Hey, Where’s MY Tehrangeles?

Nazanin of Iranian Truth just wrote a post pointing to a PostGlobal article by Amar Bakshi about Iranian-Americans and how they feel about U.S.-Iran relations. The PostGlobal project counts Hossein Derakhshan and Ali Ettefagh as its two Iran-expert bloggers, and Bakshi’s series, “How the World Sees America,” looked at Iranians in Los Angeles recently. His post about the politics of so-called “Tehrangelinos” includes a short video clip of Reza Aslan, who says, “The Los Angeles Iranian community came here with their Swiss bank accounts and, you know, with their suitcases full of cash, and they created a pretty good life for themselves here in Los Angeles”:

I have nothing but respect for Aslan, our community’s most visible and prolific political wunderkind, but I want to challenge what I think are some gross misrepresentations of Tehrangeles in this statement (though it’s important to note that it’s a very short clip which may just be lacking some context, and I think Bakshi actually did a pretty good job getting a fairly representative slice of Tehrangeles life, even if many of its players are already so recognized that Iranians in L.A. might not get much new info). I won’t deny for a second that, yes, many Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles are indeed “established” - it’s just a way to say that lots of them live on the Westside as doctors/lawyers/engineers who drive expensive cars. Yes, many of them were very wealthy in Iran and got out immediately after the revolution, many were very pro-Shah, many have ridiculous or ill-informed political views.

But I am getting more than a little annoyed at the poor picture that the rest of the country - and the global Iranian community - has and keeps getting of us “Tehrangelinos” as clueless rich people living in a nostalgic bubble in Westwood, because that’s only part of the picture. Why is it okay to boil down all of Tehrangeles to this stereotype?

The truth is that Tehrangeles is home to a really diverse if disjointed Iranian community. And Iranians continue to immigrate to Los Angeles long after the revolution, but for some reason, the more recent transplants are nearly invisible in most mainstream reports about the community.So my question is: why don’t we recognize the Iranians in Los Angeles who work in supermarkets, who drive old cars? Who are poor, on welfare and food stamps, or homeless? What do they think about Iran and the U.S.? There’s a sizable community of Iranian Christians, who are largely ignored in most reportage, which always touches on Muslim and Jewish Iranians. Where are they in stories about us, or stories by us? There are Iranian “day care” centers in Los Angeles, full of senior citizens that have seen a lot of history and might have some interesting things to say about Iran; does anyone care about them?

Nazanin’s post tells Iranian-Americans to wake up. I’m inclined to agree, but I’d flip that around to ask anyone that writes about Tehrangeles to wake up, too. Perhaps drive over the hill and into the Valley, look beyond what’s deemed the “established” community, and give Iranians in Los Angeles a little respect and a little credit. I’m so tired of smug Iranian San Franciscans or Torontonians, among others, talking smack about my city. Tehrangeles is not as narrow as the vision of the people who disdain it.

“Cultural Renaissance in Iran?” Panel at Stanford, October 10

NorCal Iranians: Check out this cool panel discussion entitled “Cultural Renaissance in Iran?” this Wednesday, October 10, from 6-9 pm at Stanford University’s Lane History Corner (click for the map - it’s building 200). The panelists are:

• Abbas Milani, director of Stanford’s Iranian Studies Program and noted Iran scholar
• Arash Sobhani, musician and Kiosk’s front man
• Ahmad Kiarostami, director of the two most recent Kiosk music videos
• Pardis Mahdavi, anthropology professor at CSU Pomona who’s writing a book about Iran’s sexual revolution

Kiarostami and Mahdavi were among the most memorable speakers of this year’s IAAB conference, and Arash Sobhani and a couple of Kiosk members are scheduled to perform, as well.

What’s your favorite English-Persian/Persian-English dictionary?

I’ve got a little project going, which involves reading one or two Persian blog posts a day to improve my Persian reading speed and proficiency. Today, I read some Khorshid Khanoom. I understood 99% of the words in her September 30 post, and the ones I didn’t get, I resolved with the Dictionary of Mamanjoonam (aka, my mom). But I need an actual dictionary to take this project to the next level, something I can keep next to my computer or throw in my bag (when I get really ambitious and pick up a good Persian book).

I snooped around some and found Dariush B. Gilani’s English Persian Dictionary on my sister’s bookshelf this afternoon. I really like it because it’s got English transliterations of the Persian alongside the Persian text, like sweet little literacy crutches, but I want something that’s got English-Persian and Persian-English because most of the time I’ll be looking up Persian words for their English meaning. Anyone have any recommendations?

Gays and Transsexuals in Iran

After Iran’s president last week uttered his ludicrous statement about Iran not having any gays, here’s a Washington Post essay penned by a 25-year-old gay Iranian man, Amir, that strikes back. And here’s a NY Times article by Nazila Fathi, which essentially says the same thing as Amir’s essay - that gay culture, like many things, exists in Iran - it’s just truly on the downlow. Above you’ll see the CBC’s February report about Iranian gays. What’s interesting to me is this quote in the NYT article:

“There is a thick wall between homosexuals and transsexuals,” Mr. Kariminia [a cleric who wrote his thesis on Islam and transsexuality] said. “Transsexuals are sick because they are not happy with their sexuality, and so they should be treated. But homosexuality is considered a deviant act.”

