"War on Immigrants"

I’ve had it with this wave of anti-immigrant mentality that seems to be sweeping the nation. First and foremost, America is a nation of immigrants. It’s great partly because of the diversity that perspectives from all across the globe have brought here. It’s great partly because the brain drain from many other countries leads to a brain gain for the United States.

But also: THIS LAND WAS NEVER OURS, we forcefully took it from the natives, and committed genocide--which nobody likes to talk about, and for which we will always have blood on our hands. If you want to be real, our forefathers were all illegal immigrants. And they didn’t just come here and live illegally amongst the Native Americans, to take low-paying jobs serving the natives, for next-to-nothing pay and live below poverty levels. They came here and took what they wanted, killed when they wanted, and allowed the few that they wanted to live in areas where they chose, with very limited sovereignty and control.

Are there immigrants that are bad people? Yes. Are there immigrants that are criminals? Yes. Are there immigrants that are illegal and or take advantage of certain benefits in this country? Yes. But the same is true for all other communities, even those born and raised here for generations. (And for those who think crime and other social ills are caused by immigrants in our communities, you should brush up on your statistics – studies indicate the contrary.)

So whatever happened to “give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free…”? America is a great nation for many reasons: its ideals, its promise of equality and justice, its freedom, and its opportunities. But, we have issues: economic crisis, joblessness, inflation, environmental havoc (I won’t even get into the international issues.) These issues affect all of us and we are all struggling to different degrees. But none of these problems will be solved by scapegoating immigrants…or anyone else for that matter. Yet that’s what we seem to do, repeatedly.

Chronologically we have: war on drugs, war on terror, and war on immigrants; and all of them ineffective, and pointless; all a way for making the masses feel like something is being done about a vague and ever-expanding problem that we’re made to think is causing all the problems in our country.

I’ll have more to say on this soon so stay tuned.

And, p.s., not all of us who look foreign, or brown, or speak with an accent are illegal. So please, if you want to solve the illegal immigration issue, look for real solutions rather than stopping us on the streets and asking for our papers. That’s just stupid.

Samantha in the Middle East

Of all of the Sex and the City characters, I have the least in common with Samantha. I don’t want to live my life sleeping around with as many guys as I can the way she does (though whatever floats your boat, who am I to judge.) And although she’s fun to watch, she’s just a little much for my taste.

When Sex and the City 2 came out, I was in fact not looking forward to seeing the film. The first movie was mediocre enough, and I loved the series when it was on TV…so why ruin a good thing? Besides the reviews of the movie were not that great. In fact, I was a little pissed at the fact that we would see these scandalously-clad women having a lavish vacation in the Middle East, where women’s rights are trampled everyday and most women live a life of repression and double standards.

For the record, I think Middle-Eastern women are not only beautiful, but also strong, in a way that only women who have had to deal with double standards and repression for centuries can be. I don’t see them as victims (though they can be victimized); I see them as survivors, stronger than most men.

So, when I went to see this movie, my expectations were, I’d say, around a -5. And you know, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would – although it was truthfully a bit over the top. But one scene will be forever etched in mind. When the girls are visiting a bazaar/market on their last day in Abu Dhabi, Samantha accidentally drops her purse and her condoms spill out everywhere. She’s then swarmed by a mass of conservative Middle-Eastern men judging her, getting ready to punish her for being a woman who openly likes sex. And what does she do? She rubs it in their face screaming something like “Yes, see, it’s for sex…sex, sex…” as she gyrates her hips. It was BRILLIANT!

I am going to make an assumption and say that most of us girls who grew up in the Middle East, felt a thrill and excitement, a feeling of sweet satisfaction, as we watched her flaunt her condoms and her sexuality in the faces of bearded conservative men who feel a woman’s only place is under the chador/hijab in the house. And not because we have a secret desire to be like Samantha, but because we have known what its like to grow up with double standards, grow up knowing that you are so much more limited than your brother or your boy cousins. Frankly, we are human beings who have a right to choose who and what we want to be in life. Some of us will choose to be conservative, some liberal, some modest and introverted, some wild.

We’ve come a long way, and have more equality than ever before. But make no mistake about it, double standards: very real - no matter if you live in the Middle East, or in Hollywood. We’re still a very long way from having full acceptance as equal human being. Maybe we won’t burn our bras or flaunt our condoms in a Middle-Eastern market. But if you ever doubted that there’s still a need for feminist ideals and a women’s movement, don’t.

And Samantha in that bazaar, that was perhaps one of the most memorable images of a woman’s liberation and demand for equality that I’ve seen in a long time.

From Rodney King to Neda

You may ask, “What do these two have in common?” What happened to them changed power relations between citizens and governing bodies forever. Through witnessing the most horrific moments of their lives we learned of the immense power of citizen journalism.

