Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation12 Huhti 2023

Interview | Growing Up Irooni- Funny in Farsi 20 years later, with Firoozeh Dumas

I’m so excited to share with you today my interview with Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi. Funny in Farsi came out when I was in college, and it’s almost hard to remember what a huge huge deal it was at the time. Really, before that, we had zero mainstream representation of Iranians. The one thing we had that we could all point to was not without my daughter, and that was a horrifying depiction of what Iran and Iranians were. But then Firoozeh came out with her book, which is a delightful, funny, heartwarming memoir of what it’s like to grow up with an Iranian background in the USA. She touches on what it was like during the hostage crisis, and when Iranians were constantly negatively stereotyped in the media. But she also looked at the really lovely positive things that came from being an immigrant in this country. Iranians are often not allowed the levity of talking about their experiences in a way that say Greek people are in a movie like my big fat greek wedding. That movie was allowed to be funny and light and silly- and in a similar way, this book was the same, and really humanized Iranian Americans both for a western audience and for Iranians.It’s now been 20 years since the book came out, and so much has changed since then. It was such a delight and joy to be able to talk to Firoozeh about the context in which she wrote the book, and how things are different now. And what being Iranian meant to her then, what it means now.

Related Links:

Purchase the book Funny in Farsi
Follow Firoozeh on Instagram

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

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Poetry | Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté, Part 4

In this lesson, we go over more words and phrases in the next four lines of the poem yoosofé gom gashté by Hafez. Here, Hafez reassures the reader regarding forces that are beyond their control.

26 Tammi 18min

Poetry | Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté, Part 3

In this lesson, we go over the individual words and phrases in the next four lines of the poem yoosofé gom gashté by Hafez, which refer broadly to the nature of the heavens and earth.

18 Tammi 16min

Poetry | Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté, Part 2

In this lesson, we go over the individual words and phrases in the first four lines of the poem yoosofé gom gashté by Hafez.

12 Tammi 19min

Culture | Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, On the Creation of the World, Part 6

In this lesson, we conclude our discussion of the section “On the Creation of the World” from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and reflect on its implications with Dr. Omid Arabian. In this last part, Ferdowsi ex...

5 Tammi 22min

Poetry | Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté, Introduction with Sahba Shayani

In this introductory lesson to Hafez's poem yoosofé gom gashté, we're joined by Prof. Sahba Shayani to talk about the general theme and meaning behind this poem.

4 Tammi 53min

Culture | Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, On the Creation of the World, Part 5

In this lesson, we proceed to the fifth part of our discussion of the section “On the Creation of the World” from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh with Dr. Omid Arabian. In this part of the epic poem, Ferdowsi br...

15 Joulu 202521min

Culture | Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, On the Creation of the World, Part 4

In this lesson, we proceed to the fourth part of our discussion of the section “On the Creation of the World” from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh with Dr. Omid Arabian. This part of the epic poem explains Ferdo...

8 Joulu 202518min

Culture | Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, On the Creation of the World, Part 3

In this lesson, we proceed to the third part of our discussion of the section “On the Creation of the World” from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh with Dr. Omid Arabian. This part of the epic poem discusses the f...

1 Joulu 202519min