Afshin’s Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation

Our beloved brother, journalist and activist Afshin Nariman, suffered an unexpected stroke on Monday, July 24th, due to a brain hemorrhage caused by untreated high blood pressure. As you can imagine, it has been an emotional whirlwind for us all. Despite the terrifying experience, we’re grateful for so many fortunate silver linings. First and foremost, we would like to express our eternal gratitude to Mr. Kourosh Masoumi* for his alert intelligence, quick action, and humanity for understanding the seriousness of Afshin’s condition while on a call with him from Australia and immediately alerting our brother Morteza. Mr. Masoumi, it feels impossible to properly express the depth of our gratitude, but, truly, from the entire Nariman and Nariman-Panah clans, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We would also like to express the same heartfelt gratitude to our brother from another mother, Mr. Hasan Talebi for getting to Afshin just in time and calling emergency services along with our sister Shirin. This speed was a massive saving grace in mitigating the long-term impact of his sudden stroke. Although the stroke has caused him to lose function on the left side of his body, his mind and working memory have been completely clear from the beginning and we believe that with appropriate and rigorous physical therapy he can regain all of the sensory functions on his left side by the end of this year.

It may be hard to believe, or maybe not given how he is, but one of the first things he did when I arrived from New York was lament the delay in the revolution that is the right of the people of Iran. How can we help but love this honorable spirit? But at the same time, we also couldn’t help but be a bit angry that even in such a situation he wouldn’t think of and focus on his own wellbeing. That has changed over the last ten-odd days, although he still talks about the revolution and what a free and just Iran would look like every single day, he’s also determined and fully committed to recovering and returning to his old self as soon as possible and we have no doubt that he can do whatever he puts his mind to. We would be grateful for your generosity in helping us cover Afshin’s living, medical, and rehabilitation expenses during this period so that he can focus his full attention on fully recovering and returning to his life.

We are grateful for all of your well wishes and support, we can tell you that he and all of us have been deeply touched and moved by the outpouring of love and well wishes from our friends and family and from across the Iranian community since the start of this ordeal, including from his amazing friends and audience, and members of the Iranian media and civic and political communities. Please feel free to share this fundraiser with anyone who you feel would be interested in helping. Please accept our sincere and heartfelt thank you and thank you again for your generosity and support.

The Nariman Family

*A huge correction here, the correct person is Mr. Masoumi. We love Mr. Mesdaghi who is an incredible friend (thank you so much for all of your visits and delicious food; Afshin is so moved and happy and we are so happy to know what amazing friends he has), but the person in Australia on the phone with Afshin at the time of his stroke was Mr. Masoumi.