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  • Returning to Iran: Mixed Identity, Belonging, and Diaspora Experience with artist Roxanne Cassehgari
    2026/04/27
    In this episode, I sit down with Roxanne Cassehgari, a writer, photographer, and artist documenting the Iranian diaspora.We talk about growing up Iranian outside of Iran, navigating mixed identity, and the complicated relationship to a homeland you may not fully know but deeply long for. Roxanne shares about returning to Iran and how it reshaped her understanding of belonging, language, and self.We explore language loss, cultural disconnection, and the feeling of not being “enough,” alongside her work documenting diaspora stories through interviews and photography. From everyday objects to food and ritual, we reflect on how Iran continues to live within people across distance and generations.We also touch on the tensions between diaspora and homeland perspectives, and how migration, assimilation, and politics shape these experiences.This is a conversation about exile, memory, and the many ways people try to return.About RoxanneRoxane Cassehgari is an artist and photographer born in France to an Iranian father and Colombian mother. Alongside her artistic practice, she is a human rights lawyer and researcher. While law and research allow her to articulate questions about our world, photography is a space of freedom, a more intuitive terrain where she can explore what words cannot capture. Her work explores diasporic memory, emotions linked to exile, and the transmission—or loss—of culture. Through a sensitive and personal approach, she also seeks to reflect on our relationship with the land: as our origin, our heritage, but also as a place where we root ourselves within the living world.In this episode, we explore...Growing up Iranian in the diasporaReturning to Iran after living abroadMixed identity and cultural belongingLanguage loss and reclaiming FarsiThe emotional impact of exile and disconnectionIranian diaspora identity across different countriesThe tension between diaspora and homeland perspectivesHow art and storytelling preserve cultural memoryEveryday ways people stay connected to Iran (food, objects, ritual)Mentioned in this episode:📕 Roxanne's project Le Retour (The Return)🏝️ Roxanne's project Exile is an Island🎧 Halva for the Heart episode with Afghan author and activist Mina Sharif📚 Your War Our Lives by Mina Sharif📚 The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan KamaliConnect with Roxanne📸 Follow Roxanne on Instagram📥 Submit your story to Roxanne’s project Exile is an IslandIf you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...Leave me a 90 second voice noteMessage me on InstagramSend me an emailLearn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.comSubscribe to my weekly newsletter🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    1 時間 20 分
  • Farvardingan: The Iranian Holiday of Honoring the Dead and Connecting with Ancestors
    2026/04/07
    In this episode of Halva for the Heart, I explore Farvardingan, the ancient Iranian holiday when the fravashis (spirits of the departed) return to visit the living. This year, Farvardingan takes on profound significance as we grapple with unprecedented levels of loss: from war on Iran and regime violence to the ongoing genocide in Palestine and personal grief. I discuss how Farvardingan becomes an act of resistance in a world that gives us almost no space to grieve, and expand our understanding of ancestry beyond blood to include the many lineages that shape and sustain us.

    In this episode, I reflect on:
    - Memory as active care, not something to "move on" from
    - Continuity between the living and the dead
    - Farvardingan as a support for us during this time of war
    - Ways to stay connected ancestors
    - Different types of ancestry beyond blood lineage (as taught to me by my teacher Holly Truhlar)

    Resources Mentioned
    🔗 Holly Truhlar's Idea of Soul Lineage - Explore ancestral connections and soul lineage work
    🎵 Dard-e Del Playlist - Curated music for grief and ancestral connection
    📖 Farvardingan Guidebook - Deep dive into practices, rituals, and reflections for honoring the dead


    If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...
    • Leave me a 90 second voice note
    • Message me on Instagram
    • Send me an email
    Learn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.com
    Subscribe to my weekly newsletter

    🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    33 分
  • A Meditation for Nowruz in Times of War: For Iranians in Diaspora Whose Hearts Ache for Iran
    2026/03/16
    In this special episode of Halva for the Heart, I share a recorded Nowruz meditation for those of us in the Iranian diaspora who are holding the question so many of us are sitting with this year as we watch our homeland be harmed by bombs: Do we celebrate Nowruz?

