The Perils of Nostalgia and Return: Diasporic Journalists in Iran

In a country where journalists are routinely imprisoned for covering national or international news, a notable number of diasporic Iranian journalists have relocated to Iran, working as foreign correspondents. Following the siren song of the promise of home and belonging, diasporic journalists “return” to their country of origin, but then end up having to flee in the face of threats to their personal safety as in the case of Azadeh Moaveni or Hooman Majd. Or, in more dire cases, such as in the experiences of Roxana Saberi, Maziar Bahari and Jason Rezaian, they have been imprisoned for their writings. There are a range of motivations for the return: Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was more clearly motivated by immediate concerns for social justice as her camera captured images of mourning families outside of Evin prison. But journalists such as Moaveni, Majd, Saberi and Rezaian were drawn to Iran motivated by a desire to rediscover their childhood memories, or the mediated memories of their parents’ Iran. This desire to discover a personal history and forge connections with a lost homeland dovetail with a compulsion to bear witness. This paper explores the tension between the diasporic longing for home and return, and the diasporic journalist’s engagement with a discourse of human rights and free expression.