February 13, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 9
News
Iranian-Americans Nurture New Generations After Revolution
Today, there are nearly a half-million people in the
U.S. with Iranian ancestry, more than 40 percent
living in California
“
In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, photo, Melorin Issarezal 8, plays
with a scarf during Persian story time at Irvine public library in Irvine,
Calif. It’s been four decades since the Iranian revolution overthrew
the ruling shah, prompting tens of thousands of Iranian exiles and
refugees to make their lives in the United States. Years later, they
have set down roots here and are finding ways to pass their love of
Iranian culture to their American children and grandchildren.
ent volunteer read the
Farsi-language version
of the storybook about
“Elmer” the patchwork
elephant. One girl per-
formed a Persian dance
for the group, and the
For younger kids to see kids
their age coming to the li-
brary and speak Farsi, it’s
a good feeling for them and
it makes me happy. For us
coming from another coun-
try, (a) sense of belonging to
the group is very important
and others from her gen-
eration seek to build a
connection to their Irani-
an heritage and culture
among their American
children and grandchil-
dren. Now 67, Sharifan
oversees the Persian col-
lection and program-
ming for a library in
Orange County, south of
Los Angeles, that hosts
a weekly story time for
Iranian-American chil-
dren that she began six
years ago.
At a recent gathering,
a dozen young children
sat cross-legged on the
floor, listening to a par-
children twirled scarves
and sang in Farsi.
“For younger kids to
see kids their age coming
to the library and speak
Farsi, it’s a good feeling
for them and it makes
me happy,” Sharifan said.
“For us coming from an-
other country, (a) sense
of belonging to the group
is very important.”
The 1979 Islamic Revo-
lution in Iran overthrew
the shah, a close U.S. ally,
and installed Shiite cler-
ics in power and a gov-
ernment headed by the
anti-American Ayatol-
lah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Tens of thousands of Ira-
nians fled to the United
States.
Today, there are nearly
a half-million people in
the U.S. with Iranian an-
cestry. More than 40 per-
cent live in California,
according to U.S. Census
Bureau data. The biggest
community is in Los An-
geles, which has led some
to adopt the nickname
“Tehrangeles.” Beyond
Southern
California,
other significant popu-
lations live in the New
York and Washington
metropolitan areas, and
in Florida and Texas.
Many who came to the
United States after the
revolution thought they
AP PHOTO/CHRIS CARLSON
IRVINE, Calif. — Mi-
noo Sharifan came to the
United States from Iran
in the 1970s for graduate
school, and like many
others, wound up set-
tling in America, starting
a career and raising her
family while a revolution
upended her homeland
and fractured relations
with the U.S.
The two countries re-
main bitter adversaries.
In his State of the Union
address last week, Pres-
ident Donald Trump
said Iran does “bad, bad
things” and “threatens
genocide against the Jew-
ish people”; Iran’s for-
eign minister countered
that the U.S. has backed
“dictators, butchers and
extremists.”
It’s against that tense
backdrop that Sharifan
AP PHOTO/CHRIS CARLSON
By Amy Taxin
Associated Press
In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019 photo, children dance during Persian story time at Irvine public library in
Irvine, Calif. It’s been four decades since the Iranian revolution overthrew the ruling shah, prompting tens
of thousands of Iranian exiles and refugees to make their lives in the United States. Years later, they have
set down roots here and are finding ways to pass their love of Iranian culture to their American children
and grandchildren.
would someday return
to Iran but decided to
stay amid icy relations
between the countries.
Many were upper-class
and highly educated in
Iran and pursued careers
as doctors, entrepre-
neurs and professionals
in America.
In recent years, Irani-
an-Americans also have
taken on a more visible
role in politics, winning
seats for state office in
California, Florida and
elsewhere. In Beverly
Hills, which has a sizable
Iranian-American com-
munity, Iran-born engi-
neer and entrepreneur
Jimmy Delshad served as
mayor.
That doesn’t mean the
road has been easy. Many
Iranian immigrants re-
call being taunted as chil-
dren after Americans at
the U.S. Embassy in Teh-
ran were taken hostage
and held for 444 days.
Today, many are separat-
ed from their relatives
overseas by the Trump
administration’s
trav-
el ban, which has made
some Americans of Ira-
nian heritage feel their
standing is in question
despite their citizenship
status and longstanding
ties to the U.S.
“In economic terms,
it has been a pretty suc-
cessful
community,
however, we have been
dogged by 40 years of
bad relations between
the United States and
Iran,” said Persis Karim,
chair of San Francisco
State University’s Cen-
ter for Iranian Diaspora
Studies. “People feel like
their place in the U.S.
has kind of continuously
been under question, or
not completely at ease,
because of this bigger re-
lationship between these
two countries.”
See IRANIAN on page 11