Interview | Growing Up Irooni- Funny in Farsi 20 years later, with Firoozeh Dumas
39m
·
Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation
·
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
The episode Interview | Growing Up Irooni- Funny in Farsi 20 years later, with Firoozeh Dumas from the podcast Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation has a duration of
39:13. It was first published
More episodes from Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation
Poetry | Hafez's payāmé naseem, Part 6
In this lesson, we go over the last lines of the poem payāmé naseem by Hafez:
میای دارم چو جان صافی و صوفی میکند عیبش
may-ee dāram chō jān sāfee ō soofee meekonad aybash
خدایا هیچ عاقل را مبادا بخت بد روزی
khodāyā heech āghel rā mabādā bakht bad roozee
Poetry | Hafez's payāmé naseem, Part 5
In this lesson, we go over the following lines of the poem payāmé naseem by Hafez:
جدا شد یار شیرینت کنون تنها نشین ای شمع
jodā shod yāré sheereenat konoon tanhā nesheen ay sha'am
که حکم آسمان این است اگر سازی و گر سوزی
ké hokmé āsemān een ast agar sāzee ō gar soozee
Poetry | Hafez's payāmé naseem, Part 4
In this lesson, we go over the following lines of the poem payāmé naseem by Hafez:
به صحرا رو که از دامن غبار غم بیفشانیbé sahrā rō ké az dāman ghobāré gham beafshānee
به گلزار آی کز بلبل غزل گفتن بیاموزیbé golzār āy k’az bolbol ghazal goftan beāmoozee
Poetry | Hafez's payāmé naseem, Part 3
In part 3 of our discussion of Hafez's poem payāmé naseem, we go over the 3rd and 4th lines of the poem:
چو گُل گَر خُردِهای داری خُدا را صَرفِ عِشرَت کُنکِه قارون را غَلَطها داد سُودایِ زَراَندوزی
chō gol gar khordeyee dāree khodā rā sarfé eshrat kon
ké ghāroon rā ghalat-hā dād sodāyé zarandoozee
Poetry | Hafez's payāmé naseem, Part 2
In this part 2 episode of Hafez's beautiful poem payāmé naseem, we look at the individual words and phrases in the first two lines of the poem, and learn how to use the words and phrases in current Persian conversation.