Lafayette author and artist Shiva Jafarzadeh, who goes by “Shiva J,” says she left Iran in 1997 for many reasons.

By CHARLEEN EARLEY | Correspondent

The East Bay Times

As a guest speaker to mass media communication students Sept. 27 at Pleasant Hill’s Diablo Valley College campus, author, artist, mom and feminist Shiva Jafarzadeh, told students that “We all want the same thing — peace, security and love."

These things are what exude from her sketches, paintings and newly released book, “The Orange Blossom,” for ages 8 and older. Born in 1975 and raised in Iran’s capital of Tehran, Jafarzadeh began her lifelong passion for drawing at age 6 while hunkering down in bomb shelters with her sisters and mother during the Iran-Iraq war. Her father was in the Air Force, and her family moved around a lot.

Her watercolors, collages and prose all showcase multifaceted messages of freedom, sorrow, survival, unity, kindness, beauty, love and joy. Drawing was her way of surviving and coping with the terrors of war that would eventually find their way into her life in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

She also prefers to go by “Shiva J.” instead of using her full last name, but that’s another story that could fill a book. She left Iran in 1997 for many reasons.

“For my survivorship; a dream to live somewhere where drawing a figure was not a crime; I wouldn’t be killed because of my hair or makeup; I would no longer endure 30 slashes and penalties because I didn’t fast during Ramadan; I wouldn’t have to marry someone I didn’t love; I could work and be financially independent; I could live in a country that I can study art and talk about taboo subjects like sex or religion without fearing for my life,” Jafarzadeh said.

“I escaped because I was becoming a dangerous rebel to my family by spreading flyers about the anti-Islamic republic government of Iran and I was willing to go to any country where I could ask for a visa.”

Today a single mom and co-parent of 15-year-old son Lex — who says he wants to become a documentary filmmaker for human rights — Jafarzadeh lives in Lafayette and wears many hats. She’s a real estate broker, property manager, illustrator, space designer and an art teacher at her Walnut Creek studio on North Broadway called “Art by Shiva.”

“The Orange Blossom” (bit.ly/theorangeblossom), her first book (with more planned) is a 52-page illustrated novel, a poetic and metaphoric story about a girl named Silky and her grandfather in Iran. Every Nowruz holiday (Iran’s new year on the spring equinox on or near March 21), Silky’s family gathers at her grandparents’ orange farm >>>