From the archive: ‘Iran was our Hogwarts’: my childhood between Tehran and Essex

从档案资料:伊朗,我们的霍格沃茨:我在德黑兰与艾塞克斯之间的童年

The Audio Long Read

2026-03-11

38 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2021: Growing up in Essex, my summers in Iran felt like magical interludes from reality – but it was a spell that always had to be broken By Arianne Shahvisi. Read by Serena Manteghi. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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单集文稿 ...

  • This is The Guardian.

  • Hello, I'm Claire Longrigg, Deputy Editor of The Guardian Long Read.

  • Our spring issue of The Long Read magazine is out now.

  • We've selected some of The Guardian's finest long-form journalism with gripping,

  • immersive stories on everything from food to philosophy, childcare to crime.

  • In the magazine,

  • you'll find pieces including the aeroplane stowaway who fell to earth in suburban London,

  • how private equity is plundering the world,

  • and what it's like to discover you grew up in a family of Nazis.

  • Pick up a copy today at GuardianBookshop.com or from selected WHSmith travel stores.

  • The Guardian Archive, Longway.

  • Hi, my name's Ariane Chavesi.

  • I'm the author of Iran Was Our Hogwarts, My Childhood Between Tehran and Essex,

  • which was published as a Guardian Long Read in 2021.

  • My father's a Kurd from Iran and my mother's British and I grew up in Essex and the piece describes the long summer holidays we spent in Iran when I was a child and the double life I led between those worlds.

  • And I wrote the first draft of this essay for my sisters and parents,

  • so I hadn't really intended for it to be a public thing.

  • We hadn't been back to Iran in many years and our family there was shifting as many of those around my age left Iran in search of better employment opportunities.

  • And many of the older generation passed away and, you know,

  • families are of course dynamic things and ours was moving on and reshaping in our long absence.