False images
Identity and social change

Parisa Hassani-azad
June 14, 2005
iranian.com

What does it mean to be Iranian/Persian-American? Growing up, it meant conforming to all of the stereotypes. Basically, you aren’t a true Persian unless you drive a German luxury car, are extremely rich, smart, successful, stuck up, your parents are doctors, lawyers or engineers and you plan to follow in their footsteps, wear all black, dress up all the time, are good looking but extremely hairy, hate to be called Arab, pretend you’re Italian at times, and brag about how Iranians are the true Aryan race. This stuff is all great and arguably true for the most part but it doesn’t really capture our true identity. Growing up, I went through a journey to figure out the meaning and significance of being Persian/Iranian and also the importance of sharing our culture with others.

Since we are minorities in America, each and every one of us is a representative of our culture and people. It is our responsibility and duty to paint a picture that illustrates Persians and Iran in a positive way. During my twenty one years of living I would say I spent a great amount of time educating Amrikais about Persians. I didn’t have many Persian friends growing up. There weren’t that many Persians around so I was basically an anthropology project let loose in the bay area.

Sometimes I felt like a total outcast and looking back on it, it’s pretty funny. In elementary school I would take Persian food to school with me. All the other kids would eat stuff like ham sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but not me, I was Persian. I had my koo-koo sabzi, kabab, or koofteh sandwich. Eating this stuff at the lunch table is just asking for it. All the kids would ask me, “What’s that? It’s weird.” or “Why does it smell like that?” I would get so embarrassed and run home and tell my mom that I wanted “normal” food and not Persian food.

Once when I was in high school, a friend of mine came over to my house. This occurred sometime during the Persian New Year. Therefore, we had a Sofre-ye Haft-Seen on our dining room table. When my friend walked in, the fist thing she noticed was the sabze and from afar she immediately thought it was some type of illegal drug. She voiced her concerns and I just burst into laughter and realized that I really need some Persian friends. After I finally stopped laughing, I explained to her that the table was decorated for the Persian New Year and what she had thought was an illegal substance was simply wheat grass.

When I was younger, all I wanted was to assimilate into American culture and be like everyone else. Looking back on this, I realize what a horrible mistake it would have been if I really did become “just like every one else.” As I got older I started to realize how rich, wonderful, and unique our culture is. And also, that we actually have a culture. There really is no true American culture unless you really hold a high significance to football and barbeques. America is a place where all cultures from around the world are present and exposed. The beauty of this is that we are able to learn from each other, however, it is very significant to hold on to your own culture.

In school, all I was taught about Iran was that we took some people hostage in the 1970s. This obviously doesn’t paint the entire picture of Iran and Iranians for me. Therefore, I decided that I needed to take my education into my own hands. I started to read books about our history and culture, listen to Persian music, watch Persian movies, etc. I learned many things such as, the great Persian Empire once ruled the entire civilized world. When the rest of the world was worshiping multiple gods and figures, we were practicing the first monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism. Persians also made a vast amount of contributions to science, poetry, math, etc. After the exposure to this knowledge, only then was I able to appreciate my culture and construct and more solid conception of who I am because with knowledge comes pride.

In America we are exposed to false images and information as to who we are as Persians/Iranians. The media paints a false picture of not only Iran, but the rest of the Middle-East. Therefore, it is up to us to educate our fellow Americans about our culture and who/what type of people we are. We need to remember that each of us represents our entire culture/people and must put our best foot forward in order to diminish negative stereotypes.

I believe that we, as Persian-Americans, must also participate actively in our communities and government in order to have our voices heard and changes made according to our needs and beliefs. We are a very large and educated community and hold a great deal of economic power and therefore are able to create such changes and impacts on our communities. "According to the 2002 census, Iranian-Americans are the most educated minority group in the US: 69% hold bachelor degrees or above and 28% hold graduate degrees. Iranian-Americans are the founders of some 380 major national firms, and CEOs of more than 550 national companies, many of them among the Fortune 2,000 companies. Our total contribution to the US economy is estimated at more than $600 billion."

We as Iranians have very much to be proud of. We need to hold strong to our identity and community in order to become even more successful and prosperous. We need to participate actively in society. If we practice our rights we will be able to accomplish a great deal politically and socially. We hold the resources and abilities necessary to create social change and must, therefore, use them wisely.