What Can Young Iranian Girls Learn from Anne Frank?
Mariam Memarsadeghi was already living in the United States when she first read Anne Frank’s diary.
“I was 10 or 12 years old and it was like I was being connected to what my family and compatriots back in Iran were going through,” she said. “It’s a story about the Holocaust but also a universal story about totalitarianism.”
Since then, Memarsadeghi earned a master’s degree in political theory, pursued a career in civic education and human rights, and in 2010 co-founded Tavaana: E-Learning Institute for Iranian Civil Society, which offers resources on democracy, women’s rights, and activism. “I felt like my conscience was awakened” by reading the diary, she said, “and that awakening stayed with me throughout my life and guided me through committing to the work that I do.”
In hopes that Anne Frank’s story continues to inspire young Iranians, The Sardari Project: Iran and the Holocaust is publishing a serialized digital version of Anne Frank: The Graphic Biography in Persian for the first time.
The translation, edited by Arash Azizi, has just been published. “It was emotional to see it in Persian and think about how The Sardari Project is coming to fruition,” said Azizi. “It is a joyful fact. I have to say I was very impressed by how the graphic novel maintained a clear commitment to history, but also captured how Anne Frank was both extraordinary and ordinary. She became one of the best-known writers of the 20th century, and she also had adolescent problems, dreams, even a love for the cinema.”
The Sardari Project, spearheaded by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and IranWire.com founder Maziar Bahari, is named for Abdol Hossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat in Nazi-occupied Paris who helped Iranian and non-Iranian Jews by issuing them passports. Many Iranians today are not aware that their country also served as a haven for between five and six thousand Jews fleeing Nazi occupation. The Sardari Project educates about that history and helps Iranians explore subjects related to the Holocaust, such as the dangers of hatred, conspiracy theories, and dehumanizing propaganda.
Iran has censored the subject of the Holocaust since Ayatollah Khomeini began an antisemitic movement and Holocaust denial campaign in the early 1960s, setting off an exodus of Iranian Jews that grew through the revolution in 1979. “Many Iranians became more curious when former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started to deny [the Holocaust] after his election in 2005,” said Bahari. “As we reported in IranWire last November, there are many antisemitic and Holocaust-denial books available in the Iranian market. But, at the same time, several good books about the Holocaust have been published in Iran, including The Diary of Anne Frank. So, many young Iranians are familiar with Anne Frank’s story, either through social media or the book itself.”
The Sardari Project will continue releasing monthly content for most of 2022, in the hopes of building and sustaining a young Iranian audience and learning more about their interests. “The feelings of young adolescent girls matter so much, and it’s really important to recognize that children have real, great, important political consciousness,” said Memarsadeghi. “It’s not about learning historical facts, but being true to one’s conscience.”
The Museum partnered with Bahari and IranWire.com in 2016 and The Sardari Project launched in 2020. “IranWire has proven to be an invaluable partner in reaching young Iranians with accurate and relevant information about the Holocaust,” said Andrea Bertrand, programming manager for international audiences in the Initiative on Holocaust Denial and Antisemitism in the Museum’s Levine Institute. “We are also grateful to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam for their permission to translate and share this publication with Persian speakers around the world.”
Learn more:
Maziar Bahari honored with Elie Wiesel Award
The Sardari Project
Anne Frank: The Graphic Biography
