Inspired by mostly the above quote from Najmabadi’s book, I began to work on
this collection. Because based on my lived experience as an immigrant, I found
myself in between cultures, geographies, languages and histories alien to me. In
my perspective, the most important aspect of being an immigrant is to miss one’s
home. My
vatan (homeland) is not my homeland anymore, nor is it the land to
which I immigrated; the new place is alien to me as much as my Vatan. Once I visit
my home country, I don’t find myself quite belonging to it anymore. I can’t fill the
gap of my absence there as in the new country the void of my motherland has
even become deeper. I feel as if I were being drawn into two different voids.
My life has been one of major cultural transitions. Navigating through these
cultures has caused me to reflect on the significance of space and ask questions
such as how we define a land, what borders mean, how we change borders as
migrating across them, Recent geopolitical incidents and changes have had a
direct impact on my ability to move between cultures and have motivated me to
consider these questions. From within the turmoil of these questions I started
imagining a free land with no identity, one with no names, no borders, or even
flags. The land I imagine takes the shape of a woman’s body, my body, my homeland.

I imagined myself saying “I come from my own body, it is A Land with No Name.”
Effect is more physical. So, impact is a better word-choice.