Shayda's siblings had long urged her to leave Iran. Their father spent 16 months in Tehran's Evin prison after the Iranian Revolution, where they say he was tortured. Relatives linked to political opposition were later executed, and one by one, the siblings built new lives in Canada, France and Australia. But Shayda, now in her late 50s, stayed, hoping things would change. She survived an abusive marriage, built a career in advertising and found ways of resisting the oppressive regime.