A Note from our Founder
Dear Friend,
Salaam. My name is Ehsaneh Sadr. A few months ago, I got back from a two-year stay in Iran where I was working mostly with social aid programs to combat rural and urban poverty.
Going to Iran was a life-changing experience for me. I was born and raised in the United States and my mother was American so aside from loving ‘ghorme sabzi’ I really didn’t have much of a connection with Iran. Although I never would have expected it, the events in my life arranged themselves quite neatly so as to practically force me to Iran. And I am immeasurably grateful.
I wish I could share with you all the lessons I learned in these two short years from the kindness, openness, and generosity of my friends and co-workers who went out of their way to ensure my comfort and happiness…the beautiful women dancing joyfully at a village wedding only to wake up the next day to a full day of hard labor…my surprise at Iran’s technological advancements as I toured an industrial factory…the little girls in the slums of Tehran giggling as we played ‘noon biyar kabab bebar’…my awe at the depth and beauty of traditional Iranian music as my sittar teacher played his instrument…the inner stillness I felt meditating in the private room of an ancient sufi…the smallness and greatness I felt simultaneously as I sat in Persepolis reflecting upon my place in the history of this ancient civilization.
It is because of this desire to share these experiences with others that I have begun setting up a non-profit organization called Rediscover Iran whose goal is to create opportunities for Iranian-American youth to have direct contact with the Iranian people and their culture. This summer RI will be offering a six-week Mini-Semester Abroad in Iran where participants will engage in cultural and educational activities in addition to receiving language instruction. (See below)
In the future, it is our desire to offer opportunities for volunteer work in Iran in addition to internships, recreational tours, student exchanges, and other programs that will increase opportunities for interaction.
This information sheet should answer most of the questions you might have about the Summer ‘99 Mini-Semester Abroad. Please also see the accompanying itinerary for further specification of program activities.
I do hope that you will seriously consider joining us on this adventure through Iran. I anticipate it to be a most interesting, fun, and educational experience. Remember that the encexercise/>losed application form must be returned to program offices by April 23rd 1999.
Thank you,
Ehsaneh Sadr
Director, Rediscover Iran Inc.
Other quotes about Iran
“My experiences in Iran changed me and not only brought me cexercise/>loser to the culture of my father but also brought me cexercise/>loser to a greater understanding of American culture as well. I learned things about myself and about the way I live. We enjoy so many more material comforts in this part of the world and yet we are missing out on the social family relations that warm one’s heart in Tehran. Coming back to America was strange and disenfranchising, but I had gained valuable lessons and was wiser for them.” – Amin, 18
“Prior to going to Iran, I had never been overseas, let alone to a developing country. I could not fathom how different Iran would be from the U.S., how my heart would reach out to my newly found Iranian family, and how I would learn much more about a culture I thought I had known well. For the first time I felt like a foreigner during our layover at Tehran Airport; never before had I been surrounded by so many Iranians nor had I heard so much Farsi spoken. My apprehension faded with my arrival in Shiraz a few hours later when I was welcomed with the open arms of relatives who seemed so familiar despite my never having met them before. I wept with disbelief and joy and I was comforted by my loving little cousins hugging and surrounding me.
I began to learn their down-to-earth way of life on the very morning I arrived when we stopped at the “nunvari,” and I stared with glazed eyes at the bakers flip the “nun-e-sangak” onto the hot coals of the glowing oven. During my stay in Shiraz, we visited poets’ memorials, shrines, mosques, palaces, historical sites, and many gardens. However, I enjoyed most of all, living the Iranian daily life by grocery shopping, bargaining at bazaars, riding in taxis and on city buses, swimming in the pools, visiting my cousins’ high schools, walking the streets of Shiraz, and even observing at medical clinics.
On my second trip to Iran, we had a big gathering of my father’s relatives from his mother’s side of the family. Never before had I seen so many peaches, plums, apricots, cucumbers, limes, salad-e-Shirazi, orange “ZamZam” soda, or steamed saffron rice or kabob in one house. The air was cool in the courtyard and a gentle breeze blew through my purple headscarf. I looked up and saw that the sky was clear. Bats,
drawn from the nearby mountain, sporadically flapped above the bright lamps that were lighting the courtyard. The stars and the full moon shone brightly. Just a few hours prior, heat waves had radiated from the patio. As the sun had set, my cousins and I hosed off the tiles of the courtyard and immediately, the patio cooled. Then my uncles rolled out the thick Persian carpets and spread the sofres.
Also on my second trip to Iran, my family spent eleven days traveling to Esfahan, Tehran, and towns on the Caspian Sea. Along our journey, I encountered many unfamiliar situations. We drove for hours along twisting single lane highways through the Alborz mountains and across stretches of arid land near Qum in the heat of the summer day. There were very few gas stations, restaurants or cities along most of the drive so we sought refuge in the cool parks for lunch. As we arrived in the beach towns along the Caspian Sea, groups of boys, each advertising “villas” for rent, surrounded our car as soon as we pulled off the road. One night we slept for only three hours huddled under blankets in a park after a long, futile search for a vacant hotel room in Tehran. I was awakened the following morning by the yells of young vendors, “Hard-boiled eggs, fresh bread, hot tea!” These are only a fraction of my memorable experiences traveling in Iran.
Needless to say, my travel there has changed my perspective of my life in the United States, and of the world in general. I hope that my exposure to Iran will remain a reminder of the vast cultural, economic, and political differences that exist in the world. I feel that now I am constantly adding to my understanding of two cultural worlds. Although I truly feel more Iranian than I did four years ago, I have also come to realize that I will never be able to fully be “be one of them” because, as a child in the United States, I was reared learning “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and not “Ye Toop Daram.” I learned the poetry of Emily Dickenson and William Wordsworth, rather than that of Hafez, Sadi, or Khayam.
Now, I begin to wonder: will Americans visiting Iran ever be able to view the Iranian culture from within when I, who am half -Iranian, was unable to fully understand? Professional ethnographers attempt to see through the eyes of the citizens through “participant observation.” Maybe this is what I was trying to do. If so, I had either overestimated my abilities or underestimated my uniqueness. Even they are not always successful. Even they must carry a minimal amount of baggage with them. They will always carry a minimal amount of pre-conceived ideas and thoughts influenced by their own culture that will prevent them from fully understanding. Similarly, so will I. Most tourists who visit the country are not interested in assimilating. They are there to snap pictures of the Persepolis ruins from 500 B.C., the Shah’s palace, and Sadi’s memorial, buy turquoise blue hand painted plates from Esfahan, sweet and buttery honey-pistachio “sohaan” from Qum, and then return to their country.
So, was I a tourist who happened to be staying with relatives during my trip? Well, I was not living like a citizen because I needed my cousin, Amin, to translate for me at the bazaars and in the taxis. So to some extent, yes, I was a tourist. But I was more than just a tourist because I walked to the store with Amin to buy fresh bread, milk, and cheese while my little cousin Fatemeh clung tightly to my hand. I had Azadeh to tickle my cheek, and I had my cousin Zahra with whom to sleep outside on the roof and star-gaze and compare our very different lives.
By traveling to Iran I learned more about what it means to be human.”
-Shahla 21