Banu - The Mohyeddins’ Mission

Countless Journeys

It’s been a tumultuous couple of years inside Iran, with protests over the killing of 22-year-old Masha Amini taking place in dozens of towns and cities around the world. In Toronto, which is home to the second-highest concentration of Iranians immigrants outside of Iran, the Mohyeddin siblings, Sally, Samira and Amir, have run Banu for eighteen years. Banu is an Iranian restaurant that blends political activism and delicious food. Alongside the heaping plates of pomegranate beef tenderloin and okra and eggplant stew are reminders of the politics of the home they left behind. Photos of Iranian political prisoners line the walls at the front entrance. There's a memorial to the victims of flight 752 shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard with 176 passengers aboard, 138 of them destined for Canada. And amidst the protests of the last year and a half inside Iran and beyond, that sense of community support has swelled. “People have been coming in the restaurant and saying, Hey, we support you. And I'm usually in the kitchen so my sister's in the front, and then hug my sister and then just leave.,” says Banu head chef Amir Mohyeddin. “So I find a lot of non- Iranians are now getting it. And even Iranians, there's some Iranians who come in there who's never been political and they're like, wow. Thank you so much for doing this.” This episode of Countless Journeys takes you inside the history of Banu, as we hear what the Mohyeddins wanted to create through Banu that they couldn’t find anywhere else in Toronto, and their hopes for their homeland in a time of incredible change.