In this two-part episode of The Edge of Meaning | Safar-e Ma’na, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh speaks with Donya Vatani, a Tehran-based psychologist and spiritual practitioner, about what it means to live through war—not only physically, but emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.
Recorded in June 2026, shortly after the ceasefire that ended the 40-day Iran War, the conversation explores life in Tehran during war, the aftermath of the January 2026 popular uprising, and the collective trauma shaping everyday life in Iran.
Donya reflects on growing up in a politically engaged family and among a generation raised by women deeply involved in Iran’s women’s movement. She speaks about their courage and the emotional costs carried by children who grew up alongside political struggle, imprisonment, sacrifice, and uncertainty.
As a psychologist, Donya describes her journey toward authenticity, bodily autonomy, compassion, and what she calls “feminine energy”—a human capacity for emotional presence, intuition, dialogue, tenderness, and connection.
Mahboubeh and Donya explore whether societies shaped by patriarchy, authoritarianism, political violence, capitalism, and constant urgency disconnect people from these capacities—and whether feminist movements have sometimes been pushed toward wounded forms of power: relentless productivity, confrontation, burnout, and emotional disconnection.
Donya shares her firsthand experience of living through war in Tehran: hearing explosions, following frightening news, preparing for shortages, and facing the question of whether to leave the city. She chose to stay.
Remaining in Tehran gradually became an experience of belonging and agency. When ordinary people have little control over military and political decisions, Donya suggests that agency can survive through small acts of care: checking on others, creating spaces where women can grieve together, practicing yoga and meditation, sharing meals, protecting children from traumatic news, and helping people regulate fear.
Mahboubeh raises a difficult question: Can spirituality become spiritual bypassing? Can meditation, mindfulness, love, and self-care become ways of avoiding injustice or political responsibility?
Donya acknowledges this danger, while arguing that genuine contemplative practice can help people remain embodied, compassionate, and capable of responding with wisdom rather than panic or despair.
Together, Mahboubeh and Donya develop a broader understanding of agency—one that includes protest and civic action, but also presence, witnessing, emotional regulation, care, and protecting one’s humanity in times of violence.
Ultimately, the conversation becomes a meditation on belonging and on what resilience means when survival depends not only on physical safety, but on preserving our capacity to love, connect, grieve, witness, imagine, and remain fully alive.
About The Edge of Meaning | Safar-e Ma’na
The Edge of Meaning | Safar-e Ma’na is a bilingual public media and narrative dialogue project based in the United States, created and hosted by Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, an Iranian women’s rights activist, journalist, filmmaker, and contemplative dialogue facilitator.
Through contemplative, trauma-informed conversations, the project documents moral imagination, civil society, and lived experience in contexts of war, displacement, repression, and social crisis.
Host: Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh
Guest: Donya Vatani – Psychologist & Spiritual Practitioner
Series: The Edge of Meaning | Safar-e Ma’na
Format: Two-Part Conversation
Recorded: Tehran & San Francisco | June 2026
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