Funny In Farsi

Dumas discusses how political tensions between the US and Iran changed the way Iranian immigrants were treated after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Kazem first brought his family to America in 1972. While their experience was not easy, it was not made more difficult by forces outside their control. When the revolution took place, American citizens were taken hostage by the new Iranian regime, and this caused many Americans to stigmatize Iranian people as guilty by association. Dumas says that when she first arrived in America, prior to the political tensions, “the Americans we encountered were kind and curious, unafraid to ask questions and willing to listen” (31). In 1972, there was not an undercurrent of distrust or suspicion of Iranians: Many Americans were not even certain where the country was and most likely could not locate it on a map. When the family returned to the US after a brief stay in Iran, things had changed dramatically. Firoozeh’s family understood how politics altered the relationship that existed during their first relocation to the US, unlike first-time Iranian immigrants to the US. Dumas says that for them, their arrival to America was met with flagrant and naked prejudice. There were bumper stickers that read “Iranians Go Home,'' and prejudice shaded their experience as immigrants. Dumas says that her relatives who emigrated to the US after the revolution “did not think Americans were very kind” (36). She does not offer an overt ethical judgment of Americans, but the actions of many at that time reveal a cruelty couched in terms of national pride.

Dumas makes a point of also demonstrating how her immigrant family was perceived. She quotes her father as explaining that “Iranians are an Indo-European people” and “are not Arabs” (32). She also says that “when we moved to California, we no longer looked foreign” (37). Dumas says that so long as “we didn’t open our mouths, we looked as if we belonged” (37). As a young person, Firoozeh clearly did not want attention brought to her, so it was significant that she felt as though she could blend in for the most part. Later in this section, her aversion to bringing attention to herself is made clear in the memories of summer camp. She considered herself lucky that there were two others at the camp who received all of the torment from bullies. Her status as an immigrant from Iran was always front and center for her, and as much as she tried to deflect attention from this fact, it always surfaced, either through her accent or her name. Much of the content in this section reveals Firoozeh’s inner tensions as she tries to stay out of the spotlight while also trying to find ways to fit into her new environment.