Parisa Asemi Borgia, who now goes by Paris, came to Erie in 2012 after meeting her husband when he was serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq. They had to live here, because he would have faced death if they had tried to live in Iran, where she grew up under the Islamic Republic regime.
She became a naturalized citizen in July 2015, an emotional day as she embraced the freedoms of her second home. She remembers her naturalization ceremony in Erie, where each person moving toward citizenship stood at first to recognized their home country, then near the end of the ceremony they stood together, in unity, as new Americans. She called it an emotional time that opened a world of opportunities to her.
From growing up as a little girl in what she called the repressed and difficult nation of Iran, to becoming a U.S. citizen, Paris is thankful for the many freedoms she believes Americans take for granted. She has built a professional life as an architect and is growing her family, with two young daughters.
So how does she feel about the U.S. – Israeli strikes that took out the Supreme Leader and his top commanders? She said she is thankful, not considering it an act of war or military intervention, but a rescue mission — similar to WWII, that she believes will help her friends and family still living in Iran.
Paris said in her view, it would have been impossible to negotiate with Iranian leadership that was killing its own citizens, including children by the thousands — a scale not seen before. She knows the military action carries risks of its own, but says, “there was no other way.”
Paris said that the public demonstrations of sorrow for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in her view, are paid for and controlled by the government and state media. She said the truth is that 98% of Iran’s citizens are thankful and now that the biggest obstacle has been removed, she says the time is now to take action.