NOT A PLACE BUT A CULTURE: THE CULTIVATION OF IRANIAN SUBJECTIVITY IN

KIANOOSH HASHEMZADEH INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC STUDIES MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL

AUGUST, 2009

A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Arts - Thesis

©Kianoosh Hashemzadeh 2009

For my grandmother, Tooba Saber.

Hashemzadeh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………………………………..iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………………………….iv

ABSTRACT/ABSTRAIT…………………………………………………………………………………….v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………………….….vi

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………………..1

CHAPTER ONE: SETTING THE SCENE…………………………………………………………….21

CHAPTER TWO: THE PAINTER AND THE POET…………………………………………….39

CHAPTER THREE: CAFÉLITT, CAFÉ CULTURE, & CAFÉ SABA………………………63

CHAPTER FOUR: CAFÉLITT AS AN ACTOR-NETWORK……………………………….…78

CONCLUSION: NOT A PLACE, BUT A CULTURE………………………………………..….99

WORKS CONSULTED…………………………………………………………………………..…………104

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ABSTRACT

This thesis analyzes how a network of Iranian artists and intellectuals, living in Montreal, cultivate a particular subjectivity by engaging in cultural practices such as weekly cultural gatherings which generally focus on literary, artistic, historical and/or philosophical discussions. In order to study this process I conducted an ethnographic study from June 2008- May 2009 primarily concerned with gathering qualitative research. The ethnography specifically focuses on two Iranian artists and a group called CaféLitt. It is through this cultural practices or practices of association that Iranians in Montreal engage with one another and certain discourses, such as Persian poetry and Iranian history, to cultivate/perform a particular sense of self. This thesis also presents space as an essential category of study and considers, by using a multi-dimensional definition of space borrowed from David Harvey, how the spaces Iranians in Montreal frequent – whether they be Iranian businesses, art galleries, cafes, etc – take an active role in the process of their subject formation. The self Iranians in Montreal cultivate is one that continues to be Iranian because of a repeated citation of key discourses that make Iranian culture, but this self is also transformed by the new space the immigrants exist in and by one of the goals of CaféLitt which is to practice certain ideas of liberal culture, including self-improvement through education.

ABSTRAIT

Cette thèse analyse la façon dont un réseau des artistes et des intellectuels, qui habitent à Montréal, cultivent une subjectivité. La groupe se livre aux exercices culturels comme des réunions hebdomadaires, et concentre sur des discussions littéraires, artistiques, historiques et/ou philosophiques. Pour étudier ce processus, j’ai mené une étude ethnographique de juin 2008 jusqu’à mai 2009. Essentiellement c’est une étude qui traite de recueillir de la recherche qualitative. Premièrement, l’ethnographie concentre sur deux artistes iraniens et une groupe qui s’appelle CaféLitt. C’est en se livrant aux exercices culturels ou les exercices de participation que les iraniens à Montreal cultivent un sentiment de soi. De plus, ce thèse présente l’espace, qui est une catégorie essentielle de l’étude. On considère la definition de l’espace multidimensionnel de David Harvey et la façon dont les espaces que fréquentent les iraniens à Montréal – soit les entreprises iraniennes, les galleries, les cafes, etc – jouent une rôle en formant l’identité. Les iraniens à Montréal cultivent un soi qui continue d’être iranien grâce à la citation répétée de discours iraniens, mais la soi est aussi transformé par les espaces neuves où existent les immigrés, et par un des buts de CaféLitt qui est de pratiquer des idées de la culture libérale, y compris le progrès personnel par l’enseignement.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The nature of ethnography is that it is a process that requires the help of many. My research involved many people who helped me along the way, offering their time, advice and showing a genuine interest in assisting with my project. The thesis would simply not have been possible without their cooperation. Because almost all of my actors have chosen to be indentified by pseudonyms, it is difficult to give direct due diligence to so many of the people who helped me. Everyone that I met at the sessions of CaféLitt and at MEKIC was always so forthcoming and respectful of my presence and the pursuit of my research. Many individuals made time in their busy schedules to met with me individually, helping me gain access into their viewpoints I particularly wish to thank Khosro Behramandi. Throughout this entire project he has shared his time so selflessly – whether it be discussing Iranian culture over dinner, practicing Persian while walking in Parc Mont Royal or attending events with me; without his support this thesis would look much different. His close friend, who also became my friend, Hossein Shahrang, also was very generous with both his time and knowledge. His wit and spirit made many moments of my research bright. The staff of the Islamic Studies Library has also been of much assistance throughout my research, especially Salwa Ferahian, Wayne St-Thomas, Charles Fletcher and Stephen Millier. I thank them for their help with locating certain materials throughout the course of my studies at McGill University. There are several others who have graciously assisted me in this project. Professor Roksana Bahramitash and Professor Ata Hoodastian met with me in the project’s early stages and urged me to think critically about different aspects of the research. Nicola Morgan translated the abstract under tight time constraints and I thank her for her quickness and patience. My colleagues, Candace Mixon, Safia Lakhani, Shirin Radjavi, Heather Empey, Chandra Powers, Aun Hasan Ali, Jehan Shibli and Eliza Tabashi all have offered me their insights at different points in my research. Several of the professors at the Institute exposed me to various theories and ideas and also allowed me to explore my ideas while I took courses with them. These include Professor Malek Abisaab, Professor Laila Parsons, Professor Michelle Hartman and especially my thesis adviser, Professor Setrag Manoukian. Professor Setrag Manoukian has guided me through this ambitious project at every step and allowed and encouraged me to take my research in ways that I saw fit. His classes exposed me to new ways of thinking and gave me particular insights into Iranian culture that were not only extremely valuable in the writing of this thesis, but also helped me to understand my own heritage. He has sat with me in his office for hours on end, gently guiding my research, but never dictating the course of my ethnography. I thank him for encouraging me to follow my own instincts while always providing carefully thought-out suggestions. My family has always been supportive of my pursuits – wherever they might take me - and I thank them for their unconditional patience and love.

