The truth is, the story began long before. I had often said, heard, and read that writing is the cure for unresolved trauma. The only way to overcome unseen monsters is to reach into the dusty dark of forgotten words, pull them into the light, and look them straight in the eye. This is what happened: Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 took off from Tehran before dawn on January 8, 2020. Within three minutes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired two surface-to-air missiles that destroyed the Boeing 737. All 176 passengers and crew were killed, along with one unborn child. In the hours that followed, officials in Tehran gave conflicting explanations, blaming engine failure, American interference, flaws in Boeing’s design, and Israeli GPS jamming. State television repeated these claims for three days, with senior Revolutionary Guard commanders such as Amir Ali Hajizadeh and Hossein Salami appearing on air to defend the narrative. Only after satellite images and foreign intelligence made denial impossible did the military admit that its own missiles had brought the aircraft down.
