Journal

Notes on searching, reunion and belonging.

Guides written by the Jatkhali team and the people who have lived them: sealed records, Farsi documents, first phone calls, and the culture we are trying to stay close to.

Meet the community Write to the team

AdoptionThe journey from a sealed file to a first phone call.EducationExchange programs and the language a search runs on.HealthWhat a search does to a body and a mind, and who helps with it.CulturePersian media, film, stage and publishing.Families of OriginThe families and professionals on the other side of the search.

Adoptees+1

The waiting is the part nobody warns you about

Two phone calls so far, arranged through the team. What the gap between them actually feels like, written while it is still happening.

JJatkhali Admin24 Oct 20262 tags

Language & Translation+1

Translating the first call is the hardest job in a search

A certificate is a document. A first phone call between two people who share a history and no language is a room with three voices in it.

JJatkhali Admin24 Oct 20263 tags

Legal Support+1

What the DNA databases do not have about Iran

A direct-to-consumer test is a real tool for this community and a bad substitute for a register. Here is where the coverage stops.

JJatkhali Admin24 Oct 20262 tags

Iranian Adoptees Worldwide+1

Three places that turn up in almost every search

A pier, a covered bazaar, a tile. Adoptees from this country describe the same three settings from childhood memory, and they are useful evidence.

JJatkhali Admin24 Oct 20262 tags

Featured

Legal Support+1

Reading an Iranian birth record, field by field

A shenasnameh extraction answers fewer questions than you hope and more than you expect. What each line means, and which ones you can correct.

JJatkhali Admin24 Oct 20262 tags