http://impressions-ba.com/features.php?id_destination_info=6&id_feature=10259Iranian Diaspora
Story by Kamin Mohammadi
Although the Iranian Diaspora has existed in the West for some time, the Revolution of 1979 saw its numbers swell, as those who were a part of the Shah’s regime fled the country. For many Iranians, arriving in the US or the UK at this time was traumatic. “People’s perceptions of Iran were very negative then,” says Masoumeh Hamedi, a broadcast journalist now based in London. “It was the time of the US embassy siege, and people chanting against the West on the streets of Tehran. Even though we had visited the US many times, going there to live as a child of 12 was incredibly different. All I wanted to do was fit in, to not be Iranian.”
Professor Hooshang Amirahmadi, president of the American- Iranian Council adds: “I don’t think we did ourselves any favours. Because we were all hurt by the new regime, we helped to demonise Iran more in the eyes of the West. And of course, we were the ones who suffered from that misperception.”
However, the millions of Iranians who have made their homes outside the country have forged their own unique path. Estimates as to the number of the Diaspora range from two million to four million; of these, some 700,000 live in the US. The biggest population by far is in Los Angeles – nicknamed Tehrangeles – followed by Virginia and Maryland. Sizeable communities exist in New York and north of the border in Canada. In Europe, the UK is the main place that the Diaspora has settled, especially in London. While Sweden, France, Germany and Italy have their own communities of Iranians.
The questions most asked by the younger members of the Diaspora have to do with the duality of identity between the Iranian and the Western aspects of their characters. Iranian Alliances Across Borders (whose directors are students themselves) held the first international conference on the Iranian Diaspora at Wellesley College and Tufts University in Massachusetts in April to try to address issues of identity. Speakers from all over the Diaspora talked on themes such as community composition, identity formation, civic and political participation and alliance building. Taghi Amirani, an Iranian filmmaker who lives in London, attended the conference to screen a couple of his short films, Tehrangeles and Going Gaga for Googoosh. “The process of rediscovering my Iranianess has led me to make these films about the exiled community,” he says. “It’s been like testing the waters before taking the big plunge – making a film back home. So I, along with an increasing number of Iranians, will be going back to immerse myself in Iran with all its troubles, contradictions and joys.”
Of course the Diaspora includes many age groups and, as Iran has one of the highest instances of brain drain in the world, it is growing annually. It is estimated that every year more than 150,000 educated young people leave Iran for countries such as the US, Canada and the UK, where Iranians are among the most educated groups of immigrants. Mohammad Hafezi of the Iranian Studies Group presented data to the conference on the significant achievements of the Iranian-American community in academia and the economy. According to the group’s research, Iranian-Americans rank first among 67 immigrant groups in regards to educational attainment, while the average family income of the community is 38 per cent higher than the national average.
“THE OLDER I GET AND THE LONGER
I LIVE AWAY FROM HOME – AND YES IRAN IS
STILL HOME – THE MORE IRANIAN I FEEL.”
Traditionally Iranians have done well in business and academia, but in recent years there has been more of a flowering within the arts, too. Azar Nafisi’s literary memoirs, Reading Lolita in Tehran, has helped bring not just literature, but the recent history of Iran to a mainstream audience (at the time of going to press, it had spent 13 weeks at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List). Marjane Satrapi’s cartoon book,
“YOUR REAL 'COUNTRY’ IS WHERE YOU’RE HEADING, NOT WHERE YOU ARE"
Persepolis nwas widely acclaimed, telling her own story of growing up in Iran at the time of the Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war in striking black and white strip cartoons. Artist Shirin Neshat (see pgs. 44-46) continues to attract international attention for her video installations and is turning her hand to her first feature film. Exhibitions – such as the contemporary Iranian arts show at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Culture) from March to May – bring together artists and filmmakers living and creating work both outside and inside Iran, fostering a cultural exchange between these two groups that has been unprecedented since the Revolution. Satellite TV stations based in LA beam programmes into homes in Iran, many of which have illegal dishes, and bootleg copies of banned Iranian art films and music ensure the people of Iran are not isolated from the community outside.
The Diaspora has always kept its cultural roots very much intact, both in traditional and progressive ways. Within each large community, wherever they happen to be in the world, important Iranian festivals such as No Ruz (Iranians New Year, celebrated around 21st March on the spring equinox) are marked not just in private homes, but also by large gatherings and events organised by various cultural organisations, such as the Iran Heritage Foundation in London.
This year for the first time, the Persian Parade in New York marked the Iranian new year, while in London the British Museum devoted a weekend to celebrating all things Iranian to commemorate No Ruz. A few years ago when Googoosh, a pre-Revolutionary pop star unlike any other, was allowed by the regime to tour abroad for the first time since 1979, the tickets to her concerts sold out in minutes. In Toronto alone, she attracted an audience of 12,000.
Events such as the Diaspora Film Festival, held every year in Toronto, started off as a way of giving voice to filmmakers from the Iranian Diaspora, but, having been such a success, it has been expanded to include all Diaspora filmmakers. Shahram Tabe- Mohammadi, the festival’s director, applauds his adopted country: “Canada is among the most open societies to immigrants. Although discriminations exist here too, society in general approves and supports national identities. As a result, the second generation of Iranians look back to their roots more freely and more proudly.”
He echoes many others when describing his sense of identity: “I have kept from my mother culture whatever seemed to be human, and adopted from the host culture those elements that I found helpful.”
This point is crucial in understanding the reconciliation that some members of the Iranian Diaspora have affected. Hooshang Amirahmadi emphasises this point of choice for the younger generations: “These kids can become better Iranians. They have been brought up in democratic, open societies and so they don’t have to take on the negative aspects of the Iranian character.”
His organisation, the AIC, is working hard to find a peaceful way to reduce hostility and foster understanding between America and Iran. He says hopefully, “People like us must become a bridge of understanding between Iran and the West. I have lived in the US for many years, and I have an Iranian side and an American side. I cannot live with these two halves hating each other, so I want to find a way to resolve this conflict of cultures.”
Azar Nafisi, who is also director of the Dialogue Project aimed at encouraging understanding between Islamic countries and the West, sees this in some young Iranians, saying the allure of their roots seems to pull them back to the homeland in their 20s, even those who have never lived in Iran. And the conflict is even more apparent in those who spent at least some of their lives there. Many go back to visit, and then, says Dr Nafisi, “there is this drive, this seduction by the country, this love, but at the same time, they can find society there claustrophobic, repressive. But even then, they still keep going back. They carry with them always this love and hate, but they still go back.”
Hooshang Amirahmadi similarly identifies a feeling of emptiness that can come to haunt some members of the Diaspora. Taghi Amirani sums it up: “The older I get and the longer I live away from home – and yes Iran is still home – the more Iranian I feel. Identity and belonging to a place and culture matters. I can’t deny that my life in the West has shaped me, but it hasn’t fully reached deep into my soul, my inner self. When asked after some 28 years away from Iran, do I feel more English or more Iranian, I always reply 'My head is English, but my heart is Iranian, and I wouldn’t have them the other way round!’”
And as the Diaspora comes of age 25 years after the Revolution, Iranians abroad are continuously finding new ways to survive, to reconcile dual identities, to be Iranian and forge a relationship with Iran that will one day benefit both East and West.
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