Persian POWER

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By Stan Brin

Arezou Bakhtjou considers herself typical of young Iranian-American professionals. She
is university-educated, works as a licensed real estate broker and expects to enroll at
Whittier law school next fall with an eye on becoming a patent attorney.

But Bakhtjou is not a typical immigrant: She has been living in the United States for only
18 months. While even most Iranian-Americans consider her story somewhat unusual,
she illustrates the rapid success this new local community has experienced in the past
25 years. From the Moshayedi brothers, founders of SimpleTech, a $300-million public
company included on Inc. Magazine’s list of the Fastest Growing Companies in America, to Paul Makarechian, owner of the St. Regis Resort and Spa in Dana Point, to Dr. Fardad Fateri, former president of DeVry
University, Iranians have achieved prominence in every aspect of business and the professions, from high-tech to education and the arts.

Persian accents are heard everywhere in Orange County, especially in Irvine and the South County area, but most people don’t know who
Iranian-Americans are. In fact, nobody seems to know how many Iranian-Americans actually live in Orange County.

Worse, Iranian-Americans have had a difficult time being recognized as a distinct community by the public, the mass media, even the
government, all of which tend to confuse them with Arab-Americans.

“We’re not Arabs!”

But as any Iranian-American will tell you, Persians are not Arabs, any more than Koreans are Japanese.

“Meaning no disrespect to Arab-Americans,” they tell everyone who will listen. “We are very proud of our own culture, our own language,
cuisine and history.”

In fact, relations between Iran, or Persia, as the country was traditionally called, and the Arab world have been tense for many centuries (see
sidebar, “The Tragic Pageant of Persian History”). And nothing annoys Iranian-Americans more than being mistaken for Arabs * their accent
and appearance is very different.

Furthermore, most Iranian-Americans consider themselves to be secular refugees from theocratic tyranny. They have no connection,
whatsoever, with the current government of Iran, which they contemptuously dismiss as the “mullah regime.” In fact, many Iranian-
Americans are not Muslim at all, but Jews, Bahais, Christians and even followers of the Zoroastrian religion of the ancient Persian Empire.

Undercounted?

No one knows how many Iranians and Iranian-Americans live in the United States. Census figures indicate a nationwide population of
roughly 330,000, but the Washington-based National Iranian American Council estimates that the actual number is at least 3 times as high.
According to an NIAC report, this undercount is due to the lack of an “Iranian” box on census forms. Anyone who wants to be counted as of
Iranian descent must specifically write in his or her origin by hand.

One thing is clear: While there are many working-class Iranians who can be seen stocking shelves at local discount stores, the majority are
well-educated, high-achievers.

NIAC Executive Director Dokhi Fassihian says, “Iranians rank as having the highest percentage of master’s degrees of any ethnic group in
the United States. Iranian culture puts a great deal of value on education, more than on other aspects of life.”

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The cream of the crop

This trait may explain the success of Iranian-Americans in the professions: They see education
as an asset that can last throughout their lifetimes. In general, they want stability and are not
after the quick buck.

The Moshayedi brothers ­ Manouch, Mike and Mark ­ are examples of this class of educated
Iranian-Americans. SimpleTech, the computer memory company they founded in 1990, is one of
Orange County’s leading high-tech firms, employing 400 people. The company manufactures
and markets a comprehensive line of more than 2,500 memory and storage products through a
worldwide network of distributors. All 3 brothers are engineers, and Mark and Manouch hold
MBAs, as well.

Makarechian, 30, is president and CEO of Makar Properties. Besides owning the $350 million
St. Regis Resort and Spa, the UC Santa Barbara graduate is developing luxury hotels and
communities from La Jolla to Palm Beach, including Pacific City in Huntington Beach, a high-
end, oceanfront project that will include 516 condominiums; 191,000 square feet of retail,
restaurant and office space; and a 400-room resort hotel. Born in Tehran, he grew up in the
Untied States after his father, Hadi Makarechian, fled from post-revolutionary Iran.


Farzad Nazem
Yahoo! Inc. -Chief Technical Officer and Executive
Vice President, Engineering and Site Operations



“The mullah’s loss is America’s gain,” adds attorney Babak Sotoodeh of Tustin, founder and president of the Alliance of Iranian- Americans.
“Imagine what has happened ­ the cream of educated Iranian society has moved here, bringing all their skills with them.”

“The mullah’s loss is America’s gain,” adds attorney Babak Sotoodeh of Tustin, founder and president of the Alliance of Iranian- Americans.
“Imagine what has happened ­ the cream of educated Iranian society has moved here, bringing all their skills with them.”

Some attended Iranian universities and immigrated; more attended American graduate schools and stayed on after earning advanced
degrees, often working at menial jobs as they worked to become established. According to the old joke, “You could always tell which taxi
driver is Persian ­ he’s the one with Ph.D. on his license.”

In fact, the Persian community in the United States consisted mainly of students and former students until the “Islamic Revolution” of 1979
forced an entire educated class to emigrate. Many were loyal to a secular monarchy, others feared being sucked up by the meat grinder of
the 8-year-long Iran-Iraq war, still others saw their businesses dry up as wealthy clerics gained a stranglehold on the national economy.

Dr. Fardad Fateri of Newport Coast was typical of the student-immigrants: He came to this country in 1981, when he was 16. He received a
BA from UC Irvine, an MA in social sciences from Cal State Fullerton and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from U.S. International in San
Diego ­ now called Alliant International University. He later did post-doctoral work at Harvard.

