Diaspora

Are We Pistachios?

Sometimes it’s better not to pay attention to names, because while I’m mad at a woman I heard on the radio the other day, I have no idea who she is. It’s hard to stay angry with an anonymous person. I had dialed to NPR on the car radio and heard a discussion about films, cinema and such. When my husband tried to change stations in search of music, I stopped him and said, “That woman sounds Persian!”>>>

I miss

I miss the view of a snow-covered mountain wherever I am
I miss homemade yoghurt
I miss putting ketchup on pizza
I miss holding onto my headscarf on the back of a motorcycle
I miss the clock always at 10.30 in my granddad’s bedroom
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برای یک دوست بسیجی، پاسدار یا نمی دانم حزب اللهی

یادت می آید سالها پیش در ورودی شهربازی گریه من را در آوردی چون روسری به سر نداشتم و دختر خالم مانتواش کوتاه بود؟ من فقط 8 سال داشتم! آیا به خاطر داری در ورودی فرودگاه مهرآباد به من باز هم حمله کردی چون شلوارم کوتاه بود؟ من 10 ساله بودم! می دانم خاطرت نیست که هر بار با دوستانم به بیرون میرفتیم شبح تو ما را دنبال می کرد تا خاطرات شیرین جوانی را در کام ما تلخ کند!>>>

The Community Visioning Process

As I researched the various methodologies and process examples I could find, I soon realized that the saying, "All politics is local" was also applicable to the problem I was working on. All community organizing is local. Trying to organize Iranians as one national community was virtually impossible. The character of each pocket of Iranians, East Coast Iranians versus West Coast Iranians, even Northern California versus Southern California, Iranians were as diverse as the regions they live in. What follows is the result of over 18 months of research and reworking >>>

From Tehran to Lolita

"A critical exchange with one’s own past is a sign of confidence and the first step towards accepting responsibility, and freedom always comes with responsibility. Having said this, I criticized that aspect of my past that was too ideological, when we did not tolerate views other than our own. Left or right, ideology is dangerous. I did not change my views about human rights, women’s rights or democracy, what I did change was an absolutist attitude. It happened to come to us in the form of a leftist ideology, but I see little difference between leftist and rightist ideologies...">>>

Art & Opposition

The first thing you notice about Farahani is her eyes. Big, intense, and a gaze that is at times uneasy. She wears almost no make-up—her only whim, a pair of fashionable sunglasses which she quickly removes after sitting down. I ask if she’s had time to enjoy the vibrant French cultural life, and she raves about a new play by Ariane Mnouchkine. But she also mentions being constantly on the road, working on a new film, her music or doing press meets. The conversation soon turns to the repression back in Tehran>>>

Silence

The baby is now quiet and the young mother puts her down in the bassinette. She stands there, watching the sleeping child. Her smile is now distant and dreamy. Does she think her baby can sense the depth of her love? She seems too absorbed in the present, too taken by the baby’s every move. In my silence, I see her years from now. She may struggle with the new chaotic schedule, but the future is all hers. Someday the nurturer will be nurtured and the caregiver will be cared for. Someday, this tiny girl will prove to her mother that none of this love was wasted>>>

ايرانيان در شوک

اين روزها، به نظر می آيد که سايه ی سرد و تلخی بر سر سرزمين مان، ايران، افتاده است؛ مثل سکوت وهم انگيزی که طبیعت پس از زلزله پيش می گيرد؛ سکوتی که در آن هم ترس هست و هم بی حالی. ديگر فرياد دلداری دهنده و شوق انگيز «نترسید! نترسيد ما همه با هم هستيم» شنيده نمی شود، ديگر از «با هم بودن» ها خبری نيست؛ ايميل ها ديگر رنگی از هيجان ندارد و تلفن ها زنگ اميدشان را گم کرده اند>>>

Census Wrap Up

See you in 10 years! This census is done! All but a gleam in the eye of the 30+ community groups (see list below) that were involved in promoting it. Once the tallies have been made and the final numbers are out, the biggest surprise won't be that for once a decent total number of Iranians living in the US will have been counted, but that the community groups managed to put aside their own endeavors and pull together to push through the biggest coordinated community mobilization effort in the short history of Iranian-American community groups in the US>>>

Amanpour Attacked for Being Iranian

employees at ABC are well within their right to be miffed at the network’s decision to pay top dollar for a star like Amanpour at the same time they are scaling back and laying off long-time employees. But what cannot be countenanced is accusing her of bias based only on insinuations about her Iranian heritage. The attacks on Amanpour follow in a long line of Iranophobic attempts to keep qualified Iranian Americans out of the public sphere in America, and it should be called out for what it is: anti-Iranian bigotry>>>