I follow Googoosh, 72, to her kitchen so she can finish making coffee for her granddaughter. I spot 20-year-old Mya, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran. The 5-foot-10-inch-tall model towers over Googoosh. She sips her coffee while Googoosh offers me some Persian raisin cookies before gesturing for us to come to the sitting room.

The pair sit next to each other on a beige-colored sofa. On the coffee table in front of them are fresh croissants that a family friend brought earlier in the day. Googoosh asks Mya if she wants one. Mya declines. Googoosh pretends not to hear and insists Mya eat something. Aside from being classic grandmother behavior, it’s the perfect example of Iranian hospitality and our long-standing tradition and ritual known as taarof.  “She knows how I hate trying new food and it makes her go crazy! She tries forcing it in my mouth,” Mya says, laughing. (When it comes to taarofing, I know how she feels. Like Mya, I was born in the United States to Iranian parents and also grew up in Los Angeles.)

I’m eager to know what it’s like having a grandmother whose stardom and legacy in Iran defines a generation and a culture. I ask this of Mya, but it isn’t long before we find ourselves talking about something far more pressing these days for three women of Persian heritage: the protests in Iran.

For months, Iran’s government has been violently cracking down on people who are demonstrating against the law that requires women to cover their hair. The unrest was sparked by the September death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly breaking the mandatory headscarf law. Some estimates at the time of this writing suggest 516 people have died, including 70 children. Over 19,000 have been arrested.

“My whole life, my career — it was for the Iranian people. I was singing for them. Now, I can’t sing. I don’t want to sing,” Googoosh says, her voice breaking as she fights back tears.