A New Citizen
Jasmin Darznik was among 79 new Americans who took the citizenship oath at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello on Independence Day.
Jasmin, assistant professor of English at W&L, came to the United States from Iran when she was five.
“It’s stupendous, but also a little bit tinged with sadness, because you’re leaving behind your love for another place,” Jasmin told the Charlottesville Daily Progress.
In an interview on the “TODAY” show on Thursday, Jasmin had said that every year, she and her family hoped that they could go back to Iran.
During that interview, she added: “I have such a keen sense of the struggles people around the world endure to acquire human rights and social justice. It seemed to me important to acquire a public voice in America.”
The Monticello ceremony is the oldest continuous ceremony in the U.S. outside of a courtroom. Charlottesville-based musician Dave Matthews, who was born in South Africa and naturalized in 1980, was the featured speaker at the event, and Jasmin also spoke briefly to those in attendance.
An award-winning author whose memoir, “The Good Daughter,” was a New York Times bestseller, Jasmin won a 2013 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
Watch her interview as part of the “TODAY” segment from Thursday: http://myw.lu/13nV7pH
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