Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card

Sara Saedi was born in Tehran, Iran smack-dab in the middle of a war and an Islamic Revolution. She received a B.A. in Film and Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley and began her career as a creative executive for ABC Daytime. Since then she's penned three TV movies for ABC Family and a pilot for the Disney Channel, won a Daytime Emmy for What If..., a web series she wrote for ABC, and worked as a staff writer on the FOX sitcom The Goodwin Games. Her first novel for young adults, Never Ever , was published by Viking in June. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and pug, where she writes for the hit CW show iZombie. Learn more on Twitter at @saaaranotsarah or at SaraSaediWriter.com.

Chapter One

A Brief (but Juicy) History of My Birthplace (and My Birth)

I swear on my autographed copy of Ethan Hawke s debut novel that this chapter will not be dull, so please don t skim or skip over it. If you won t take my word for it and have no vested interest in broadening your worldview, here s the most important takeaway: Iran is not pronounced I-ran; it s pronounced e-ron. Spread the word. Tell all your friends. Tweet it. Shout it from the rooftops. Correct people. It ll make you sound smart and cultured. On behalf of my fellow Iranians (e-ron-ians), we thank you.

Now, for those juicy historical details you were promised! Real talk: Iran has dealt with its fair share of strife and political unrest. And while I m not one to point fingers or lay blame . . . the United States and Britain were totally at fault. Okay, that s not entirely accurate. The West might not be directly accountable for all of Iran s drama, but they definitely stirred the pot, back in the early 1950s. During that time, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh ruled Iran. Personally, I consider the man a hero. He was a democratically elected leader, and a progressive. But his main claim to fame was that he nationalized Iran s oil industry. Prior to Mossadegh, the country s most valuable resource was under British control. But why let the Brits instead of Iranians profit off of Iran s most lucrative industry? That s the equivalent of Kanye West pocketing all the profits from 1989 (the Taylor Swift album, not the year in history). Thus, Iran told the British oil companies to hit the road, and the Brits were predictably pissed. Mossadegh to Britain: Bye, Felicia.

So Britain decided to call in a favor to their bestie: the United States. If texting had existed at that time, then Winston Churchill would have sent President Eisenhower a bunch of crying-faced emojis. According to Churchill, they needed to get rid of Mossadegh. The United States was initially reluctant to get involved, but Britain pointed out that Iran s beloved prime minister had newly gained the support of the Tudeh Party (an Iranian communist party) and the country would eventually go red. (Oh, hell no it wouldn t. Our man Mossadegh wasn t even a fan of socialism. Not to mention, the Tudeh Party frequently turned against him.) So Eisenhower said, We re in! And that s when the CIA and Britain s Secret Intelligence Service decided to buddy up and formulate a secret coup to overthrow Mossadegh. They called it: Operation Ajax. Possibly named for the mythological Greek hero or the cleaning product. Your guess is as good as mine. It was decided that Iran s ruling monarch at the time, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (yes, Mohammad is like the Mike of Iran), would take over for Mossadegh. Initially, the shah said, You people are nuts! Everyone loves Mossadegh. You re asking me to commit political suicide. But then the United States threatened to dismiss the shah as well, and he was like: How soon do we get this overthrow party started?

Long story short, the coup was a success. Mossadegh was jailed for three years and then placed under house arrest, till his death in 1967. Kind of ironic that today the United States would really love more democratic countries in the Middle East, and Iran was one, until the CIA got involved. J accuse! The short-term wins for the United States and United Kingdom included regaining limited access to Iran s oil by having a stake in a holding company called Iranian Oil Participants, or IOP. After the overthrow of Mossadegh, public opinion in Iran was so against the Brits taking total control of the country s oil supply again that IOP was the United