Iranian
author discusses cultural differences,
prejudice
By Rick Osborne
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
The Karl Anatol Center was buzzing with anticipation Tuesday night as an audience
of students and faculty awaited the arrival of author Nahid Rachlin who was to
speak about her experiences as an Iranian living in America.
Upon arrival, Rachlin quietly made her way to the small folding table that faced
six rows of stackable chairs her audience was slowly filling.
Her gentle, motherly demeanor changed to one of deep focus as she began reading
from her newest novel, “Jumping Over Fire,” to be released April
15.
The
novel, Rachlin’s fourth, tells the story
of a mixed Iranian family (the mother is American
and the father is Iranian) and the struggle
for identity their children experience growing
up in both Iran and America.
The struggle for identity has been a recurring theme throughout Rachlin’s
work, as well as her life. Born in Iran, she was adopted at birth by her childless
aunt and abducted by her biological father at 5.
Her biological mother was a cold woman, and Rachlin likened her homecoming to
arriving in a foreign land. She never felt at home among her biological family.
As a young girl, Rachlin saw many American movies at local theatres in Iran.
This fed her desire to someday go to the land that seemed so free on the silver
screen.
Her dream came true in 1965 when she began attending college at an all-girl school
in St. Louis, Mo., a short drive from Washington University, where her older
brother was studying.
To Rachlin, America embodied freedom. The school she attended, on the other hand,
was an entirely different story. According to her, the college she attended, “wasn’t
really America. It was almost like I had to be chaperoned.”
The biggest culture shock of being in a foreign land with a foreign language,
according to Rachlin, was the different attitude young people had toward members
of the opposite sex.
In Iran, premarital co-mingling between the sexes was forbidden, which fostered
strong bonds among members of the same sex. She was surprised when her American
girlfriends would break plans with her to go out with guys, something that had
never happened to her in Iran.
After college Rachlin traveled throughout the country and experienced the free
America she had yearned for. Unfortunately, freedom was not all she found on
her travels.
“ The Iranian hostage crisis, that was the worst,” she said, regarding
experiencing anti-Iranian sentiment while in America.
During that time, a magazine that had previously printed one of her short stories
refused to print another she submitted because they did not want to be viewed
as promoting Iran or Iranians at that time.
She recalls other Iranians hiding their nationality during that period.
“ They would be speaking Farsi, and I would walk in and they would stop
because they didn’t know that I too was Iranian,” she said.
Rachlin found herself identifying more and more with her Iranian roots as the
nation she once called home was continually portrayed negatively in the American
press and in public. While in Iran, she was exposed to anti-American sentiment,
but was increasingly identifying with her American self.
Rachlin said she feels America’s negative feelings and prejudices about
other countries or people are fleeting. It is one group one week and another
the next. She said she believes other countries are less forgiving in this respect.
When speaking about Iran, Rachlin paints a picture of a nation not unlike her
literary protagonists: a nation struggling with its own identity as traditional
values clash with modern influences.
Farnaz Kaighobabi, a graduate student, is from Tehran, Iran’s capitol,
and has lived in America for the past three years.
She sees the parallels between her current and past homes as more than mere coincidence.
“ Now people are exposed to Western culture and have adopted some of those
Western values, yet in smaller cities and villages you still see a lot of traditional
attitudes,” she said Rachlin admits that ultimately, “I identify
myself as who I am, not where I’m from.”
Tuesday’s lecture was sponsored by the Middle Eastern studies program,
the Middle East/Near East Sub-Committee of the International Education Committee,
the Center for International Education, the international studies program and
the comparative world literature and classics department.
The International Education Committee, in light of the growing importance of
American relations with the Middle East region and its people, chose the Middle
East as their theme this year.
“ [We want to]“humanize communities that are consistently misrepresented
and portrayed in a negative light in the media,” said Houri Berberian,
associate professor and director of the Middle Eastern Studies program at CSULB.
Continuing its theme, the International Education Committee will be presenting
a conversation with Arab American poet and academic Khaled Mattawa at 6:15 p.m.
April 19 in the Karl Anatol Center, located in Library East.
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