“Kiss your scars. Fall in love with them. They ought to serve as life-affirming reminders—a lingering trace of hope. The only reason we have these scars is because we survived and are still here.”

Kamand Kojouri is an Iranian-American writer and educator. She is known for her thoughtful essays on cultural identity, migration, and the intersections of personal and political experience. Her work often explores the complexities of belonging between worlds.