    This meditation doesn't offer an easy answer. Instead, it invites us into the deeper purpose of our ancestral rituals, not as performances of joy, but as living technologies of transformation, continuity, and survival.

    This meditation moves through two ancient practices: Chaharshanbe Soori, the pre-New Year fire ritual, where we offer our exhaustion (zardi) to the flame and receive its red aliveness (sorkhi) in return, not just for ourselves, but on behalf of all those inside Iran carrying fear and uncertainty.

    And the haftseen sofreh, reimagined as a place to both ask for what we need, and a place to send love, strength, protection, and hope toward Iran.

    This meditation was created for Iranians in diaspora who are grieving, exhausted, and unsure how to mark a new year that arrives whether we are ready or not. If you are not Iranian, you are welcome to sit with us in solidarity.

    There is no single right way to do Nowruz this year. Maybe this meditation is all that you do to honor the holiday. And that's okay. That is enough.


    *This meditation was first offered during a live Dard-e Del session. If you're a fellow Iranian in diaspora and are looking for community spaces to hold your grief with others like you, please join us in Dard-e Del. We meet on zoom 3 times a month to support one another.

    If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...
    • Leave me a 90 second voice note
    • Message me on Instagram
    • Send me an email
    Learn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.com
    Subscribe to my weekly newsletter

    🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    34 分
  • Traditional Persian Medicine as Grief Care with Sahar Kaur
    2026/02/17
    In this episode, I sit down with Sahar Kaur, a decolonial womb educator whose work lives at the intersection of menstrual health, ancestral memory, and identity.We talk about how her path into womb education grew from a desire to return to grounded, lived wisdom, not spiritual trends or aesthetics, but knowledge rooted in lineage, culture, and survival. Sahar shares how Traditional Persian Medicine informs her work, and what it actually means to decolonize menstrual care: making it accessible, culturally relevant, and responsive to real lived conditions.We explore herbal support for menstrual cycles and grief, including gol-e gāv-zabān (borage), traditionally used to calm the nervous system and tend heartbreak. Sahar reflects on her work with displaced and refugee women, and how womb education shifts when survival, migration, and instability are part of someone’s reality.We close with a powerful conversation about the Kurdish serpent goddess Shahmaran (the protector, healer, and symbol of feminine wisdom) and how her mythology connects to womb space, surrender, and ancestral remembering.About SaharSahar is a decolonized womb health educator working at the intersection of cyclicity, identity, and ancestral memory. A daughter of ancient Elam and Bactria (early cradle civilizations of what is now Iran and Afghanistan) her work honors the womb as a site where memory, lineage, and truth are held.Through independent research in traditional Persian medicine, she is reviving ancestral menstrual wisdom and womb rituals erased by colonial history. Her work invites women — especially those from the SWANA region — to reconnect with womb health as cultural inheritance rather than aesthetic spirituality.In this episode, we explore...Decolonizing menstrual educationWomb memory and ancestral identityHerbal support for grief and menstrual cyclesCultural reclamation in healing spacesWorking with displaced and refugee womenKurdish Shahmaran mythology and serpent wisdomFeminine surrender and embodied knowledgeMentioned in this episode:🎧 Episode: Celebrating Yalda with Shahmaran🎧 Episode: Knitting as Ancestral Memory📖 Shahmaran: A Wintering Spent with the Queen of Serpents (zine)📺 Shahmaran teleision series🤝 Nisaba: the refugee women’s organization Sahar mentions📚 There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif ShafakA note on language & inclusivityIn this episode, we sometimes use the word “women” when talking about womb health and menstrual cycles. However, the wisdom we discuss is expansive: it applies to anyone who identifies as a womxn or femme, as well as anyone who has or has had a menstrual cycle.Even if that’s not your experience, traditional Persian teachings about cycles, rest, and grief offer healing insights that can support anyone. This conversation is meant to be inclusive, honoring the many ways people relate to their bodies and to this knowledge.Connect with SaharYou can find Sahar on Instagram and join her Diasp'AURA Telegram communityHoliday Guidebooks & Community AccessI create seasonal Iranian holiday guidebooks that explore ritual, remembrance, and ancestral practice. The Esfandegan guidebook focuses on devotion to the earth and to womxn & femmes, and honoring the Mother Earth goddess Spenta Armaiti through Iranian tradition.If you are a member of Dard-e Del, an online Iranian grief circle and community space I facilitate 3x a month, you receive access to all of these guidebooks free as part of your membership. The intention is to make cultural and ritual knowledge communal, as something we return to together, not practice alone.If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...Leave me a 90 second voice noteMessage me on InstagramSend me an emailLearn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.comSubscribe to my weekly newsletter🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    1 時間 14 分
  • Sadeh Meditation for the Martyrs: Holding Grief for Iran in the Darkest Days of Winter
    2026/01/28
    In this special episode of Halva for the Heart, I share a recorded grief ritual meditation offered during our recent Dard-e Del gathering for the Iranian diaspora.

