Foreigners (Farangi's) of Iran: Recent Episodes
Jessica Emami
Foreigners of Iran is an oral history project about the lives of Westerners who were in Iran between 1940 and the 1979 Islamic revolution. In this podcast I interview them. This project transcends US-Iran political hostilities by focusing on person-to-person connections. These Iran-Western connections during that era forever touched Iranians and forever emotionally connected Western visitors to Iran, with Iranians.
International development expert and master gardener Linda Fidjeland spent most of her childhood living abroad because her father was in the airline industry. Seven of those years were in Tehran. In this first of two episodes, we focus on her difficulties adapting to leaving Iran, and her life afterwards. Part 2 shall focus on her uncommonl delightful life and adventures as a child in Iran.
Born in Los Angeles to Armenian-Iranian parents Gayane Anahid Kazarians is a Planetary Protection Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Currently, she is actively involved with the Planetary Protection Group, particularly as a team member for both the InSight and Mars 2020 Missions.
Anahid’s parents had immigrated to the United States from Iran but decided to move back to Tehran where Anahid attended Iranzamin-Tehran International School and graduated in 1977.
With the onset of the 1979 Revolution, Anahid and her parents moved back to the United States where she received a Bachelors Degree in Microbiology from the University of California, at Los Angeles, (UCLA), in 1984.
Retired Chief Master Sgt. Barry Cantor was a broadcaster in Iran for the Armed Forces Radio Television Service (AFRTS). AFRTS ceased to operate on October 25, 1976, the day before Shah's 57th birthday. He talks about his heady days in Iran, the place where he met his future wife of now 46 years.
We have a clip of Cantor playing Roger Whittaker's "Durham Town (The Leaving)" followed by a closing announcement by Chief Master Sergeant and Station Manager Bob Woodruff ("After 22 years of audio broadcasting and 17 years of telecasting in Tehran, AFRTS Radio 1555 and TV Channel 7 cease all operations in this country at this time.
Kathy Weiss Ragheb and her four siblings found themselves in Iran when her father signed up for the opportunity in the mid 1970s. An internationalist who bridges herself to other cultures, Kathy has always sought foreign adventure and aspired to teach her children the same values.
The first 30 minutes focuses on Kathy's Iran experience, and after that, we hear about internationalism in Fairfax County Schools, and Kathy's new life on her farm in Vilcabamba, Ecuador. Ever the naturalist, Kathy has horses, chickens, dogs, exotic flora and fauna...
Polish Communications expert and journalist Agnieszka Wasak came to Iran twice, once as a baby in 1961-1965, and again from 1972 - 1977.Her father was the Commercial attache from Poland to Iran.
After graduating from the last "normal" class of Iranzamin - Tehran International School in 1978, Agnieszka returned to Poland to complete higher education, working with Time-Life Corporation as a journalist and Nestle Corporation as Poland's Communications Director. She continues to remember her years in Iran warm-heartedly.
We discuss Tehran International School, friendships, travel, the fall of the Soviet Union, Persian Cuisine, and the availability of chelokabab in Warsaw...
Bulgarian Travel and Tourism Expert Antoinette Perjova Shishmanova came to Iran because her father was appointed as the lead bassoonist in the Roudaki Hall Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory. Speaking only Bulgarian at first, she mastered English and Farsi as a child and went on to study American Literature at University of Tehran, until the revolution's violence caused her to flee Tehran for Bulgaria.
After graduating from Oxford University in the UK in Physics, Roland Morley drove from the UK to Iran in 1973. He took a job as a physics teacher, and along the way found his life partner. Sadly, they left Iran just before the revolution. Here is Roland's story.
Janusz Kobryner lived in Iran in his childhood, attending international schools. When the Iranian government allowed Poles to stay there after the revolution, he found himself standing by his apartment window watching as the Fedayeen lobbing bullets and molotov cocktails at the Mujahedeen e Khalgh near the Hilton Hotel. Others may have been involved! In his spare time, Janusz would enjoy conversations as Darband with playwright Ryszard Kapuściński and others!
Dutch-Persian children's books author Persia Rakers describes her sweet, interesting childhood navigating independent Dutch culture with guarded Iranian culture. She describes her return to Iran nearly 40 years after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Last but not least, she tells us how the memories of her beloved, late mother motivated her to write a children's book about being bicultural.
Former airline executive turned creative actor, writer, producer and artist Kayo Jijina describes growing up as a Parsi (from India) in Tehran from birth to age 16. He talks about how his father, the first mechanical engineer for Iran Air, his school, Iranzamin Tehran International School, his family's religion, jube dogs, matchmaking and arranged marriages, his children and grandchildren, and more.
In this podcast I interview Mikhal Dekel about her book which investigates the odyssey of her father and aunt's escape - as children during WWII - from Nazi and Soviet theaters of war and genocide, traveling through Tehran, Iran. I inquire about the personal and historic aspects of the journey, and discuss the new framework Dekel has uncovered for the story of the 250,000 of about 3 million Polish Jews who survived extermination by escaping East into Soviet prison camps. The story of the approximately one thousand Jewish children who are relocated to Israel is the most personal aspect of Mikhal's story, as her family members are two of the "Tehran Children".