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INTRODUCTION

This thesis analyzes how a network of Iranian artists and intellectuals, living in Montreal cultivate a particular subjectivity by engaging in cultural practices such as weekly cultural gatherings which generally focus on literary, artistic, historical and/or philosophical discussions. Following Bruno Latour1 I refer to these gatherings as “practices of association,” because the phrase highlights the repeated act of participants coming together. It is through these acts that individuals engage with one another and certain discourses, such as Persian poetry and Iranian history, to cultivate2 a particular sense of self. I focus on Persian poetry and

Iranian history as essential (and intertwined) discourses in the making of Iranian culture.

Iranians draw from the long history of their nation’s past to understand what makes them

Iranian as opposed to another nationality; it is the knowledge of this past that helps give

Iranians a particular sense of self. As will be further discussed in a later section, Persian poetry has long been a medium that is able to go places history simply cannot. The ambiguous nature of poetry allows it to express things that should not be said such a certain political ideas or the truth of disputed historical events. Iranians also turn to poetry for things like spiritual guidance as the Divan-î Hâfez is often used alongside of or in place of the Qur’ân at certain events such as weddings or during the Iranian New Year, Nûrûz. While history and poetry are

1 Burno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). 2 My use of the words cultivation and practice borrows from the work of Michel Foucault: Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, (New York : Vintage Books, 1995)., Judith Butler: (Judith Butler and Sara Salih. The Judith Butler Reader, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004) and Saba Mahmood: Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.) By using these words I am invoking that individuals are willfully engaging in a regular practice that creates a certain subjectivity. I refer to this process as cultivation. This thesis studies practices of association in which individuals engage in debate and discussion of certain intellectual or artistic topics, resulting in a certain self of sense. Hashemzadeh 2

not the only elements of Iranian culture, they are central and their importance becomes even more visible when Iranians are removed from homeland because to continue think of themselves as Iranian they must engage in cultivating aspects of what they think makes one

Iranian. For many Iranians, this seems to be the discussion and debate of history and poetry.

Through ethnographic research, this thesis will show how, while relying on the established discourses of history and poetry, how Iranians in Montreal cultivate a specific sense of self that is contingent on the “conditions of possibility”3 of Montreal, their status as immigrants as well as on the spaces where this sense of an “Iranian self” is cultivated.

I have attempted, in the spirit of Bruno Latour’s work Reassembling the Social: An

Introduction to Actor Network Theory, to follow different “associations” that the actors in the network I focus on have provided for me. It is essential to define these key phrases, as I will refer to them throughout the following pages. Latour believes that associations are essentially what compose the social. The ties or connections between various elements are associations.

Through tracing these associations and then reassembling them, one is able to discover what the social is made of.4 By actor, Latour means a variety of things – actors can be humans, things and/or groups. For example, certain individuals I have interacted with are actors; things such as a table in the room and groups also have the capacity to be actors. Actors, according to

Latour “do the sociology for the sociologists,” meaning that actors make things happen; they do “work.” The sum of the work of actors creates actor-networks, which Latour describes as

“not the source of action, but the moving target of a vast array of entities swarming toward

3 See: Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1995). 4 Burno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press) 8. Hashemzadeh 3

it.”5 Actor-networks are in constant motion and it is this motion that is most important because without movement the network is dead. For example, if a grouping of actors is to maintain its actor-network status it must continue to function by doing some type of work.

The actor-network I study– a grouping of Iranian artists and intellectuals living in Montreal - maintains its actor-network status because it continues to engage in practices of association by meeting to discuss certain cultural topics such as Persian poetry and Iranian history.

In order to investigate the subject formation of Iranians in Montreal I have turned to

Judith Butler’s theory of performativity; following Butler I understand performativity to refer to the acts through which a person constitutes a sense of self and other. Butler underlines how performative acts build on repetition, meaning the performative act relies on preexisting notions of how the act has been carried out in the past. However, these acts are not simply a hollow reenactment: they build upon one another, but are also altered by the conditions in which they are performed.6 This theory is especially helpful as I focus on the process of subject formation through practices of association. The Iranians I have studied continue to think of themselves as Iranians even though they are no longer living in because they carry out certain performative acts – such as discussing Persian poetry and/or Iranian history - that are thought of as being “Iranian.” The performance they engage in is not static. Instead the citation of these central discourses that make Iranian culture are affected by the particular space they perform practices of association in, resulting in a self-cultivation contingent upon their unique position as Iranians living in Montreal. For this reason, I highlight the function of

5 Ibid., 46. 6 See Judith Butler and Sara Salih. The Judith Butler Reader. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004).

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space within the process of performativity because not only do “specific performances bring spaces into being”7 but also spaces assist and allow the process of performativity to occur.

Space is an often overlooked, but essential category of study and this thesis will show how space contributes to the subject formation process.

Montreal is estimated to be home to 10-12,000 Iranians. Following the Islamic revolution, Iranian immigration to Montreal increased significantly. Today, Iranians come to the city as students, to purse business ventures and/or seek political refuge.8 While my ethnography takes into account the variety of spaces Iranians frequent in Montreal, my thesis will describe and examine the spaces where Iranians gather and participate in a cultural activity which focuses on the practice of debating and discussing ideas.

My research began by studying a small group of “first wave”9 Iranians – those who came to Montreal around the time of the Islamic revolution, seeking political refuge. This group consists of a few Iranian artists and intellectuals who met up frequently to discuss different intellectual and artistic projects they collaborated on together. My discussions with them about Iranians in Montreal soon lead me to another group – Café Littéraire10 - which is composed of mainly “second wave” Iranians who come to Montreal for academic or economic pursuits. This thesis not only studies those who are identified officially as Iranian immigrants, but also those individuals who consider themselves of Iranian descent, meaning I have

7 Nicky Gregson and Gillian Rose, “Taking Butler Elsewhere: performativites, spatialities and subjectivities,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, no. 18 (1999): 441. 8 See Saeed Rahnema, “Iranians,” Available from: http://www.encyclopediecanadienne.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1SEC908004, 2008. 9 See Chapter One for additional information about first wave Iranian immigrants. 10 Café Litteraire is also known as Café Âdab-î and abbreviated as CafeLitt. From here on out, I will refer to the organization as CafeLItt. Hashemzadeh 5

included in my study those who are on student visas and those who were born as Canadian citizens (or to other citizenships) Iranian if the individuals still identify themselves Iranian.