    This meditation is rooted in Sadeh, the ancient midwinter fire festival that takes place on January 30, at the end of the darkest stretch of winter known as Chelleh-ye Bozorg. Traditionally, Sadeh is a night when our ancestors gathered around a great bonfire for warmth, protection, and hope during the coldest, hardest days of the year.

    This year, that darkness has felt especially heavy.

    During this meditation, we will gently and somatically honor the thousands of martyrs recently killed in Iran. We will work with flame as ancestor, witness, and companion, offering our grief to the fire and receiving strength, resilience, and warmth in return.

    This practice is created specifically for Iranians living in diaspora, who are carrying not only grief for lives lost, but also the pain of distance, disconnection, and witnessing from afar. If you are not Iranian, you are still welcome to sit with us in solidarity and remembrance.

    Please find a quiet place to rest. If you can, bring a candle. This meditation is meant to be experienced with flame 🔥


    Links:
    📘 Download the Sadeh Guidebook (sliding scale $3-33)
    ❤️‍🩹 Join us in Dard-e Del, our Iranian diaspora grief space

    If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...
    • Leave me a 90 second voice note
    • Message me on Instagram
    • Send me an email
    Learn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.com
    Subscribe to my weekly newsletter

    🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    26 分
  • Carrying Iranian Grief with Pauline Yeghnazar: Ancestral Sorrow, Diaspora Grief, and Intergenerational Healing
    2026/01/17
    In this intimate conversation, I sit down with Iranian-Armenian psychologist and therapist Pauline Yeghnazar, whose work centers the emotional lives of daughters and children of immigrants. Together, we explore what happens when grief has no homeland to land in. When sorrow is inherited, rituals feel fractured, and loss lives in the body across generations.Pauline brings both clinical depth and lived experience to a dialogue about diaspora grief that stretches beyond individual death into land, exile, identity, culture, and the losses our parents never had the privilege to mourn.In this episode, we explore:Watching Iran from afar and how grief lives somatically in the bodyThe terror of disconnection during the current internet shutdown in IranAncestral longing for a homeland never fully knownHow immigrant elders often didn’t have space or permission to grieveWestern grief timelines and the pathologizing of sorrowHow cooking and cultural practices metabolize grief through the bodyInviting ancestors into everyday acts of remembranceGrief as something that includes laughter, presence, and connectionPrevious Halva for the Heart episodes mentioned:Episode 19: Knitting as Ancestral MemoryEpisode 3: Healing with My SisterPauline shares powerful frameworks for daughters of immigrants navigating identity, guilt, family obligation, and inherited emotional survival patterns.Pauline’s offerings and resources:Free Translation Guide for Communicating with Your Immigrant ParentsFree Book Club for the Children of ImmigrantsRoots & Fruits: A Group Program for Daughters of ImmigrantsNoor Therapy & Wellness (for folks in California and New York)Email Pauline for 1-hour long $99 coaching calls if you're outside of CA or NYAll these offerings and more can be found on Pauline's websiteAnd follow Pauline on InstagramIf you're Iranian and looking for a culturally specific community space (since Pauline’s offerings serve all diasporas), you’re warmly invited to join us in Dard-e Del, our Iranian grief gathering that meets three times a month on Zoom, to be in community, witness each other, and hold what can’t be held alone.If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...Leave me a 90 second voice noteMessage me on InstagramSend me an emailLearn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.comSubscribe to my weekly newsletter🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    1 時間 10 分
  • Knitting as Ancestral Memory: Grief, Yarn, and Hands That Remember
    2026/01/02
    In this intimate episode of Halva for the Heart, I share a raw voice memo I recorded two years ago, just moments after I had the experience of my hands had been taken over by my ancestors ✨

