 The list goes on
Will it take anoter 2500 years for our culture to
evolve?
By Darya Sarkar
August 15, 2003
The Iranian
Regarding the recent articles published, (Azeri
Nationalism...,
We
Deserve...,
Are
There Any Questions...and... ), Choob Dosar-Gohi's article,
Pure
as a mutt, made very good, direct points in reference to
some distinct characteristics of Iranians.
We Iranians, especially
the
ones living in the west have identified ourselves as the best.
I must say that indeed such prejudices do run amongst us, even
amongst those who have lived in America for years and consider
themselves Iranian-American. It seems like such roots that identify
us as such Persians never die, and certain traits stick with us.
As a child growing up in Iran I was always afraid
of showing my Turkish roots, almost like a criminal who is afraid
of being identified.
I remember the time I talked to this friend who told me if
he was a Turk he would have committed suicide.
He was being sarcastic,
but we as a nation grow up to think a certain way, usually
by our parents, and no matter how many years
we live
outside
Iran, certain things do not change. Perhaps it was not until
after I moved to America that I started to brag about my Turkish
blood, hoping to make up for the loss of connection I felt with
my roots. It is interesting that as mentioned in the article,
Persian
in peril, by Nader Baghaei-Yazdi, we Iranians tend to assimilate
into our new culture very rapidly, and we take pride into being
identified perhaps as "Aamrikayee" but we often miss
to take the best out of American culture.
I can not count the number of times I have run into
Persians who are racist towards Blacks, Asians, Indians and ...
the list goes on.
I do know Persian
friends do get disgusted when they are identified as Indians, almost like our
country is any better than theirs.
I once asked my mom if a culture could
completely change. Her answer was that it
could, but over time. But will it take anoter 2500 years for our 2500-year-old
culture to evolve?
The author of "Pure
as a mutt" criticized the sense of nationalism we Iranians
living in the west feel. I must comment that indeed for us Iranians
our past is the only thing that
connects us to what we call 'home', especially for those who
have left Iran before the Islamic Revolution and made the decision of not
going back, or for those who live in exile.
I do not think it is necessarily pureness
that we look for but a connection between the two worlds that we
live in. After the Islamic Republic
took over
our country and established a government hated by the majority of the population,
we as a nation felt our past was stolen from us and we started being identified
as murders and terrorists. We had to hold on to the only thing
that
we took pride in, and that was our history.
For those of us who have
not seen home
for over 20 years the "Aryans Empire" is the only
way to be connected our people in Iran. Everyday we meet Persians of
all
sorts,
not all of them are
pure, they could be half-Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, and all kinds,
but there is the past and our "Aryan" identify that allows
us to be able to feel a connection between these random people we
consider our own.
Although prejudgments and jokes are part of
our culture and may never die, we all come from one place we call
home. Thus, nationalist feelings among those who have lived
in the west may perhaps be
even more
passionate than those living in Iran. By adapting
to a new culture, we feel a sense of loss, and fear not being
able to fit into our old
culture.
We take pride in being identified as a nation, and
as Iranians. It
is good to be able to take pride in who you are. Home is always home.
A secure
place
where we can always go to and escape from our surrounding
world.
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