As the new year approaches, Iranians get ready to celebrate by kissing each other’s cheeks repeatedly…
However, all celebrations are tinged with a little bit of sorrow in place of loved ones on separate continents and in memory of times when we were all together. When Iranians want to say they miss someone, they say “your place is empty.” As in your place at the dinner table – or more broadly, your place in my life.
Disappearing cigarette packet warnings, receding head scarves and Ahmadinejad’s PhD:
(Watch Majd’s full interview on Bill Maher – from right after the election protests broke out.)
I find that generally speaking, Iranians are a jovial bunch. Quick to crack a joke, down for a party and always willing to sit down for tea with friends and family.
But as soon as the topics of Iranian culture or history come up, things turn conspiratorial and/or depressing. Of course there’s no shortage of bad history to account for this and as I work on the project, I find myself focusing on the sorrowful Iran more often than I’d originally hoped. (See 1, 2, 3, 4.) It’s hard not to; so much of the culture centers around mourning. Everyday sayings use analogies of martyrdom and death. Rumi’s poetry, that paragon of Persian society, is defined by sorrowful longing for a lost love. In an upcoming episode, an immigrant – my mom – longs for a home that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere. (watch a clip below)
Given the Iranian tendency towards melancholy, I was very pleased to come across this wonderful idea from a blogger named “seamorg.”
Seamorg writes:
So if you’re a dancer, or aren’t afraid of people knowing you’re not, please shoot seamorg an email.
The new episode, “memories of a girl from north country,” takes the project in a slightly different direction. One of the original impulses in starting People You Think You Know was to explore how every aspect of our lives make up who we are, and make us ever so slightly (or incredibly) different from everyone else. This way, there are as many cultures on earth as there are people – making us all immigrants in each others’ lives. As I concentrate on my relationship (and the U.S.’s) to Iran, I also intend to take a look at some other case studies in immigration. The newest video entry begins the story of my girlfriend: a traveler from Alaskan winters who finds herself in an unlikely relationship with a boy from a land of pomegranates and the world’s oldest cypress tree.
***
To see and read more, find this episode inside the main site.