While there are several Iranian associations in Montreal, including the Iranian

Women’s Association, Nima Library and a variety of more informal gatherings, one organization that stands out is CaféLitt. CaféLitt, which describes itself as a "weekly Persian cultural meeting,” gave me the opportunity to investigate how, through practices of associations, Iranians in Montreal cultivate a certain subjectivity. Second-wave Iranians largely organize CafeLitt, but the meetings are also attended by some of the first-wave Iranians

I met at the beginning of my fieldwork. This gave me the opportunity to interact with a diverse age-range of Iranians and also gave me opportunities to compare the different waves of

Iranian immigration to Montreal.

CaféLitt’s meetings are held at various locations across Montreal, including Café

Culturel Saba, located in a predominately Anglophone area and MEKIC (Maison d’Edition

Ketabe Iran ), located in an area generally perceived as Francophone. The meetings are attended by approximately 50 people who meet for three hours each week with different members presenting on a variety of topics: from Heidegger to the poetry of Forough

Farrokhzad. Through this practice of association they also are cultivating a self that is unique due to their immigrant status and contingent upon the new spaces they exist in.

My analysis of space draws from David Harvey’s work, in which he conceives of three notions of space: 1. “Absolute space,” includes the physical make-up of spaces: the walls, ceiling and floor of a café, the shape and placement of its doors. Latour’s work on the agency of “things” is useful in thinking about absolute space, because as mentioned previously, he Hashemzadeh 6

extends the definition of actors to also include things. Latour suggests things “might authorize, allow, afford, encourage, suggest, influence, block, render possible, forbid and so on.”11 Following this idea, I have provided detailed descriptions of the places where the discussions between actors in the network take place. 2. Relative space considers the placement/movement of individuals and things within space. 12 This idea is useful in analyzing practices of association within particular spaces because it calls for a concentration on the interactions between people and the ways they physically inhabit a space. For this reason, my descriptions of events attempt to always consider how people and objects are relating to one another in a particular space and considering the effects of their placement and movement. 3.

Relational space is the multitude of “ideas and experiences” which individuals have “culled from their space-time trajectories.”13 According to Harvey this space is composed of the memories, thoughts and images shifting through peoples’ minds, as they exist in a space.

These intangible components can’t be held in the hand, but they too participate in the construction of spaces.

My attention to the relational space of actors’ memories of Iran draws on the work of

Michel de Certeau who writes “memory …is not localizable…Objects and words also have hollow places in which a past sleeps, as in the everyday acts of walking, eating, sleeping, in which ancient revolutions slumber”.14 This project analyzes the “hollow places” within the spaces Iranians frequent in Montreal and how actors’ memories become a part of the spaces

11 Latour, 72. 12 David Harvey, “Space as a Keyword,” in David Harvey: A Critical Reader, edited by N. Castree and D. Gregory (Boston: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 276. 13 Ibid., 277. 14 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988), 108. Hashemzadeh 7

they inhabit. The past for many Iranians in Montreal was lived in Iran, but Iranians bring to the spaces they frequent a sleeping past that is not localizable but actively contributes to the construction of spaces. In large part, the most defining past event in the lives of Iranians in

Montreal is the Islamic revolution – particularly among the first wave Iranians who fled Iran due to their involvement in leftist activities.

My positioning as an Iranian American woman living and studying in Montreal surely does affect my perspective and as a result affected the substance of my research. I have a background working in and around both academic and arts networks, meaning that the groups of Iranian immigrants that I found myself most interested in studying belonged - at least in a loose sense - to these types of networks. By arts network I mean a network where the artistic process is both appreciated and participated in by its actors. When referring to an academic network I mean any student, researcher or professor working in an academic discipline. My interest and knowledge of these networks complemented my focus on practices of associations between Iranians in Montreal because the maintenance of such networks is contingent upon people meeting, congregating and exchanges ideas. It was this initial decision to focus on arts/intellectual networks that defined which network(s) I wanted to enter and further study.

Narrowing the focus of my study was also necessary as I was faced with both time and pagination constraints and I found that focusing the study on an arts/intellectual network allowed me to focus on the chief research question of the thesis – the investigation of how

Iranians in Montreal cultivate a certain subjectivity through engaging in practices of association. Hashemzadeh 8

While I do draw on the theories of Latour and Harvey to create the mapping of this network, I also rely on one of things I do best as a creative non-fiction writer which is tell a story; I believe that this method is closely akin to Latour’s suggestion to describe the actors in any given network in a way that is as detailed as possible. Latour is in favor of scholars relying on extremely detailed descriptions of actor-networks rather than relying on explanations to explain how they are working. He writes, “ If a description remains in need of an explanation, it means that it is a bad description.”15 This thesis attempts to follow this notion and it is my hope that my descriptions are detailed enough, making “an explanation…superfluous.”16 For this thesis, I do employ some of creative writing techniques while interweaving the theories of

Latour and Harvey throughout the course of this thesis to give my ethnography additional dimensions, in order to illuminate to my reader the particular qualities of this network. I have attempted, to the best of my abilities to take the reader to the scene – employing methods used in creative writing such as vivid description and dialogue. Using these methods of storytelling works well for my thesis because I am writing about people, their ideas, their pasts, the places they go and the way they interact with one another. By telling the story of this network rather than analyzing their story I believe the reader gets a better sense of the multi-layered nature of each scene.

BEGINNINGS

I began my interest in the North American after reading many books from an emerging genre of literature called “Iranian Diaspora Literature.” With a background in

15 Latour, 137. 16 Ibid. Hashemzadeh 9

English literature and Creative Writing, this seemed a suitable entry point. While my early research revolved around Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran17 and the problematic reception and popularity of this memoir, I soon felt a desire to engage in original research that added to the conversation surrounding the culture of the Iranian diaspora rather than rehashing well- worn arguments about the problems of Reading Lolita in Tehran. When I read books written by those in the Iranian diaspora I was also seeking to understand the how their dual-identity affected their process of subject-formation and on a more personal level, as an Iranian

American myself, how they reconciled the differences between their two cultures. However, as

I was exposed to the field of Anthropology in my graduate studies, I soon felt it was necessary to follow my instincts as a writer and researcher and attempt to observe the world around me employing some of the tools I learned of due to my exposure to certain social theories.

