful, and I wish you success. Thank you again for participating in this project. Sure. Sure. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me for this project, it was a great opportunity and I enjoyed every second of it. And thank you for sharing.