I so vividly remember being frozen in front of the TV as the world watched Rodney King being beaten by LAPD officers, all of it, captured on tape in a bystander’s camcorder. The incident and the aftermath consumed us for years. Fast-forward eighteen years to July 2009, sitting at Starbucks, monitoring the Iranian elections – waiting for news on the internet. I click on a video posted on facebook and witness probably the most haunting and purely powerful images I will ever see. Neda’s last moments on earth will be one of the most memorable images of our lifetime. It will forever symbolize the purity of the human struggle for justice and fairness, for basic human rights. And to think, all this, because someone was close by and pressed a button on a mundane piece of technology.

What started with Rodney King and escalated to the images of Neda’s death signifies a turning of the tables, signifies a power that people have never before had, one that has come to us because of progress (which is why I never understand why some people are against “progressives,” but anyway….) We can now police the government and police the police, and in the most ordinary ways (just a side note, I think government and police are both necessary entities, but it’s up to us to make sure they operate effectively.) Twitter, YouTube, and facebook then allow for this policing to happen instantaneously, by large masses of people. It’s insanely powerful…to witness the truth, without need for a judge and jury to figure out what happened.

Question is, what do we do with this power? The Rodney King incident (and many like it) have come an gone, nobody held accountable, and to be real, nothing much has changed – all the recommendations on policing that were made by experts, well, they’re still just that: recommendations (but, trust me, we’re still trying!) So, what of Neda’s death? Will we be sitting here, twenty years from now, saying the same thing…nothing much has changed? I hope not. I think we have to realize that posting images, tweeting, and updating your facebook status is just the first step. Speaking up is only the first step. Then you have to roll up your sleeve and do something about it to create change. Images are powerful; images are worth thousands of words. But action, that’s what counts in the long run.

I’ll be thinking this weekend of Neda Agha-Soltan, of Rodney King, of Oscar Grant (an unarmed man whose shooting death by BART officers in Oakland was captured on cell phones), of the 74-year-old Texan grandmother (who was seen on tape as she was tasered by an officer for arguing with him). There are countless others. I’ll be thinking of what else we can do to make sure their sacrifice wasn’t in vein.

Persians on Prince of Persia

Since news of the making of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time hit the airwaves last year, we Iranians have been anxiously waiting to see how this movie makes us look. Granted, it’s an adaptation of a video game into a movie, it has no basis in history and makes no claims about being factual whatsoever. But these things matter. For better or worse, what Hollywood projects – be it fact or fiction – makes a lasting impression. And as a community, we’ve had our share of bad publicity. You could say we have an image problem and we’re tired of being portrayed as terrorists, bloodthirsty, ruthless warriors, or religious fundamentalist…or repressed women for that matter. After all, the most well known blockbusters representing Iranians have been Not Without My Daughter and 300 (I shudder to think….)

I mean come on, we come from the land of the largest known empire in ancient history, the land of Rumi, the land of the first human rights proclamation by Cyrus the Great, of Zarathustra and the oldest monotheistic religion in the world. Trust me, there’s plenty to choose from to make enthralling and compelling movies. But I digress.

But then the critiques started. People started complaining that all the main actors were white, saying how Hollywood should have cast a Persian actor to play Dastan, the main hero. I even heard people were calling for a boycott. Are you serious? This has got to be an improvement and we should recognize that. I mean, heck, a Persian character as the hero in a movie, don’t you think that’s a step in the right direction?

And, this is business…movies don’t usually make money unless the cast is well known. Wouldn’t we rather have a lot of people go see this film and be exposed to a Persian hero? It strikes me as odd. Many of us go around arguing how we are “white” – which by the way, we most certainly are not, at least not in this country, but this is a topic for another discussion – to the point where we have to hold a national educational campaign to let folks know how to fill out the U.S. census forms. Now we’re upset that a white actor was cast as Dastan? Sounds to me like we need to make up our minds, can’t have it both ways.

So, I finally went to see the film. Let me just say, I’m no movie critic, but if this film’s mission was to present an adaptation of a video game, it did a great job. Trust me, it was apparent that this movie was fictional. I mean Dastan did like three back flips before getting onto his horse. So, let’s take it and accept it for what it is. And people seemed to like it: the audience even clapped at the end of the movie (which I’m sure didn’t happen at the end of Not Without My Daughter.)

The more fundamental question is how come we call for a boycott when we’re portrayed negatively (as in 300) and we call for a boycott when we’re portrayed as heroes? Why can’t we stop reacting and think about what we can do to help our community progress? Seems perhaps a more calculated reaction of “we like this film because it doesn’t show us murdering, kidnapping, religious fanatics, but we hope in the future we can make x, y, and z improvements,” would have served us better.

See, it’s not about a movie, it’s about us as a community and figuring out what we need to do to be better represented. It’s about whether we can agree on what we want, agree to get along and work, first with each other and then with other communities, to establish ourselves as a distinct and respected minority in the U.S.

And about our (mis)representation in the movies, let’s face it, we’re a pretty well off community with a lot of resources, and at this point we have enough talented Iranians in Hollywood to make a fantastic film about Iran and Iranians. We just have to want to.

It’s up to us really.



p.s. Someone please tell me, why do they always put such heavy eyeliner on Middle-Eastern men in the movies?