Iranian Refugees
According to Mary Pipher, the author of The Middle of Everywhere, “The United Nations defines a refugee as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country because of a well-founded fear of persecution” (Pipher 18). Mona, a middle-aged woman who came from Iran back in the 1980’s, defines herself as a refugee. When I asked her why, she responded by explaining how her government restricted much of her freedom and how “the police had no tolerance” and were “willing to kill.” She claimed that the government was very similar to that of the Soviet Union, which before the early 1990’s was a communist country. Another major reason of exile from Iran is poverty. Over half of the population of Iran lives below the poverty line (Habeeb 68). For Iranians, several different factors contribute to the difficulty of being a refugee, including the change in clothing, gender roles, and religion. Ultimately, the most challenging aspect of assimilating into America is the adaptation to the socioeconomic change caused by leaving their families, government, society, and Iran's cheap living costs in order to start a new life with basically nothing, and no one, to help them.
Family is highly valued in Iran and “is the most important social institution in Iran. The honor and unity of the family is of primary importance, and an individual is expected to conform to the family’s wishes on important decisions, such as marriage and career” (Habeeb 80). The position of one’s social class, economic and political standing, and other types of classification is almost entirely dependent on how united and developed that particular individual’s family is. This doesn’t just apply to the nuclear family such as children, parents, sisters or brothers (Hooglund 109).
This is also true to the extended family. Surprisingly, even grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other distant relatives are not so distant to each other in Iran (Hooglund 109). In fact, family members constantly visit each other, but this is not very difficult because they typically live in the same community. This is customary in the country of Iran. When a family’s child gets married, the bride’s side of the family moves near the groom’s side of the family if they don’t already live close to each other. I recently asked a friend what the community in Iran was like when he visited some of his family and he said, “When I visited Iran, [his family] all lived in these apartments where they were either next to, across from, below, or above each other.” Because that is so uncommon in the United States, he was very surprised by this. He explained to me how they helped each other and would ask each other for favors. A couple times he walked down the road and picked up some bread or other small things for them. It is actually a very common occurrence for family members, or even friendly neighbors, to ask such things (Babaie).
In Iran, the biggest holiday they celebrate, called Now Ruz which also means New Years when translated to English, is centered on family. It focuses on family by promoting family gatherings which include feasts parties, singing, music, and poetry. It is meant to celebrate new life much like an exaggerated version of the American concept of the New Year’s Resolution. Many families have traditions on this holiday that typically bring families closer together (Spencer 51-53). With all the things Iranian families go through together, a strong emotional bond is created.
Along with the social aid they receive in Iran, they also have an economic advantage when you compare the price of living in Iran to the price of living in the United States. This is mostly due to the abundant amount of petroleum, oil, and natural gas. These natural resources are the country’s leading exports and account for 80 percent of the nation’s exported goods (Spencer 17). Natural gas is responsible for 54 percent of Iran’s energy usage in domestic households