Ramin Tavakoli was born in Shiraz in 1976, one of nine children, three years before the Islamic Revolution. He remembers music cassettes being stuffed into a staircase before government inspectors arrived at the house. He remembers religion police stopping boys on the street for having long hair. At nine and ten years old, his school syllabus included learning to march, fire an AK-47, and handle grenades, with trips to camps where the kids could practice on the ranges. His brothers went to the Iran-Iraq War. The family lost cousins. One cousin's tank jammed during a retreat and he jumped clear before it was hit, but the blast wave left him permanently disabled.

At 14, disabled veterans protested outside his school over their lack of care. Students went out to join them. The IRGC came. An old woman pulled Ramin through her doorway before the paramilitaries could grab him. A friend was caught. Nobody knew where he was for two years.

He finished his army service, worked as an electronics technician at Sairan, a company built in partnership with Samsung before the revolution and later absorbed into the defence sector for missile electronics. At 23 he left Iran as a refugee, moving through Turkey and Bosnia, then across Europe in containers and trucks to Belgium, where he spent seven years on temporary status before getting citizenship. He completed two bachelor's degrees and a master's in electromechanical engineering, worked as an engineer at Coca-Cola and Atlas Copco Air Power, married Alexandra from Slovakia, and had two children, Arian and Kiana.

In 2010 the family made a list of more than 50 countries, scored each on environment, economy, safety, and community, and New Zealand came out on top. They arrived on 13 December, bought a car and caravan, and travelled until end of April. They stayed. Ramin couldn't find engineering work for over a year and then moved into construction. He now runs Max Style Construction doing commercial and government projects.

The episode was recorded during the US and Israel strikes on Iran in early 2026. Ramin is direct about where most Iranians he knows stand: after 47 years of the regime, protests met with machine guns mounted on trucks, thousands killed on the streets, and friends and relatives executed, most people he knows are welcoming it as a rescue mission rather than an invasion. He explains the IRGC in plain terms: not a national defence force but a political protection apparatus that controls Iran's largest businesses, parliament, and military, and funds Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. He names people killed in protests. He talks about the devaluation of the Iranian currency: 7 tomans to the US dollar in 1979, 165,000 to the dollar at the start of 2026.

He also spends time on Persian martial arts. The zur khane, or house of power, is a thousand-year-old Iranian training system built around wrestling, swinging heavy clubs, and bow-strength work. He talks about the concept of the Pahlevan: not just the best technical fighter but the person of the best character, the one who uses strength to protect the people around them. On his wrist he has a Zoroastrian symbol with three lines representing good deed, good word, good thought. He started taekwondo at 41 after his kids got into it, was double-graded by Grandmaster Mike, and now trains 10 to 15 hours a week across taekwondo, kickboxing, MMA, and jiu-jitsu. His wife Alexandra and son Arian hold second Dan; daughter Kiana holds first Dan. Arian, 19, is in his third year of medicine and chemistry at the University of Auckland and has founded what he says is the first registered calisthenics club at the university, with 150 members. Kiana, 17, is in her second year of law.

Listen to the full episode on all major platforms

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr4ow2maU6s

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72KnBcFkM1r3xm2YyVujJR

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shedlifenz-podcast/id1857464528

iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shedlife-nz-308999038/