Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun “Kat” Copeland was 12, attending school in Shiraz, Iran, when the Islamic revolution broke out in 1979, writes Linda Stein for Main Line Media News.

I went to an international school with children all over the world,” she said in recent remarks to the Radnor League of Women Voters. “It gave me an appreciation for different cultures, different values and respect for diversity.

“On the turn of a dime, that changed,” she said. “The revolution didn’t just change how I loved life. It changed completely how I thought about it.”

Instead of a city known for poetry and roses, there was machine gun fire, food, gas and oil shortages, and violent demonstrations daily.

Her father, an American, was arrested and charged with being a CIA spy.

When no one would defend him, her mother, an Iranian, did the unthinkable and represented him in Iranian court.

Her mother’s example led her to her path as a prosecutor and “protector of the peace.” After her family left Iran, Copeland pursued a law degree.

It was because of her mother, Shahin Maleki Copeland, that she was “standing here today,” said Copeland.

Read more about Kat Copeland here.

[uam_ad id=”62465″]