Hoora and Sara. Teheran, Iran

“Around three years ago when me and my sister, Hoora, decided to stay in Tehran and began living together independently, none of us knew how helpful it would been now, in such hard days. For more than 50 days we have been on quarantine together with our cat, Gerdu, and we’re fine. I’m an editor and Hoora is a digital artist and both of us have the chance to work at home. The pandemic still hasn’t affected our income, but at least as a book production team member I can say there are no friendly gatherings with our audience anymore, and the book market shows a big decrease in sales, because many people can’t provide even for their basic needs. But it isn’t just the consequence of lockdown. The country’s economy has been collapsing since November 2018, when severe economic penalties were imposed against Iran by the United States. Actually there are even more experiences of the “Coronavirus time” that I’ve been through already; like to have an online relationship with my Italian boyfriend as the embassy is refusing to release a VISA to me, an Iranian ordinary girl, or to witness a lot of people die for nothing and that happened several times just last Autumn and Winter. During the years, trying to be happy despite all restrictions somehow became our way of fighting. Coronavirus may limit our happiness but can’t stop it. Our parents and beloved family live in Rasht, far from Tehran. This year was the first year we weren’t with them in Nowruz (the Iranian ancient celebration for new year). Now it isn’t forbidden to go to a trip as it was before, but the whole country is still fighting against Covid-19; so we prefer not to visit them to protect them. And we’re missing them so much, but as we grew up in an always-in-crisis country, we learned how to go on living our individual lives and remain hopeful”.