Persian pop music booming from a laptop and speakers, traditional clothing hanging on the walls and books on display greeted those attending “Farhang: A Celebration of Culture, Food and Tradition” on Wednesday night in the International House in Earl Hall.
Club Persia hosted the event, which included traditional Iranian food, a slide show of pictures from Iran and belly dancing from members of the Arab Student Union.
While waiting for dinner, a packed room watched a slide show with photos from Tehran, Esfahan, Shomal and Persepolis. Club Persia co-founders Babak Ghafarzade and Laila Taraghi presented the photos, which were a compilation from their journeys to Iran. Taraghi spent eight months in Iran last year studying the Farsi language.
One photo taken from Tehran contained a mountain with snow in the background, proof that it does snow in Iran and that it isn’t “just a big desert,” Ghafarzade told the audience. The photographs from Shomal also revealed a different climate and landscape than a lot of people think of when picturing Iran.
Some of the photos drew laughter from the audience. One photo of a grandfather’s pizza box had Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders on it; Ghafarzade explained that there were a lot of knockoffs in Iran.
University student Rayna Verbeck said the slide show was “more personal than I was expecting,” but that it was good to see the different regions.
“You could see it wasn’t all a desert,” Verbeck said.
After the slide show, Ghafarzade and Taraghi answered questions. Ghafarzade told the audience that even though he was born outside of Iran, he is still considered an Iranian and was treated very well while he was there. He went to Iran before tensions rose between Iran and the United States and that people were excited to meet him and were very friendly.
Both Ghafarzade and Taraghi agreed that the average person in Iran was very excited to hear about life in America and believes in the American dream, but that American media tend to portray Iran as aggressive. They recommended Ted Koppel’s documentary “Iran – The Most Dangerous Nation” (The title of which is a critique of the common American view of the nation), saying Koppel tried to show more of Iran than do most news networks.
Taraghi spoke about women’s rights going back and forth in Iran. She said that Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian woman, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. Taraghi also talked about Iran facing the problems of AIDS and illegal drug usage. She said in some ways Iran is more progressive than the United States in dealing with these issues, by offering services like needle exchanges.
Once the slide show had concluded, people were invited to taste food including hummus, pita bread, potato and beef pancakes, salad Shirazi, chicken kabob, rice with saffron and Gheymeh, a split pea stew with lemon and tomatoes. Cards labeling the foods were written in both English and Farsi.
“This was a great opportunity to share information about Persian culture with the UO community,” said student Caitlin Frost, “especially right now.”
The evening concluded with members of the Arab Student Union performing a belly dancing routine.
Taraghi said the club usually meets every other Monday at a group member’s house or in the International Resource Center. Activities have included things like watching Iranian films, a backgammon night, and planning events like Farhang. The average college student with an interest in Persian culture is invited to join the club, Taraghi said.
Ghafarzade said the club is hoping to have a big event every year. They would like to center their event around the Persian New Year, which takes place in the spring, he said.
Ghafarzade was “really excited about the turnout” to Farhang. “I wasn’t expecting so many people.”