Humor for Humanity, a refreshing concept

I was first introduced to Firoozeh Dumas’ book Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, when I was living in D.C. My mom sent me her book as part of one of the occasional care packages she would send me filled with things like cards, pictures of my first nephew (growing up without me), nail filer and other random things. These little care packages I suspect were bait to move me back to San Francisco. Even so I always loved the packages and this one with Funny in Farsi was my favorite. Reading the book at the time while living away from home for the first time, and being thousands of miles away from the frustrating family drama inherent in Persian families, allowed me to actually appreciate the funny cultural idiosyncrasies of my family. Like her I had moved to America when I was young (6) and had grown up trying to find my place between the two very different cultures. At that time Firoozeh Dumas’ writing was a fun companion on homesick nights.

Last week I had the pleasure of actually hearing her talk at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. She was interviewed by Dr. Jaleh Daie, another very accomplished Iranian woman. Hearing her talk about family, writing, politics, culture and my favorite subject food was a lot of fun and I was happy to discover that beyond liking her writing she is a very likeable person. I’ve found sometimes that there is a disconnect between a person’s work and who they are. But in this case, I found that I enjoyed her work and her genuine humanity!

During the talk the topic turned to politics a few times. Politics is hard to avoid when it comes toIran, especially these days. One of the questions was why she doesn’t actively talk about Iranian politics and use her status to protest it. While I do think that if you read her blog posts and articles she definitely shares her opinions but her speaking engagement and book topics are focused on culture and not just politics. I liked the way Mrs. Dumas addressed these questions. She said that she tries not to solely talk about Iranian politics because it’s the only thing that Americans really know about Iranians. Instead she tries to share a cultural secret- our humor. I never realized this before but it’s true Iranians are really funny! I always thought we are funny to ourselves but her book has been embraced by many Americans because of its humor. Funny in Farsi was a finalist for Thurber Prize for American Humor, but lost to Jon Steward. Proof that Americans find her almost as funny as Jon Steward.

Her new book Laughing Without an Accent is as delicious as the first. My favorite story is the last one in which she describes the road trip she takes with one of the American hostages from the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. In this story through humor she conveys our shared humanity, which is something that will not make the 7pm news, so you’ll have to get her book to actually learn about it.