Funny in Farsi

Firoozeh Dumas Storytelling is the oldest profession. It connects us to one another and to our past.

photo credit: Stephanie Rausser

Author Biography

Firoozeh Dumas was born in Abadan, Iran and moved to Whittier, California at the age of seven. After a two-year stay, she and her family moved back to Iran and lived in Ahvaz and Tehran. Two years later, they moved back to Whittier, then to Newport Beach.
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Influences

My father's oral story telling. Listening to my mother and aunts talk constantly about the minutiae in their lives. The Whittier Public Library.

Web Links

Firoozeh Dumas' website

Synopsis:

Funny in Farsi is a series of 27 humorous vignettes chronicling my family's immigration to America from Abadan, Iran. We came here in 1972 when there were few Iranians in the United States. The one time we ran into an Iranian was at the mall (of course!). The excitement, awe and relief was palpable, like two polar bears meeting in Hawaii. We immediately invited them over for dinner the following weekend.

The book covers serious topics as well, like the difference in the way we were treated before and after the 1979 hostage situation. I learned then how quickly people jump on the hatred bandwagon. Within a one week period, I went from being from this country where our carpets supposedly fly to being from a country where we all are terrorists. That experience eventually led to my becoming a writer and sharing my stories with others. It's all about shared humanity, with a few laughs along the way.

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