FACES ARE FRAGMENTS OF ONE’S MIND 18

Perhaps the single most inspiring research that guided my decision to conduct my own ethnography was Shahin Parhami’s documentary Faces. In the spring of 2008, I saw a screening of the film at McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies. The film explores the lives of

Iranian immigrants living in Canada, primarily focusing on artists living in Montreal. Faces is a series of conversations with Iranian Canadian artists - including a poet, Hossein Sharang; a photographer, Babak Salari, a painter, Khosro Berahmandi; a sculptor; Nima Mazhari; an art

17 Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, (New York: Random House, 2004). 18 This phrase, “Faces are fragments of one’s mind” is a line from one of Hossein Sharang’s unpublished poems. Hossein is a featured character in Faces and Parhami used this line on such things as promotional postcards for the documentary. Hashemzadeh 10

therapist, Afsaneh Safai; a composer; Sheida Gharadgarchic; as well as two musicians, Ziya

Tabassian and Kiya Tabassian.

The opening sequence of the film is a collage of pictures, movies, and video clips found in popular culture that deal with the image of Iran in the Twentieth century. Included is a clip from the film Not Without My Daughter. Parhami chooses to include the sound bite: “Whose only crime was being American.” Also shown are clips from the film The Shah of Iran, narrated by

Orson Welles; Parhami selects a few scenes, which, in typical orientalist fare, describes the eyes of Iranian women as looking like gazelles. I felt this montage accurately depicted the complexity of Iranian diaspora culture. Like Parhami, I found myself frustrated with the often- flat representation of Iranians in the West and felt a desire to contribute research that would challenge this representation. At the same time, I found myself curious to investigate such notions as Iranians being known as the “French of the Middle East.” I have found through my own personal experiences that Iranians in diaspora often are active in arts and intellectual circles and I wanted to further explore this facet of Iranian immigrant culture. A central goal of my ethnography is for it to be a contribution of scholarly work that complicates some of the tired notions of what makes Iranians diaspora culture in .

During the screening, I found myself quickly scribbling down the names and discipline of those profiled in my notebook. Suddenly I was full of ideas. While I had already had been thinking of doing an ethnography of Iranians in Montreal, I was unsure of what direction to take this project in and was also not sure where and how to enter the community. I felt like

Parhami’s documentary gave me a starting point from which to plunge into this ambitious project. Hashemzadeh 11

Following the film, Parhami spoke to the small group gathered in Morrice Hall and he described the film as “an impressionistic documentary “ and “a meditation on Iraninan-ness,

Persianology, diasporic communities and artists mostly from Montreal.” I was fascinated and inspired by his project and mere minutes later, I found myself in the Islamic Studies Library, researching some of the artists featured on the film. Because of their desire to be in the public eye and their readiness to talk about being Iranian in Montreal, several of them were easy to find online. Using the social networking site, Facebook, I found an online gallery dedicated to the work of Khosro Berahmandi,19 the painter featured in the film. I became a member of the group and shortly after I received a direct message from Khosro thanking me for joining the group. He also added a personal note, telling me that I shared the same first name as his son.

Khosro, as I was soon to discover, became my point of entry into the Iranian network I studied. He shared hours of his time with me, giving me insight into the different workings of the network as well as sharing his own stories of leaving Iran, coming to a new country and finally finding a city he felt home in: Montreal.

My first several meetings with Khosro directed my research in significant ways. These initial meetings (coupled with talks about ethnographic research methods with my thesis adviser) provoked me to make the decision to focus my efforts on qualitative research.

Through asking Khosro questions and using him as an introduction into the world of ethnographic research, I soon gathered my bearings, becoming familiar with my strengths as a researcher. My strengths, I soon realized were in taking an observational role and attempting to let the actors act. I do acknowledge just the fact of me being present does affect how actors

19 Khosro Berahmandi and Hossein Sharang both asked that I use their real names in my thesis. All other actors have been given pseudonyms to protect their identity. Hashemzadeh 12

interact with one another and their surrounding space. There were times when I found that those who knew of my project seemed to be more actively thinking about and discussing their immigrant condition, which suggests that my presence and my project surely did affect the network I studied. Although I continued to ask my actors pointed questions and occasionally I did conduct informal interviews, I discovered that I came into contact with the richest information when I did little to change the environment the actors exist in.20

HISTORY, POETRY AND THE ACT OF GATHERING

The memories, practices of association and spaces frequented by Iranians in Montreal cite certain discourses, particularly poetry and history, which construct and constitute what makes

Iranian culture.21 Due to the focus on poetry and history within the discussions between actors in my network, whether they take place during CaféLitt’s sessions or in places such as the kitchen of individuals I have followed, my thesis concentrates on these discourses as key elements that make Iranian culture and by extension make the culture of Iranians in Montreal.