That same cleric is featured in this fascinating Current TV report on Iranian transsexuals by Yasmin Vossoughian and Kouross Esmaeli (via Iranian Truth). Watch the whole thing.

Update: Also see this NYT op-ed, which is comprised of translated reactions to the Ahmadinejad speech from Iranian bloggers. Very cool.

Iranians on the Internet: Wrap-Up

Unfortunately, I missed Part 3 of this event, which was a live video conference with Khorshid Khanoom (aka Lady Sun), so if anyone has any intel on what happened, please leave a comment or shoot me a note: editorATparsartsDOTcom.

I’m on a shaky road, typing on someone else’s laptop, so I’ll write a longer post on my thoughts about this event and some of the neat people I today when I get home and recover.

Iranians on the Internet: Part 2, Iranian.com

Change of schedule - Iranian.com will be part 2 of the day, not Balatarin. Nazy Kaviani is going to read a statement by Persis Karim, who couldn’t make it today. Karim’s letter talks about Jahanshah Javid’s role in the making of the Iranian diaspora via his foresight regarding the role of the Internet.

Kaviani is now reading her own letter about her “life-changing experience” of writing for Iranian.com. She highlights Jahanshah’s characteristic of not censoring or changing content, even when it’s profane or comes from “shameless or killjoy Iranians.” He was one of the first to realize that English was fast becoming the shared language of Iranians outside Iran.

Now it’s Bruce Bahmani’s turn, who is one of the first Iranian.com writers. The site allows him to express his observations. The question that stays is: when will all this talk translate to change? He’s reading this article about bowling that he wrote for the site in 2002.

Ari Siletz remarks on Call Me Anything You Want, Javid’s piece about his various names. He talks of names as larger signifiers. Words and names are powerful agents of creation. Iranian.com has given the term “Iranian” a physical presence of sorts. “What breathes life into this piece of silicon are the divine words, ‘Nothing is Sacred’” (Iranian.com’s tagline).

Elahe Enssani talks about realizing the power of Iranian.com when she announced a citizenship workshop she was running. She introduces Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco politician (who, apropos of absolutely nothing, has the deepest, most booming voice I’ve ever heard). Mirkarimi says he has never written for Iranian.com but when he decided to run, the site was very instrumental to him because it helped rally the Iranian community in the Bay Area. Mirkarimi had 21 opponents for his seat when he first ran for his seat. When he was elected and inaugurated, there was a large group of Iranians in city hall to support him. As a first generation Iranian-American, Mirkarimi learned his own activism, doubled with learning his own identity. And he’s presenting Jahanshah with an award from San Francisco’s board of supervisors.

Finally, JJ is up: He’s thankful for this award and very humble - he says he doesn’t feel like the person everyone just talked about. He says, “All I have done is be a mediocre journalist who was very lucky to have Iranian.com in the beginning… 99% of what Iranian.com is, is what you all have contributed… thank you for your participation.”

Iranians on the Internet: Intro

Haji Agha kicks it off by talking about the Internet’s effect on society, particularly the democratizing nature of it in Iran… this is the first Iranian blogger/web guru gathering of its kind here in the United States.

The first part of this program will be about bloggers, the second about Balatarin, and the third about Iranian.com. We’ll also have a video conference with Lady Sun (Khorshid Khanoom).

Now Omid Memarian… he’s introducing himself and says that generally journalists/reporters don’t give blogging and bloggers a lot of credit. They don’t see it as first-class work. But if we look at blogs in America now, some of the most important newspapers and companies are engaging in blogs. Second, there’s the question of business and blogging. Journalists are moving from the newsroom to blogs. He’s now introducing various bloggers… and check the individual posts to follow for that.

Iranians on the Internet: Omid Memarian

Nazy Kaviani is introducing me to everyone here - thanks, Nazy! Just chatted with Omid Memarian, who’s going to be making the introductions when this starts. He is a journalism grad student at Berkeley. Most of the stuff I’d read by him was very Iran-politics oriented so I sort of assumed that was what he’s still writing, but I just learned his beat for this semester is west Oakland. He noted that being a journalist in the U.S. with an accent has its challenges when digging around for a story via phone - so he usually shows up in person.

Iranians on the Internet: Saat Sheni

Continuing the informal pre-talk chats… Check out Saat Sheni, a blog by a really sweet young Iranian woman who started the blog when she moved to isolating Los Angeles two years ago. It’s mostly about her daily life; I love that she has a Tracy Chapman video on the first page now.

Iranians on the Internet

It’s 9:48… I’ve just spent 5 hours in a car and am drinking black tea as we’re all waiting for this to start… looks like they’re still setting up, still putting posters on the wall, and I’ve just met Haji Agha, who kindly told me that he’s linked to this coverage… hi, readers in Iran! I’m sorry this will be in English, but hopefully you’ll feel like you’re here. Jayeh shoma khaliyeh.

  

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