Dr. Fateri maintains that Iranian-American’s high level of education has allowed them to slip into the American mainstream with
unprecedented speed. “The Iranian community has culturally assimilated faster than every other community that I have studied. Persians
have been here in large numbers only since the 1980s, but we live among the general population rather than in isolated neighborhoods,
and we intermarry.”




Building a community

Dr. Fateri suspects that an important reason why Iranian-Americans have chosen to assimilate is the collapse of religious interest in their
native country. “Only non-Muslim Iranians, such as Bahais, Jews and Zoroastrians, are tied to their religious communities; the rest of us don’
t think that way. We are just Iranians.

“In Iran, there is nothing left to believe in, which can make us cynics ­ disappointed idealists.”
Throughout American history, new immigrant communities organized around churches, synagogues and even Buddhist temples. They also
tended to move into distinct, ethnic neighborhoods.
While there is a local Shiah mosque, few Iranian immigrants are religious. And while there is a concentration of immigrants in Irvine, they
live everywhere, from Seal Beach to San Clemente. As a result, they don’t yet have a network of social service organizations. There is, for
example, no Iranian-American equivalent of the Jewish Federation of Orange County, a secular umbrella group whose constituent
organizations provide everything from day care to lunches for seniors.

But they are trying, by using the one tool a community of sophisticated professionals knows very well: networking.

“Our initial strategy is to connect the community through business and cultural networking,” says Hossein Hosseini, president of the
Network of Iranian-American Professionals of Orange County.
NIPOC sponsors social mixers, an annual trade show and the famous “Mehregan Persian Harvest Festival,” which attracts 20,000 people to
the Orange County Fairgrounds every fall for a 2-day, 12-hour festival of food, live music, traditional costumes, games ­ and more food.
“Mehregan originated with the ancient Persian Zoroastrian religion followed by our ancestors,” says Hosseini. “The date is normally set by
the ancient Persian calendar, but in America, Mehregan isn’t a national holiday, so we have to schedule it on a weekend. This year it is on
Oct. 2 and 3.”
Hosseini hopes to see his organization become a seed for a more organized Iranian-American community. “Eventually, we hope to be able
to hire an executive director, and provide a broad array of educational and charitable services.”

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The shock of 9/11

Arab-Americans weren’t the only ones who felt the sting of the 9/11 backlash.
Extremists assaulted turban-wearing Sikhs from India, and the FBI seemingly
arrested just about anyone who had the misfortune of being born in a country with a
government that supported terrorism.
Among those caught up in the chaos were thousands of immigrants from Iran.
“Iranians were asked to report to the FBI,” says attorney Sotoodeh. “Thousands did ­
just to be law-abiding ­ and all of them were arrested. The FBI even harassed Iranian
engineers at work, telling co-workers that they want to interview them about terrorism
­ and they never found anything.”

What shocked Sotoodeh even more was officials’ ignorance about Iranian culture
and society. “They thought that we spoke Arabic! They even arrested an Israeli
because he was born in Iran. What does he have to do with al-Qaeda? But they
refused to listen.”



As a result of these struggles, Sotoodeh formed the Alliance of Iranian-Americans, a nonpartisan group active here and in Los Angeles. The
AIA seeks to intervene in 9/11-related cases and to build public awareness. “We want to inform other Americans and public officials about
who we are, that we are not a threat. We also want to inform our own community about their rights and their role in society. We want them to
get involved.”

Sotoodeh adds, “Many are afraid the government will put everyone in internment camps, like the Japanese-Americans.”
Easing into politics

Politics, American-style, doesn’t come easily to Iranian-Americans. They are, by custom, extremely formal and polite, even “Old World.” At
mixers sponsored by NIPOC, every handshake is accompanied by a bow. One almost expects to see the members in top hats and
monocles, as they cheer on the Lakers.

They also come from a country that has known the forms of democracy for nearly a century, but has never enjoyed the reality. And for that
reason, they distrust politicians, and many are afraid that they could get into trouble if they take a stand on public issues. The result is a
population that is not eager to join the rough-and-ready political life they see in this country.

“We aren’t used to speaking up, even though we now have the numbers to be heard,” says Hosseini. “We may be educated and worldly, but
we don’t know how to be influential, how to work the political system. People don’t know that you can write to a congressman about some
problem and expect an answer. Instead, politicians of both parties tend to see us as ATM machines, and they forget about us after elections.”


An Iranian-American who has entered the political fray is Irvine optometrist Dr. Mosen Alinaghian, a community pioneer who immigrated to
California in 1968. A veteran of civic affairs in Fountain Valley and Irvine, Dr. Alinaghian is running for Irvine’s 4-seat city council. He is well-
spoken about Irvine civic affairs ­ and outspoken about its numerous problems, including sclerotic streets not built to handle the city’s
current daytime population.

More to come?

Among Iranian-Americans, opinions concerning the theocracy ruling their homeland range from mild disgust to visceral revulsion. Some
want to see the regime left alone to slowly rot away; others want to see it overthrown by another “shock and awe” campaign.
All, however, expect the current regime to fall within a few years.

If that happens, Orange County can expect a sudden spike in immigration, as the country slowly reorders its society and economy. Then
immigration will likely taper off, as have previous waves from Europe and Asia. And as U.S.-born Iranian-Americans join the American
melting pot, the ubiquitous Persian accent may go the way of the Irish brogue.

But by the time, jars of fesenjan will sit next to marinara in every supermarket, possibly to be served with corn chips ­ and no one will
confuse Persians with Arabs, or the other way around.

Note: The local Bahai and Zoroastrian communities did not respond by press time. OCM