Comments
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Please write any comments and/or feedback you can think of in the box below.
All comments are greatly appreciated and welcomed.
pporegbal@hotmail.com
Thank you!
It is good to see that someone has taken the initiative to help the fellow Iranain Canadians living in Vancouver. I agree with you. We need to come together as a community to be heard, otherwise, we will have no voice; and if we have no voice, we will not receive the much needed assistance that we require.
Hi Poran! Great website, I’m excited for you and I think you’re going to really make a difference with this- way to go!!
Cheers,
Lina
It is so great to see the interest that this amazing websie shares in multiculturalism! I myself am a person with a mixed ethnenticity, multicultural peace and acceptance are key in my life and I thrive on “middle peace”. Keep up the good work and share the love
Poran,
I enjoy the personal stories you have shared on this website. We are in need of something like this here in Vancouver. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Sonja
Hi Poran!
Love your website, I think that it is very interesting and the subjects that you bring up are very true and I hope that this site, together with the work you do might help many Iranians.
Even thou I live in Sweden, I see the same problems arise here also and some of the observations that you make regarding the Iranian culture, brought to the Iranians new homes many time collide with the culture of their new home.
I hope you will be able to keep up this good job!
Good luck!
Dear Pouran,
Congratulations. Great job. You have brought fantastic issues to the table.
But I’m very sorry to say that; the Web site’s back ground color reminds me of war and gives me lots of anxiety.
Dear Friend
Thanks for your comment and I am happy that you liked the topics. About the background color, I am sorry that it brings you anxiety. I was thinking that Oranage has a deep meaning of change. I searched for the psychology of colors and I found this website:
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/orange.htm
About orange it says that:
Flamboyant and Energetic :Orange is vibrant. It’s a combination of red and yellow so it shares some common attributes with those colors. It denotes energy, warmth, and the sun. But orange has a bit less intensity or aggression than red, calmed by the cheerfulness of yellow.
Nature of Orange: As a warm color orange is a stimulant — stimulating the emotions and even the appetite. Orange can be found in nature in the changing leaves of fall, the setting sun, and the skin and meat of citrus fruit.
Culture of Orange: Orange brings up images of autumn leaves, pumpkins, and (in combination with Black) Halloween. It represents the changing seasons so in that sense it is a color on the edge, the color of change between the heat of summer and the cool of winter.
Because orange is also a citrus color, it can conjure up thoughts of vitamin C and good health. I encourage you to write a letter to us and share your anxiety with others, I am sure that many of us still have the anxiety of many horrible things that happened to us. Let’s share them and have a good discussion. We have suppressed our emotions too long, it is time to express them and find a way for living a much deserved happy life.
Regards: Poran
http://www.middlepeace.com
Dear Poran
I read your article about jokes, and I found it very interesting and insightful. As an Azeri Iranian, my whole life I’ve had bad feelings when I heard jokes targeting and stereotyping the Azeri people. Some of my friends tell me not to take it so seriously, it’s just a joke, but, as you know, in the (NLP) psychology ever word has an effect. Everyone is responsible for the effects of their words on others. The author Nadir Ebrahimi thinks racist jokes are not from an accidental origin, but rather have a negative origin and purpose.
Mina
rooyeshgroup.blogspot.com
Jag bor i Sverige, Stockholm. Den här websidan är intressant och läsa särskild för mig som arbetar med socialt arbete inom socialpsykiatrin. Jag vill gärna besöka den här websidan för att kunna få information inom dessa område.
Hello
Very interesting information! Thanks!
Bye
Hi
Very interesting website. Keep up the outstanding work and thank you…A
Dear Poran
I would like to say a special thank you by this way for your useful site and all your speech in Rooyesh Group.
It is very good to see somebody from same culure has good ideas to find solution for immigrant families.
I have some of your articls in Rooyesh Group weblog , like “trust or mistrust” when we had a night talking about relationship in marriage.
I also like your poem “Growth” which takes me to the time i found new meaning of life. and to rap my comment I love all of your articles and found them very interesting and practical.
Keep up the good job and good luck.
Dear poran,
This is a very interesting and practical site. I always learn from and enjoy reading your articles. I wish you all the best.
Afsoun
Dear Poran,
Congratulations, for the great success in receiving your M.A. in Clinical Counselling.
Wish you all the best.
Ali, Afsoun Khoddami
I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my site? Thank you in advance.