CafeLitt’s focus on history as well as actors many references to historical events of the past are indicative of the powerful function that history has in the making of Iranian culture and thus the making of Iranian subjectivity. For example, Mohammed Tavakoli-Targhi insists

20 My first few attempts at recording formal-style interviews were interesting and I did learn a lot about my actors, but I found the mere insertion of the recording device altered they way they sat (which was a little straighter) and altered the way they spoke about things. They seemed much more conscious of their words and carefully considered each question rather than responding in a more casual way. 21 See Hamid Dabashi, Iran: A People Interrupted, New York: The New Press, 2007.; Setrag Manoukian, “Culture, Power and Poetry in ,” ISIM Newsletter, no 14 (June2004), 40-41.; Setrag Manoukian, The City of Knowledge: History and Culture in Contemporary Shiraz, forthcoming.; Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi. Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism and Historiography, New York: Palgrave, 2001. Hashemzadeh 13

that the nation’s treasuring of the Shâhnâmeh22 for both its preservation of the and its account of history before the Arab conquest and the people’s (in large part) subsequent conversion to Islam was key in the making of Iranian-ness. It is through the treasuring of such things as the Shâhnâmeh that Iranians are able to define themselves as nation by vividly creating an other, in the case of the Shâhnâmeh, the most obvious other were the Arabs. Of course, following the Islamic revolution, the glorification of Iran’s pre-Islamic past underwent modifications, but it is important to note, for the sake of this ethnography, that the actors in the network I have studied either quite vehemently have objected to the presence of the Islamic regime in Iran or have demonstrated this in other, more subtle ways, such as the topics CafeLitt chooses to cover. This suggests that this network engages in a similar glorification of the pre-Islamic past, but with a more developed consciousness and awareness to the old practice they are engaging in. However, it has become quite evident through my study of this network that Iranian history has been essential in the formation of their idea of being Iranian. Iranian history provides them with stories and myths they help them in creating a consciousness of belonging to a certain nation.

As Setrag Manoukian notes in reference to his study of the culture of Shiraz: “History is a crucial element of the articulation of the ‘culture of Shiraz,’ which is deemed essential to its understanding and celebration. The nation is envisaged in historical terms…”23 Manoukian’s argument insists upon the importance of history in the role of the reproduction of culture in

Shiraz. History’s importance is highlighted, suggests Manoukian by the many arguments and

22 An epic poem that recounts Iran’s pre-Islamic past, telling cherished stories of past kings, queens and other notables. 23 Setrag Manoukian, “Culture, Power and Poetry in Shiraz,” ISIM Newsletter, no 14 (June 2004), 40. Hashemzadeh 14

tensions surrounding the conflicting representations of Iranian history of the twentieth

Century. It is because of the contested nature of historical truths, he insists, that Iranians turn to poetry, a discourse that Manoukian believes “crosscuts differences of religion and politics”24 precisely because of its “…lapses, silences, or ambiguities…”25 poetry has the ability to go where history simply can not go.

Poetry often took a prominent role in my conversations with actors. Manoukian suggests that the discourse of poetry “even when used as an empty signifier, is an articulation of the [Iranian] self.”26 He continues his explanation by writing that in his encounters with

Iranians in Shiraz – ranging from “women and men, university professors, shopkeepers, students and local intellectuals,”27 – he has found they “rely on poetry as a stable imaginary, as something that could dispense answers not only to the large and small questions of social and personal life but also grant a location and an identity in the world.” It is important to note that

Manoukian’s work focuses on Shiraz, a city Iranians “grant a special place to… in poetic practice and imagination.”28 While the actors in the network I study might use poetry in a different way than Iranians in Iran, they still turn to this discourse to convey a certain articulation of self. By speaking of poetry often, they are continuing to perform their Iranian identity. Manoukian says that in Iran, poetry has often been used in “speaking the unspeakable,” when, for example, Iranians can not openly discuss certain historical events due to their contested nature in the arena of “truth” (history). In these instances, Manoukian

24 Ibid., 41. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid. Hashemzadeh 15

writes that Iranians have often turned to poetry in an attempt to decipher certain events. The importance of this, for this ethnography, is that it indicates poetry is a tool Iranians have frequently turned to in the past.

While it is important to note that the ethnography I conducted took place in Montreal and not Shiraz, Manoukian’s observations on the role of history and poetry in the making of

Iranian culture are apt. CafeLitt’s favoring of these topics as well as the frequency in which history and poetry came up in my discussions of with actors supports Manoukian’s argument that these discourses are essential in the making of Iranian culture. While my thesis acknowledges this position, I also have come to believe that the act of association is essential in the forming of this culture, because it is through the active discussion of these ideas and their continued performance in Montreal that something that can be called Iranian culture in

Montreal is made. Without these acts, there would be very little Iranian culture in Montreal to study and it is these practices of association, which continue the tradition of privileging

Iranian history and Persian poetry as topics to debate and discuss.

METHODOLOGY

I received approval from McGill’s Research Board of Ethics to begin this study in May 2008. I began fieldwork in July 2008 and concluded it in May 2009.29 My ethnography is centered on participant observation as well as some semi-formal interviews. To analyze the absolute space

I pay attention to details of the physical space and in the spirit of Latour, I focus on how specific things function in a particular space. In order to examine the relative space, I observe

29 See Appendix A for Research Ethics Approval Hashemzadeh 16

and participate in the practices of association that take place in these spaces, occasionally leading discussions and asking questions. My approach to studying the relational space is through listening attentively to what attendees say at meetings and through semi-formal interviews within which I ask actors’ about their conceptions of these spaces, the discourses of history and poetry, their habits of frequenting these spaces and memories and stories about their lives in Iran. Relational space is perhaps the most challenging aspect of space to describe as in order to fully envision this dimension of space I have had to get to know my actors, carefully listening to their stories and ideas. I then have attempted to let the consciousness I have developed as a result of these interactions, pervade throughout the descriptions I have provided. This consciousness has guided things I have emphasized and dwelled on in my descriptions in an attempt to let this hard to define aspect of space act on the page. Through the convergences of these three notions, I will unpack the process of performativity in which the Iranians in this network engage.

