About Iranian Federated Women
501-3 Non Profit Organization

... is a local, non-profit, nonpolitical and non-religious organizations. Their mission is to integrate and empower the Iranian community, to promote arts and culture in the Bay Area by bringing educational services, scholarships and various cultural activities to the community. Payvand was been established since 1995. The Iranian Federated Women's Club was established in 1996.

IRAN
Also known as Persia

Iran, a country with a long history of advanced civilization, lies south of the former Soviet Union and Caspian Sea, west of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and east of Turkey and Iraq. The Persian Gulf is located on Iran's southern border. Iran (Persia), until only a few decades ago, was a country of nomadic pastoralists, peasant agriculturalists, craftsmen, and merchants and traders. Iran had long been involved in international trade, both by water through the Persian Gulf, and across land, as it was on the Silk Route. Iran was overrun by aggressive outsiders several times in its history, and has long been involved in and influenced by other cultures and contacts. Iran has contributed much to world civilization and culture, for example, in terms of early forms of government, poetry, religion, Persian carpets, international commerce, cuisine, music and learning. A country of great variety in terms of climate and terrain, its people are also found in great variety. Iran has been home to people of many religions: Shi'a and Sunni Muslims, Christians (Armenians and Assyrians),Bahais, Jews and Zoroastrians. In addition to the dominate Fars people, Turks, Kurds, Qashqai, Gillaki, Shahsavan, Turkamen, Baluch, Bandari, and Bakhtiari are some other ethnic and tribal groups. Iranians are divided into many language groups, and even Farsi (Persian) speakers use different dialects depending on the region where they live. People look different and dress differently and engage in different types of agriculture and production, depending on their local climate and natural resources.

In recent decades, Iran has experienced rapid modernization and industrialization. Although education at the beginning of the century was in maktabs or religious schools where students learned by rote, by mid-century a modern educational system was instituted and literacy rates climbed. With oil money, the infrastructure developed and the middle class grew. Iran was transformed: railroads, highways, modern cities, factories, and a growing, more educated population. Nomadic pastoralism declined. Subsistence agriculture declined, and people with resources invested money in cash crops, and even more in factories, construction, and real estate.

In the 1960s and 1970s particularly, international culture, politics, and economics influenced many aspects of Iranian life. Secular education largly replace the religious form of education, and institutions of higher education spread through out the county. Yet these educational institutions didn't grow fast enough to respond to the needs of the younger generation and the expanding job market. Increased oil prices financed development of higher education and creation of new jobs. Many Iranians traveled abroad for university education. In the 1970s Iranians formed the largest foreign student population in the United States.

Although education, life opportunities, and standards of living increased under the Shah's regim, these developments were uneven and did not benefit all segments of Iranian society. Disparity was particulary felt by the lower income class. Moreover, Iranians experienced little political freedom and democracy. In 1970s dissatisfaction grew and people of different socio-economic backgrounds and of various political and religious oriantations mobilized against the shah. The orchestrated efforts of the oposition brought about the Revolution of 1979 and the formation of "Islamic Republic of Iran".

In subsequent years after the revolution, dissatisfaction with the new regime's policis, coupled with the great suffering caused by the Iran and Iraq War, led to migration of thousands of Iranians abroad. and Iranians have now spread around the globe in the recent Iranian "diaspora," huge numbers have entered the U.S. Along with those Iranians who had come to the U.S. for education and then stayed to work, they number some 1 million. About 200,00.00 Iranians live in Southern California and perhaps 50,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to the most recent census,Iranians are well-educated and have proportionally six times as many doctoral degrees as Americans in general. Iranian-Americans are doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, business people, university professors, nurses, social workers, therapists, and--of course--in the Silicon Valley (Santa Clara Valley), many work with computers. Iranian-Americans have made outstanding, innovative contributions in medicine, science, and other fields.

Like all of the other immigrant groups to the U.S., Iranians are now attempting to find places for themselves in American society. They are sad at being away from their home country, but are developing lives in their new homes. Iranian-Americans are trying to learn about American society and culture and to work in it. Some of them are also trying to maintain aspects of their own culture, language, and traditions. some parents take their children to Farsi (Persian language) classes. Iranians celebrate their holidays, such as Nowruz--their spring New Year, the thirteenth day after the New Year which is devoted to picnicking, and the winter solstice. Like other Americans, Iranian-Americans in California's Bay Area are trying to combine busy work lives with personal lives, child-raising, and community involvement. More and more Iranian names can be seen in the various professions, arts, and local activities. Like the other immigrant groups from which all Americans--except Native Americans--are descended, Iranian-Americans are becoming integrated into American society.

By Dr. Mary Elaine Hegland, Department of Anthropology\Sociology, Santa Clara University Nov 19, 1997

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