Diaspora

Part of the Family

A month ago, I had never had a boos. I was just a Berkeley guy, an English teacher of all things, who didn’t know a single Persian word, who was missing out on a huge Persian world. Those days are shadowy to me now, almost as though I was a different person, an outsider. In the few weeks since I have joined the staff at Golestan, in Berkeley, California, I have listened to the sounds of the school—the students, Yalda joun, the teachers—and, I think I have learned something. Now, I think I’m part of the family>>>

Yeki bood yeki nabood

Among a pile of forwards I happened to receive a nice clip about the beginning phrase of Iranian fairytales, Yeki-bood-yeki nabood - one was and one wasn’t. And it went on to conclude that such a phrase being hammered into us from childhood may well be the reason why we choose to be alone, always “yeki” and never a team. That if one is there, the other is absent. As if someone had just offered the best food for my eccentric thoughts, my mind took off and hard as I’ve tried, I haven’t been able to get rid of it>>>

Joining Hands

When I signed up to attend the recent women’s meeting in Irvine, titled Pathways to Success, I thought it best to keep my expectations low. I knew the conference was coordinated by Coastline Community College and Coastline Foundation, whose executive director happens to be an Iranian-American, Ms. Maryam Khosravani. As a member of PAAIA, I also knew that this organization had cosponsored the event. But it was the impressive list of speakers that lured me>>>

اصلاً می‌دونی چرا از ایران خارج شدم؟

این یعنی بە بە بهشت بهشت بهشتە. در شمرون کار کنی و چند دقیقەایش زندگی کنی. تازە از کارم بگم. کارم معرکە. پر درآمد. بدون درد سر. آنقد داشتم کە با چند تا شریک خوب، خیلی مواقع کیس‌های دادگاهی‌مون رو اصلاً دنبال نمی‌کردیم، می‌بخشیدیم. پول خوب، محل زندگی خوب، شریکهای خوب، همە چیز خوب خوب خوب. اصلاً خیال خروج از ایران رو نداشتم>>>

Memoirs of Kin and Nation

As you know, we Iranians are awfully masterful in keeping family secrets. There are just so many taboos, so much worry about saving face or maintaining our aberoo. We’re not supposed to speak ill or intimately about relatives, even the ones long-since deceased! It’s not a part of our culture that I especially love, but The Good Daughter is a particular kind of memoir, a family memoir, and I could never have written it without my mother. I don’t mean that just in terms of having her blessing, but in terms of the richness of her memories and the generosity with which she shared her life story with me>>>

The soft-spoken thinker

Daryoush Homayoun died on 28th January at the age of 82. He was a great journalist, politician, thinker, teacher and human being. He left behind hundreds of articles, books, interviews and many devoted friends and students. I met Homayoun a few times and once conducted an interview with him. We kept an on and off correspondence up to the beginning of this year. What impressed me most about Homayoun was his unwavering sincerity>>>

Boston

You've got to leave room in romance for people to not know what they're doing. I understand that. You've got to leave room for people to feel whatever they feel and act in a moment on account of that. I know it. I know it and I am generally in favor of it as a rule. I was sitting in Martin Mack's on Haight Street at 7:30 on New Year's Eve and I fell into a conversation with a girl who was also there by herself. We talked a little and danced a little. It was New Year's Eve>>>

Are you lying?

I don’t know about other cultures, but we Iranians thrive on little lies. As a child, you grow up with exaggerated expressions of love such as, “May I be sacrificed for you,” or “You are my liver!” Not to mention the grizzliest accounts of hatred: “If I catch him, I’ll cut him into little meat cubes!” Though this sounds horrific to the non-Iranian, to the rest of us it’s just words and you know that when your dad is “going to kill you,” it just means he’s mildly annoyed at something you did>>>

نشست‌های شنبه

آزادی اندیشه و سخن بدون آزادی انجمن امكان‌پذیر نیست، زیرا فرد برای اندیشیدن و بیان آن نیازمند مخاطب است و به علاوه برای پیاده كردن نیات خود به یاری هم‌‌فكران احتیاج دارد. بیهوده نیست كه در دوران جدید، اشاعه فكر آزادی همیشه همراه با تشكیل انجمن‌ها است. انقلاب مشروطیت، جنبش‏ ملی كردن صنعت نفت و قیام بهمن بدون وجود احزاب سیاسی، هیات‌های مذهبی، گروههای مخفی و كانون‌های ادبی، قابل تصور نیست>>>

How to be Iranian

Iranians, or Persians, as we often like to be called, are complicated people. Achieving the status of being Iranian is not an easy task, but with much dedication and a strong liver, it can be done. Also, let me say now that there are basically only two types of Iranians, the first generation, and the second generation, since there were no Iranians in this country prior to 1979 (citation needed). These two generations are very different in nature, and it seems that the second generation is determined to undo the good name the first generation has created for itself>>>

Hands across the miles

Some people like to use the expression, “It’s a small world”, but I prefer the one that says, “The world is round, who knows when we’ll meet again?” I can’t decide why I like this better, maybe because of its indication to an active world rather than shrinking it in size. I recently came to experience this and am amazed at how connected the world is. Years ago, after I had I read Digging to America by Ann Tyler, I wrote a review for it in the Iranian>>>