When I first began this ethnography, I was not sure of its path or what shape it was creating. I believe that the nature of this genre of research requires that one let the research form its own shape as it progresses or else it is possible to miss something essential. Latour’s

Actor Network Theory provided me with a method of study that allowed the individuals I study to be the guiding force of the ethnography. I approached my project, to the best of abilities, with few preconceived notions about how the subject formation process of Iranians in

Montreal works. I let the actors’ activities; insights and suggestions guide my research. Of course, as Latour mentions, the researcher will discover that some associations are not necessarily worth tracing and I did make certain decisions along the course of my fieldwork Hashemzadeh 17

about which traces to follow based upon my knowledge of various aspects of Iranian studies – such as my knowledge of contemporary Iranian literature and/or Iranian history. In the forefront of my mind was the desire to not restrain or “limit in advance the shape, size, heterogeneity, and combination of associations.”30 A constant goal of this thesis was to research and then write this ethnography in a way where I was truly “grant[ing] them [the actors] the ability to make up their own theories of what the social is made of.”31

ENTERING THE NETWORK

Some researchers, such as Hammed Shahidian, found that relying on a combination of his personal contacts and his extensive knowledge of Iranian culture and history helped him to gain access into the Iranian exile community in Montreal. Shahidian, like all ethnographers found the question of entering the network to be a complex issue; I found his suggestions especially apt due to the fact we both studied Iranians in Montreal. He chose to abandon such methods such as questionnaires due to his belief that they might disturb those whom he wished to create an environment of trust with. He first entered the Iranian community in

Montreal through personal contacts, working with those who “were familiar with [his] publications in Persian.”32 As he gained the trust of those familiar with his scholarly work he was introduced to other contacts through them and continued with his interview and research process with each subsequent link he was exposed to. He also sought out contact with various

30 Latour, Ibid., 11. 31 Ibid. 32 Hammed Shahidian, “To Be Recorded in History: Researching Iranian Underground Political Activists in Exile,” Qualitative Sociology 24, no. 1 (2001) 62. Hashemzadeh 18

Iranian-run organizations in Montreal such as the Iranian women’s associations, Nima Library, etc. When entering the field I not only considered Shahidian’s method of entry, but I also greatly benefited from my adviser and colleagues suggestions in a class where we devoted ample time to discussing the complexities of entering the field.

However, rather than relying on my reputation as a scholar in Iranian studies as

Shahidian did, considering that my publications are sparse and my work was for a Masters thesis, I choose to portray myself, truthfully and accurately, as a young woman wanting to learn more about one side of her ethnicity, a side that she found perplexing and complicated. I think of myself as Iranian American. My omitting of the hyphen between Iranian American is intentional as through my studies of Iranian immigrant life I realized I am neither Iranian or

American, but a fusion between the two. I find that the hyphen suggests two separate entities:

Iranian and American, but by omitting the hyphen I am highlighting the fact that I am both of these things simultaneously. If it were appropriate to combine the two into one word (no hyphen) I would do so.

I approached the actors in the network as individuals who could teach me something about Iranian culture and I found that this set up of “teacher/student” was a dichotomy I was used to and one that set my actors at ease. Manoukian also used a similar method while conducting an ethnography in Shiraz. He consistently met with a Shirazi man – “a retired high school teacher,”33 with “one of the most complete private libraries in the city.”34 He referred to this man as “the teacher” throughout his study and discussed many aspects of his research with him throughout the course of his project. Many of the individuals I spent time with easily

33 Setrag Manoukian, The City of Knowledge: History and Culture in Contemporary Shiraz, (forthcoming). 34 Ibid. Hashemzadeh 19

settled into the teacher role with me. I found that this method to some extent lessens the power of the researcher and lets those being studied have a more active input.

Another piece of advice that I took from both Shahidian’s study and from my conversations with Professor Manoukian was to refrain from taking any staunch political side about the complicated matters of Iranian’s political history. Shahidian writes: “Since the

Iranian exile community is fragmented along political lines, sometimes people identified me what whatever circle to which my references belonged.”35 To deal with this issue and to hopefully gain the trust of his“ informants,” he told them that he “had no specific political affiliation and was merely interested in exploring the exilic experience. Reading Shahidian’s work, drawing from my own experience growing up Iranian American and carefully considering the conversations with my adviser who warned me that the actors in the network would be questioning my affiliations and attempt to place me, I tried to remain as a-political as possible and took the role of listener as conversations took a particular political bent.

Gaining the trust of those studied is important to any researcher and I found

Shahidian's comments on this area also useful. Because he was working with a community similar to the network I wished to learn study, I placed more weight on his suggestions because of his ability to be particularly sensitive to the concerns of Iranians in Montreal. Shahidian writes that he thinks of gaining trust as a process that requires “various means.”36 He found that engaging with those he was interviewing in “chitchat,” casually talking about such things as “politics, art, literature, living in exile, cooking, or fashion over coffee or Persian tea”37

35 Shahidian, 63. 36 Ibid., 64. 37 Ibid. Hashemzadeh 20

created an atmosphere of trust between him and those he was interviewing. The difference in my method is that, from conversations with my adviser and my exposure to different theories of the ethnographic process, I found that these chitchats are not only ways to gain trust, but also instances when extremely compelling information is revealed.

CONTRIBUTION

While this thesis’ central research question focuses on how Iranians in Montreal cultivate/perform a certain subjectivity through practices of association while considering the role the absolute, relational, and relative qualities of space in this process, perhaps most importantly, this project presents an alternative image of Iranians. Building on the discourse of Orientalism, Western mass media portrays Iran and by extension, Iranians, as locations of evil. My thesis provides a platform for Iranians in Montreal to share their stories. I see my thesis (and other similar works), as a much needed interruption to the stereotyped Iranian persona so prominent in the West. As a nuanced account of how Iranian subjectivity works in

Montreal, my thesis will add dimensions to the flat characterizations of Iranians within the

West.

Hashemzadeh 21

CHAPTER ONE: SETTING THE SCENE

CANADA & : DIFFERENCES AND THE QUESTION OF IMMIGRATION

The intent of this section is to provide a brief description that will help to establish the ever- present scene of this ethnography: Montreal, Quebec. Because this thesis privileges spaces as an essential category of analysis, I find it is important to provide some background information about Iranian immigration to Canada as well as some essential details about defining characteristics of the province of Quebec and the city of Montreal.

