Sona Babai

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Sona Babai (Persian: سنا بابایی ; Azeri: Sona Babayi) (born 1901 in Gharabagh, West Azerbaijan, Iran) is an ethnic Azeri immigrant from Iran who became an American citizen on 25 October 2006, at the age of 105.^[1]

Born in 1901 in a 400-person village in north-western Iran called Gharabagh, Sona grew up helping her family about the house and never learned how to read or write. In 1913, she married Mokhtar Babai. They had 10 children and eventually moved and lived together in Tehran until Mokhtar Babai's death in 1991 (he was 103 at the time). Sona Babai immigrated to the US in 2000 and currently lives with her sons Antoine and Eddie in Palm Desert, California.

Coachella Valley Immigration Service and Assistance Inc. excused her from the language and civic tests required of most potential citizens. When asked what she was going to do as a citizen, she replied: "I'm an American. I'm going to vote."

Sona Babai was the fourth oldest person in the American history to ever naturalize.

[edit] See also

• Iranian women
• List of Azerbaijanis
• List of famous Iranian women

[edit] References

1. ^ 105-year-old realizes dream of citizenship by Teresa Watanabe. Los Angeles Times. October 26, 2006. Retrived October 30, 2006