Comment received Dec 21,2009:
Where and how do I begin? I am a white woman being stalked and harassed by not just one Persian man but a community. I don’t understand the reaction and can only assume there is a cultural aspect. He seemed to be uncomfortable with something I said to him over a year ago; I wasn’t insulting just emotional. He didn’t talk to me but instead used young Persians (males mostly) to yell at me and harass me on the street (???). (I say young because he is in his mid-forties). I became angry with the harassment, ignored it as much as I could, but I fought back by insulting him. The harassment increased. He never could confront me but used others for the harassment. They began to follow me around. It seems many other members of the Persian community became involved. Over this past year and a half, many more outside of the Persian community were recruited to help harass me.
He lies about what I do, slanders my character, makes false police reports and gets others to insult and threaten me. But when no one is looking, he stares longingly after me. He has been doing that from the beginning. It’s like he has a dual personality. I find out from others the lies he has been spreading, such as accusing me of stalking him, but he likes to walk under my window and around my apartment building (I never told him where I live. It’s easy enough to find out but he, and others, know exactly which window is mine. That took some surveillance.)
He has a Persian girlfriend but that doesn’t stop him from watching me after dark on my street when I return to my apartment. He seems to have moved into an apartment across the street from mine in the last few months. He watches me from the window when I’m loading my car. However, he maintains the rumor that I am a threat to him and somehow convinces others to watch me. Why is he in my neighborhood (where I have lived for over 10 years) if he feels threatened by me; so much so that he has called the police! (?)
I don’t understand why he behaves this way. He clearly is fascinated by me (obsessed I guess you would call it) but behaves so cruelly. Yes, I really insulted him in the past ( I called him a coward and used obscene language) but that was in response to the harassment. I guess Persian men don’t accept women defending themselves. I don’t know but I haven’t made any contact for the longest time. Yet this still goes on. And, if this were just one man I would just attribute it to this person’s problem but it seems to be a cultural problem. Why have so many (Persians, at first) gotten involved in something that was just a conflict between two people? Why was he not able to respond himself and instead chose to get others to follow and harass me?
I’m hoping you could offer me some insight into Persian male culture and why they would respond this way. In the west, this is not how one would respond. It’s so extreme and hateful and vengeful. For what?
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Respond Dec 21,2009:
Tanya
Thanks for sharing your story. I believe harassment and stalking are criminal acts that has to be reported to Police for further actions. I would agree that some men; Persian or not, have hard time to hear “No”, still these men despite of their nationality can have mental health issues or other problem,s; yet they should be accountable for what they do. Please do not hesitate to contact your police authorities as harassment and stalking are very serious issues. People who harass or are obsessed with someone they are seriously in need of clinical help. I will write more about this issue in relation to some important cultural factors.
Poran Poregbal/ Editor
Middlepeace website
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Comment received: Dec22,2009
I think you need to
address the Persians culture attitude toward women, especially when they are
living in a Western culture. The feminist revolution has changed a lot for women
in the West and we fought hard for it. Unfortunately, non-Western cultures don’t
understand the autonomy of Western women and react archaically. Yes, there are
plenty of misogynistic western men but the overall culture is less tolerant of
their actions. There seems to be a culturally accepted reinforcement of misogyny
in non-Western cultures that not only affects the women of these cultures but,
from an immigration standpoint, is beginning to spill over into these men’s
reactions to women in the Western world. Unfortunately, I think Persian and
Indian men (to name just two) see women as less than men. Thinking they are
being supportive of women when they praise women for being care-givers, they see
women as nothing else. A feminist revolution needs to put into force in
your and other non-Western cultures. There are seeds growing and I would love to
help force this movement but it needs to come from women in non-Western
communities. However, as long as they see no need or are pressured by a
collectivist culture to behave in a certain way, there will not be a mass
movement.
I can imagine the difficulties of trying to adapt a
collectivist culture into an individualistic one but less emphasis on the
“group” and more emphasis on individual responsibility is needed, not only for
the freedom of non-Western women but also for the freedom of everyone. I think
Martin Luther King stated: “No one is free, until everyone is free.” Is
that not what new immigrants want? They left the repressive governments
and situations in their homeland to enjoy the freedom of the West. But
to relegate women to a subordinate position, destroys any hope for this
freedom.
I would love to help you in your pursuit for social
justice.
Thank you,
Tanya