While Quebec is a province within the borders of Canada, its evolution over the last 400 years has been both together and separate from Canada. Quebec was the first Canadian area to be officially colonized when, in 1608, Samuel de Champlain established Quebec as the capital of

New . Quebec became an English colony following the pivotal 1759 Battle of the Plains of

Abraham. Despite efforts to maintain ties with France, French immigration to Canada slowed in the late 1700’s. However, the French influence in Quebec is still heavily felt; Quebec is yet to recognize the 1982 Canadian constitution as legitimate, French is the official language of the province and separatist’s efforts are still an ongoing struggle for many Quebecers. Because of

Quebec’s unique history, it has been able to put itself in a position to make decisions somewhat independently from the rest of Canada. Although Quebec has not been successful in officially becoming its own nation, the province has been successful in creating a space within its Hashemzadeh 22

borders that is quite different from the rest of Canada. The subject formation of those living within these borders has also been shaped by this unique history.38

MULTICULTRUALISM VS. INTERCULTURALISM

Canada is often described as a “country of immigration”39 and/or a cultural mosaic. Canada has long been established as one of the world’s most popular sites of immigration and as a result the country has had to develop its own policies towards the complex issues involved with a country composed of multiple ethnic/cultural groups. The term cultural mosaic is used to describe a practice that involves “the collaboration of all ethnic and cultural groups, which would nevertheless retain their distinctive characteristics.”40 The idea of the mosaic is seen as a precursor for Canada’s current policy of Multiculturalism,41 which was officially adopted in

1971 and in 1972 a minister was appointed to handle issues of multiculturalism. In 1973, a

Canadian Multiculturalism Council was created and the position of Multicultural Directorate,

38 Jean Burnet, “Multiculturalism” The Canadian Encyclopedia, (Historica Foundation: 2008, accessed December 8, 2008), Available from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005511. 39 Vahid Garousi, “Iranians in Canada: A Statistical Analysis” [paper on-line] Available from http://www.iranian.com/Diaspora/2005/June/Canada/index.html, (accessed 25 August 2009), 6. 40 Burnet. 41While this thesis highlights the clashes between Canadian policies of Mulitcultralism and Quebecois policies of Interculturalism, it is important to note the recent debates regarding Multiculturalism. The policy is not wholeheartedly endorsed by all Canadians. Notably, the policy has been thought to weaken Canadian nationalism because of it’s supposed classification of the Quebecois as “just another ethnic group,” thus giving the Quebec national movement increased reason to support a separate Quebec. In this same vein, the policy is also thought to promote the practice of immigrant Canadians retaining ties to their varied homelands, considering themselves part of their ethnic group, whatever it maybe, first and Canadian second. Multiculturalism has also been crticizied because it essentializes cultures, reducing them to government sponsored holidays and special recipes, Neil Bissoondath suggests in his book Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism. Bissoondath also suggest that Multiculturalism creates ethnic ghettoes because immigrants are encouraged to maintain their relationship with their homecountry, which often results in immigrants living in concentrated areas in Canada’s urban landscapes. See Neil Bissoondath, Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism, Penguin Books: Toronto: 1994 and Daniel Stoffman, Who Gets In: What’s Wrong with Canada’s Immigration program, and How to Fix it, Macfarlane Walter & Ross: Toronto, 2002. Hashemzadeh 23

who works within the Department of the Secretary of the State, was also established.

Multiculturalism takes the idea of cultural mosaic a bit further; it is used to characterize a society that is ethnically and/or culturally heterogeneous and it also suggests that this society seeks to foster an environment in which there is equality between the various ethnic/cultural groups that make up the society’s population.42

Although the province of Quebec agrees with some of the notions of multiculturalism, it prefers to use the term “interculturalism.” Although the two concepts are fairly similar, the key difference is that interculturalism calls for the making of a common public culture while allowing and - to an extent - encouraging the proliferation of other cultures. However, these other cultures are also encouraged to integrate into the majority culture, which many in

Quebec identify as a Francophone/Quebecois culture. In Quebec, multiculturalism has been accused of creating a society that is socially fragmenting, and the province’s promotion of interculturalism is an effort to encourage some common ground between the cultural groups.43

Canadian Multiculturalism seems to reject, or at least refuses to properly acknowledge

Quebecois culture, and it has also been seen as an attempt to stifle the Quebec Nationalist movement. Quebec has attempted to create its own policies, including separate policies of immigration. In 1968, Quebec formed what is now known as the Department of Cultural

Communities and Immigration. The department placed an emphasis on recruiting immigrants who spoke French and it also promoted the idea of integrating immigrants into the Quebec

42 Ibid. 43 Amy Nugent, “Demography, National Myths, and Political Origins: Perceiving Official Multiculturalism in Quebec,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 38, no. 3 (2006): 21-36. Hashemzadeh 24

French-speaking community.44 Whereas some Iranians, or other immigrant groups in

Canadian provinces outside of Quebec, under the influence of multiculturalism, create ethnic communities relatively separate from the great surrounding community, immigrants to

Quebec are encouraged to integrate into the large Quebecois community. For example, there are government subsidized programs to teach new immigrants French, the language laws force new immigrants to learn at least a few essential phrases in French and if an individual wants to be employed, a basic level of French is likely to be required.

PRACTICES OF IMMIGRATION

In 1967 Canada adopted what is known as the “points system” in an attempt to standardize immigration procedures. The points system divided immigrants into two groups: 1. Family

Class, which is made up of individuals, 18 years and older, who have certain relations, such as the mother or father, to Canadian citizens; 2. Independent Immigrants, which is composed of relatives who fall outside of the definition of category 1, entrepreneurs, retirees, and people who own business. This system was expanded to include refugees in 1978. Refugees are defined as individuals who have been identified by the United Nations as those who have a legitimate fear of persecution if left to remain in their homeland. Although the points system has gone through changes that involve placing more emphasis on job skills, education and knowledge of one of the official languages of Canada (English or French), the system is still used today.

44 Gerald E. Dirks, "Immigration Policy," The Canadian Encyclopedia (Historica Foundation: 2008), available from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1SEC822293, (accessed December 8, 2008). Hashemzadeh 25

IRANIAN IMMIGRATION TO CANADA

Iranian immigration to Canada was virtually non-existent following WWI; there were only around a dozen Iranians living in the country. As new regulations were put into place to allow immigrants from all nations, Iranian immigration to Canada increased in the 1970’s to levels around 600 per year. Following the Islamic revolution, Iranian immigration to Canada increased significantly; levels soared to several thousand a year. Many Iranians entered the country under official refugee status, including several of the actors in this ethnography.

