Shabnam's Story
Determination is the framework that has shaped Shabnam's life and given her the willingness to push forward in the positive direction that has lead her to where she is now. To finally reveal her life story Shabnam has taken courage and commitment and at times emotional pain but her memoir is open for the world to read. Her aim in writing her first book Fighting For A Future is to pass on the message that it is possible to change your life at any age and anywhere in the world.
Shabnam reveals to the readers of her experience of overcoming life's obstacles, emotional agonies and battles with anxiety and severe depression. She uncovers in the final chapters her ten rules that helped her reach true happiness. She is now proud to be free in Australia - a professional independent woman with a Master's degree as a Clinical Nurse Specialist.
As a child, Shabnam Ighani's passion was to hold a light up so that others can enjoy life. She was born as a free and blissful soul in a loving Persian family in a beautiful city near the Caspian Sea in Iran. However, her liberty and dream of going to university was shattered in a blink of an eye during a momentous moment when she was 12.
Living through the Iranian revolution in 1979 only brought to the surface Shabnam's desire to want to improve her circumstances and especially the future for her two boys.
Iran was a country that restricted women from the many advances that we take for granted like studying at University, speaking freely and openly about faith that is not accepted by Islam. Life became insufferable under the controlling government's regulations and domineering husband. It all came to a head in 1996, 17 years after the revolution, when at the age of 29, Shabnam with her two sons Sal (10) and Sam (5) and with the help of smugglers decided to seek freedom and escape Iran over the Turkish border. Her first attempt to escape across the border carrying her two boys was traumatic, fraught with risk and resulted in the Turkish authorities handed them back to the Iranian police. She was imprisoned and later released. Determined, as she was, a second attempt to free herself from the injustices under Islamic rule proved more fruitful.