Azil Jahanbakhsh: Immigrant Stories

On June 14, 1963, Azeel Jehombish was born. Coincidentally, this is the same day as Flag Day and also Donald Trump's birthday. Azeel was born in Tehran, which is the capital city of Iran. He grew up in a two-parent household with both of his parents being educators. His mother's name was Nayir Kabiri and she originally spoke Farsi. She was a sports instructor and also a woman's volleyball and basketball coach at a local club in Iran. Azeel's father's name was Vede. He originally spoke Turkish and had a career as a school teacher. Then he soon became the school's principal. Ultimately, Vede worked for the Department of Education in Iran. All in all, Azeel came from what he stated as an average middle-class background. In 1976, his family endured a life-changing tragedy. When Azeel was 12 years old, his 18-year-old older brother, Atilla Jehombish, passed away in a tragic car accident. This tragedy hit his family hard, but it especially impacted his father. Nayir was completely shook at the whole incident, which caused him to become nearly mute for over six months and talk to nearly no one. After about a year after the accident had occurred, his family had a meeting. This was when Azeel's father broke it to the family that he felt like he should leave Iran and begin somewhere else, where everything was new and would be a fresh start for him. So, in 1977, both of Azeel's parents retired from their jobs and their family departed to Frankfurt, Germany. When they arrived, Azeel was only in 8th grade and spoke absolutely no German. His family lived there for just over four years and Azeel eventually caught on to the German language. In June of 1981, Azeel graduated from a high school in Frankfurt. Right after his graduation, his father decided that he wanted to move back to Iran to be with his family and speak his original language. At the time, the Iran-Iraq War was taking place. His father told Azeel that since he was his son, he would take him with him, but that he was strongly against the decision. This is because Azeel would have most likely been drafted into the Iranian military. Still being only 18 years of age, Azeel was beyond nervous and took a couple of days to think over the decision. He then asked his father, Since you gave me this opportunity, what would you have done if you were me? His father replied with, Go to Australia. After this, Azeel and his father went straight to the Australian embassy and applied for immigrant status. At the time, they were only taking a certain amount of formalities, so they put Azeel in a line waiting to see if he would be able to move to Australia. In the meantime, Azeel was a big-time soccer player for his high school in Germany. Luckily, his coach used to play for a third-league German team in Frankfurt and knew an American scouting coach. This scout visited Frankfurt and attended one of Azeel's games. He was very convinced that he wanted Azeel to play for him at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh. So right after the game, Azeel explained how, My coach came and told me, he said, Hey, this guy says he's interested in you if you want to go to college in the West. He bent down, tied his cleats, and accepted the decision by the time he stood back up. Although he had never been to America, his thoughts towards the country were very positive. He had watched the 1980 Olympics, which was the same year that the Miracle on Ice took place. While living in Germany at the time, he still pulled for the United States in the Russia vs. United States hockey game, while his father was pulling for Russia. Furthermore, the soccer scout was willing to help Azeel financially, so he took the opportunity he was given. Immediately after this, Azeel went to the United States Embassy in Frankfurt and applied for a student visa, but was denied twice. The second time he went, the gentleman working for the U.S. Embassy told him, That there's still hostages in Iran, and we don't want no Iranians in this country. So, Azeel called the U.S. Soccer Scout back and told him that he was very thankful for the offer he was given, but that he was not going to be able to make it due to the U.S. Embassy's policy. The scout luckily knew a senator in New York who was possibly going to be able to help Azeel out. This senator sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Frankfurt, and Azeel explained how. So, on August 20th, 1981, Azeel was off to the United States. He flew into the New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. When arriving to the United States, he was completely confident in his English tongue due to the fact that while at school in Germany, he studied four years of the English language. Although, once he got to America, And this was due to the rapid pace that Americans spoke at. From the airport, his college was over 200 miles away. He expressed his arrival to America by stating, This was because once Azeel arrived in the United States, he went directly to the State University of New York in Plattsburgh, and was playing soccer, which made him have a much more welcoming and enjoyable experience. Azeel found friends very quickly. Part of this was due to his teammates and captains, who helped make his arrival feel a lot more normal and fun. Azeel explained how culturally, there was a lot of differences from the life he lived before. He was used to the European lifestyle and atmosphere, which was a lot different, but not necessarily in a good way. He stated how he was treated a lot like a foreigner and outsider while living in Germany. The change between moving from Iran to Germany was described as being just as big as the change from Germany to the USA. Part of this is due to the fact that while he was in Germany, he lived with his parents, who still had Iranian culture all throughout their household. Within the time period of living in three different countries, Azeel described America's foundation as, When the time came in 1988, Azeel had two kids, a daughter named Janelle and a son named Kian. Although Azeel was eligible to declare US citizenship by the time he was 23, which was in 1989, he waited until he was 31, which was in 1998. Azeel explained how his father, Vede, who sadly died in 1992, did not want Azeel to declare his American citizenship. Azeel states how, And his father did this because of Iran's policy of not recognizing the dual citizenship process at the time. Because of this, his father was worried that Azeel would not be able to go back to Iran under any circumstances. Azeel finally decided that America was going to be the place where he would live out the rest of his life. So, by choice, he became a citizen of the United States of America in 1988. Two years after this, on September 10, 2000, his last son named Achin Jehombish, whom is now one of my great friends, was born. From living in three different countries by the time he was 19, playing college soccer, and having three amazing children, Azeel's journey has undoubtedly been one to remember.