Googoosh greets me at the door with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
She is soft-spoken and naturally warm.
When you step inside, it’s easy to forget you’re in the home of an international superstar.
The place has a lived-in comfort that makes you feel at ease.
Colorful Persian rugs cover her living room and dining room floors.
Small minakari trinkets and family photos are spread across several accent tables.
Gucci coat. Phillip Lim top. Missoma earrings. Prounis ring. Pomellato ring.
And oil paintings depicting traditionally dressed Persian women and horses adorn the walls.
Googoosh: Philip Lim jacket, Googoosh’s own ring.
Mya: Wales Bonner top, Versace pants.
I follow Googoosh, 72, to her kitchen so she can finish making coffee for her granddaughter.
The 5-foot-10-inch-tall model towers over Googoosh.
The pair sit next to each other on a beige-colored sofa.
Googoosh: Philip Lim jacket, Googoosh’s own ring. Mya: Wales Bonner top, Versace pants.
Googoosh asks Mya if she wants one.
Googoosh pretends not to hear and insists Mya eat something.
“She knows how I hate trying new food and it makes her go crazy!
Kwaidan Editions top and pants.
She tries forcing it in my mouth,” Mya says, laughing.
(When it comes totaarofing,I know how she feels.
Kwaidan Editions top and pants.
Googoosh: Phillip Lim jacket. Gucci glasses. Elizabeth Hooper Studios earrings. Tiffany & co. necklaces. Googoosh’s own ring. Not visible: Sheertex tights, Larroude shoes. Mya: Wales Bonner top. Versace pants. Bulgari necklace.
Some estimates at the time of this writing suggest 516 people have died, including 70 children.
Over 19,000 have been arrested.
“My whole life, my career it was for the Iranian people.
Throughout her early career, Googoosh often changed her hair. When she cut it into a short pixie, the style became so popular that people started calling it the “Googooshy."
I was singing forthem.
Now, I can’t sing.
I dont want to sing,” Googoosh says, her voice breaking as she fights back tears.
Googoosh’s style in the 1960s and ’70s was celebrated from Tehran to Paris to New York.
Iranian women are not a monolithic group.
Many across Iran have been proudly wearing headscarves as part of their culture and faith for centuries.
It’s a situation Googoosh understands well.
Mya: Kwaidan Editions top and pants. Googoosh: Jonathan Simkhai coat. Phillip Lim top. Missoma earrings.
Her upbringing reflects Iran’s diverse and pluralistic communities.
Press play to hear the author, Melissa Etehad, read this story in Farsi.
Born as Faegheh Atashin in 1950, Googoosh comes from a traditional conservative family in Tehran.
Versace top and cardigan. Darius rings.
Some of the women on her dad’s side wore the headscarf.
“My grandmother on my dad’s side was religious and they taught me.
I was religious for a bit and I understood why they wore it.
I’ve seen it from both perspectives,” Googoosh says.
Googoosh: Phillip Lim jacket.
Elizabeth Hooper Studios earrings.
Tiffany & co. necklaces.
Not visible: Sheertex tights, Larroude shoes.
Mya: Wales Bonner top.
The current protests in Iranare helping to disrupt the government’s repressive narrative.
Schoolgirls are removing their head coverings in the classroom and writing lyrics to resistance songs on walls.
The struggle is no longer just about women’s rights to bodily autonomy.
Googoosh and Mya have been keeping close tabs on the protests.
Like many Persians in the diaspora, they still have family in Iran and worry for their well-being.
“My time is over,” Googoosh says.
I ask her what the young women leading the protests in Iran have taught her.
She answers with two words: bravery, strength.
She’s proud the baton has been handed to them.
Googoosh was on tour in Berlin when the protests started in September.
By mid-November, she had stopped performing.
Googoosh and Mya have been working to help uplift the voices of protesters.
Googoosh has spoken at rallies in the past, but this was the first time Mya had joined her.
“You are not alone.
The crowd roared and applauded.
“By the hands of our children, Iran, our country, will be free.”
Throughout her early career, Googoosh often changed her hair.
It isn’t the people you should be worried about.
It’s the government.
“This generation is strong because they are fearless.
These girls are risking their lives for everyone else’s freedom,” Mya says.
Googoosh represents the voice of the global Persian diaspora.
Her music mixes Persian pop lyrics withMiddle Eastern-stylemelodies, disco sounds and guitar tunes that mirror Western rock.
She also performs regional folk songs and can sing in Italian, French, and Spanish.
Young girls blasted her music at home, dancing and singing in front of the mirror.
“I don’t think I ever asked her.
I would just watch a lot of stuff,” she says.
“I don’t think I really understood how much of an icon she was.”
In recent years their relationship has blossomed.
It started about two years ago when Mya began taking more interest in exploring her Persian roots.
“I adore her and admire her a lot.
Especially with everything she’s gone through.”
Googoosh’s style in the 1960s and 70s was celebrated from Tehran to Paris to New York.
Googoosh has been teaching Mya what it means to be an Iranian living outside the motherland.
I listen to Persian music all the time now.
“My dad [Googoosh’s son] is Americanized and my mom is very Americanized.
They speak to me in Farsi a little, but not too much.”
Mya: Kwaidan Editions top and pants.
Googoosh: Jonathan Simkhai coat.
Nose jobs to fix perceived imperfections are very common among young women in Iran.
Her hair is dark, thick, and naturally curly.
Mya gets up from the couch to show me a picture from when she was around five.
I have these huge ears.
“I didn’t like to put my hair behind my ears.
It can be hard on your mental health and how you view yourself and your confidence.”
Mya turns her head and smiles at Googoosh.
Versace top and cardigan.
Googoosh emerged as a leading beauty icon in Iran around the 1960s.
She accentuated her large, round eyes with winged eyeliner and bold eye shadow colors.
It became so popular that people started calling it the “Googooshy.”
You have my nose!
Your nose is fine.'”
Everything Googoosh knew came crashing down after the Iranian revolution in 1979.
She embodied all that the new Islamic Republic wanted to do away with.
But Iran was home and she longed to be with her people.
She was released nearly one month later, but Googoosh continued to live in fear.
We couldn’t carry instruments.
“Even men couldn’t wear jeans and were arrested for wearing short sleeves.”
But her path was in no way smooth.
Googoosh was separated from a country she would always love but where she could no longer live.
Home seemed neither here nor there.
“My entire life I spent in Iran.
My heart is still there.
My language is Persian.
My entire culture is Persian.”
“Everybody needs to unite,” she says.
Bravery and strength can do a great deal.
Archival pictures courtesy of Googoosh (3) and Alamy (long-hair image)
