They were wrongfully imprisoned 9 years ago. For Yeganeh, the pain is still fresh

When I use the word "spiritual" I don't mean it in an exclusively religious way. I use it to describe the deepest parts of who we are. The parts we don't have language to name so we use words like soul, consciousness, inner light. The metaphysical essence that makes up the parts of us that don't fit into scientific categories.

I also think of spiritual people as those who have been in the darkest of places and have somehow come through to the other side carrying this light inside of them. And it radiates. And it finds other people and holds them in a better place.

That's what it's like to be around Yeganeh Rezaian. Yegi, as everyone calls her, isn't religious at all. She grew up in the Islamic Republic of Iran where there was only one way to be religious, and for women, it meant surrendering your autonomy. So when she and her husband, journalist Jason Rezaian, were imprisoned in Iran on false espionage charges in 2014, she did not lean on any religious faith. She did not pray her way to solace or comfort. She made her way through because she made up her mind to survive.