    It happened when I had sat down to start a knitting project, but I couldn't remember how to cast on. After struggling for awhile and almost getting frustrated, something unexpected happened: my hands just knew what to do. It felt like my grandmother was moving through me, guiding me through a cast-on method I didn't remember learning. It got me thinking about yarn as memory, knitting as something our ancestors pass down, and how grief can actually live in your hands.

    This episode is about communing with your ancestors through fiber work, how your body remembers things your mind doesn't, and why knitting and stitching got written off as "just hobbies" when they're actually powerful spiritual practices.

    This episode is an invitation tp grieve through fiber, to let your ancestors teach you through your hands, and to trust that the wisdom is already there.

    In this episode, I explore:
    • Knitting as ancestral memory and embodied wisdom
    • Fiber, yarn, and cloth as grief companions
    • Why slow crafts are sites of resistance and care
    • Handwork as a way to grieve what was never taught
    • Passing down love through making, not perfection
    Invitation
    If this episode speaks to you, you’re invited to join our Fibers of Grief circle, a monthly online gathering exploring grief through slow stitching, yarn work, and visible mending as care practices.

    🧶 January’s circle focuses on working with yarn
    🪡 February’s circle will explore visible mending

    Sign up ➡️ here

    If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...
    • Leave me a 90 second voice note
    • Message me on Instagram
    • Send me an email
    Learn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.com
    Subscribe to my weekly newsletter

    🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    32 分
  • Celebrating Yalda with Shahmaran: Winter Solstice, Grief, and Liberation in the Iranian Diaspora
    2025/12/18
    In this episode of Halva for the Heart, I turn toward Shab-e Yalda, the ancient Iranian winter solstice holiday, and reflect on what it offers us as people living, grieving, and resisting in diaspora. I explore Yalda as a collective vigil through the longest night of the year, and how it initiates Chelleh-ye Bozorg: the 40 coldest, darkest days that mirror grief cycles, mourning traditions, and the necessity of communal care. Through the mythology of Shahmaran, the Kurdish queen of serpents, I reflect on winter as a sacred time for collapse, inner death work, and transformation personally, collectively, and politically.

    In this episode, you’ll hear:
    • what Shab-e Yalda and Chelleh-ye Bozorg teach us about grief and survival
    • how Yalda functions as a vigil and a form of ancestral death work
    • why Shahmaran’s underground cavern mirrors the womb/tomb space of grief
    • how Iranian mourning traditions align with seasonal cycles
    • why rest, collapse, and community care are essential for sustainable liberation
    • how Yalda invites solidarity, hope, and resistance in dark times


    🌑 This episode is an invitation to soften into the darkness, gather in community, and trust that the sun—and liberation—will return.

    Links:
    📘 Shab-e Yalda Guidebook
    🐍 The Omi Collective’s Shahmaran Azadi Zine & Talisman
    ❤️‍🩹 Join us in Dard-e Del
    🗝️ Narinder Bazen's concept of Inner-Facing Death Work

    If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...
    • Leave me a 90 second voice note
    • Message me on Instagram
    • Send me an email
    Learn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.com
    Subscribe to my weekly newsletter

    🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
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    35 分