Lion women

by

I met many lion women today.

We use this phrase in our daily life: you are such a “shir zan” or lion woman !

We honor brave, outspoken, hardworking, and resilient women with this name. I guess we do not have any name for brave men because we assume men are brave anyways.

In this context I’ve met many Lion women throughout my life and I am sure we all have met those women out there.

Today, I was invited to participate in a community group of Iranian women in West Vancouver, who get together to brake the cycle of isolation. There were 20 of us Iranian women in this meeting, women from all walks of life and from all ages.

We talked about the notion of Migration in our Iranian culture.

I asked these women to give me some words which they associate to Migration as a process, phenomenon, and concept.

This is the list of what these women came up with:

· Movement – development (Taagir va Tahavol)

· Self-sufficiency (khod-kafaie)

· Knowing myself (shenakhte khodam)

· Letting go of attachment (del kandan az delbastegi)

· New life (zendegie novin)

· Independency (esteghlal)

· Finding creativity (kashfe khalagiat)

· Development (takamol)

· Growth (roshd)

· Planting in (galame zadan)

· Improvement

· Finding new experience

· Depression first

· Difficulty finding work and life

· To solve everything by self

· Have no support

· Change world view (did be donia avaz shodan)

· Be patient (sabor bodan)

· Rebuild (dobareh sakhtan)

· Get to know perceptions (shenakhte mafahim)

· Was negative, became positive

· Fleeing (farar)

· People know give self worth

· In Iran we live for people’s word

· Satisfying with god’s satisfaction

· Accepting (pazira)

· Lots of struggle, challenged with new things

· Finding no husband

· Many people out there

· Change with a high price

· New life, new world, new me, what was out there back then is changed now

· Live my life now, much happier, much more content, less status work, yet happy a lot

· Not having wings in Iran

list could go on and on……..

If we read between the lines we can realize how much these women find their new life much happier. These women reported having fought a lot to create the world they always wanted, a life where they can be themselves.

It was really eye opening to hear these words. We have many lion women like these women I met who work hard to create a better life for themselves as well as their families.

What is your experience like?

August 3, 2007

www.middlepeace.com

admin
About the
My name is Poran Poregbal. I am a licenced - registered clinical counsellor and registered social worker. My practice of counselling psychology is based on a culturally and trauma-informed basis. I am offering individual and couple counselling sessions. I am offering treatment for symptoms of Emotional Disorders such as Anxiety, Depression, Obsession, Phobia, Trauma, and Post Trauma Stress. In my practice of Counselling Psychology, I do pay attention to my client's history, sense of self, level of motivation for change, resiliency level and the existence of past traumas in life. At times, a couple of sessions of clinical counselling helps individuals to appreciate their patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. We can learn to understand the meaning of our emotions and to develop kindness to ourselves. Change of habits and mindset requires hard work; Still possible.