These high levels continued, as many left Iran because of the Iran- War (1980-1988).

Similar levels of immigration of remain today, as Iranians come to Canada to purse business ventures, to seek political refuge and many also come not technically as immigrants, but as students.

Statistics based on the 2006 census show that, of the 121,510 individuals who identify as

Iranian and live in Canada, over 90% reside in the following provinces: Ontario (58%), British

Columbia (24%) and Quebec (10%). There are several statistical characteristics of this group that will help the reader become acquainted with what this group looks like. Statistics from the 2001 Census show that 37% of Iranians living in Canada are between the ages of 25-44.

Another important feature of the group is that they are generally very well educated and have achieved higher levels of academic achievement in comparison to Canadians in general. 24% of

Iranians in Canada have a Bachelor’s degree, around 7% have acquired a Master’s degree and

3% have a PhD. 4% of Canadians in general have obtained a Bachelor’s degree, .5% have a

Master’s and .01% have a PhD. Another detail that is interesting to note for this ethnography is Hashemzadeh 26

Iranians living in Canada’s knowledge of the official languages of Canada. 78% of all Iranians in

Canada know only English, compared to 26% of Iranians in Quebec who only know English. 1% of all Iranians in Canada know only French, but 9% of Iranians in Quebec know only French.

When asked if they know both French and English, 16% of the group in general responded that they know both compared to 59% of Iranians in Quebec.45

Another area of interest is the level of ties Iranians maintain to Iran. A survey conducted by Vahid Garousi showed that when asked what elements of Iranian culture

Iranians in Canada where most interested in passing on to their children, 85% of respondents indicated the Persian language as their number one concern, around 60% indicated traditions and festivities, around 55% said history and around 40% responded that literature and music were important for them. Religion was an interest for only 20% of respondents and politics was a concern for around 15% of respondents. This same survey also asked participants about the number of times they have visited Iran in the last decade. The majority of respondents (around

40%) from the category of first generation responded two-three times; it is interesting to note around 20% of first generation Iranians have not been back to Iran since leaving. When asked how often they spend time with Iranians, the majority of respondents (50%) answered they often spend time with other Iranians, but when asked if they attend Iranian functions, the largest number (30%) indicated they attend “sometimes.”46 This indicates that practices of association between Iranians in Canada are a fairly common occurrence and that half of

Iranians do maintain ties with other Iranians.

45 Garousi, 16-17. 46 Ibid., 25. Hashemzadeh 27

As an immigrant population, the majority of Iranians hail from large to medium sized cities and when they come to Canada, they seek a similar urban environment. This trend is not one unique to Iranians living in Canada, but is a characteristic of all foreign-born people residing in Canada.47 The cities of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are home to the majority of Canada’s foreign-born population and following this trend, three-fourths of the Iranian population has also settled in these areas.48

THE CITYSCAPE OF MONTREAL

The city of Montreal, situated in the province of Quebec at 45° 30' N - 73° 41' W, is a city where an ever-changing assemblage of people, spaces, languages, ideas and cultures collide in a space of 365.13 square kilometers.49 Within the boundaries of the city limits, there are 1,593,720 people; of these inhabitants, 490,200 are immigrants and of these immigrants it is estimated that 10-12,000 are Iranian.50

While this ethnography does not focus on Montreal specifically, the city and its history and own unique culture are a constant underlying thread for the simple fact that all the events in this ethnography and all the actors in the network being studied live in Montreal.

Perhaps the main characteristic of the city that makes it so unique and different from other cities in the world is its true bilingualism. The fact that one can get by speaking only

47Monica Boyd and Michael Vickers. "100 Years of Immigration in Canada." Canadian Social Trends, no. 58 (2000): 2. 48 Ibid. 49Natural Resources Canada. "Querying Geographical Names of Canada: Montreal." http://geonames2.nrcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/v9/sima_unique_v9?english?EHHUN?C [accessed 2 December 2008]. 50 This figure has been told to me several times by Iranians living in Montreal. Some have even suggested there are as many as 15,000 Iranians live in Montreal. At this time, I have not been able to locate any exact numbers. Hashemzadeh 28

French or only English in this city is interesting to note and has, as a result, attracted immigrants from both English and French speaking parts of the world. In fact, some of the

Iranians in this study – usually those of the first-wave – exclusively speak French and Persian.

The effect of the city’s struggle with its competing languages has its daily implications on all of its inhabitants. Iranian business owners display their signs in French, English and

Persian and those working with the public must, by law, be able to serve the public in

French.51 These are just some examples of certain peculiar things that are a consequence of living in Montreal. Montreal is also the political center of the struggle for an independent

Quebec. The spirit of this movement gave Quebec, as mentioned by one of the Iranians I spent time with, the nickname “Cuba of the North.” And this reputation was attractive to leftist

Iranians leaving Iran around the time of the revolution because of their own past sympathies with Communist thought. Iranian immigrants have also recently played very central roles in the Quebec sovereignty movement with the election of Amir Khadir to the National Assembly of Quebec. Not only is he the first member of his political party, Quebec Solidare, to be elected to the National Assembly of Quebec, but he is also the first Iranian to obtain a seat in this government body. Khadir is also active within the Iranian network I studied. He is friends with

Khosro Berahmandi and even gave a presentation to CafeLitt called “From Margin to Center.”

Although I did not attend this particular session, the subject of the talk was “how, we as immigrants, can come to the center of social activity instead of being passive in the margin.”52

The email described Khadir as “a francophone Iranian-Quebecois politician” whose party is a

51 Serving the public in English is not required for most business, although certain hospitals are required to have employees available who speak both French and English. 52 CafeLitt, “From Margin to Center,” email to author, February 17, 2009. Hashemzadeh 29

sovereigntist and left-wing political party.”53 The significance of this is that the particularities of Montreal create different challenges and opportunities for Iranian immigrants. It is possible that because of Quebec’s attitude of interculturalism that Iranian immigrants are more active within the larger culture and community of the province, making things like the election of Amir Khadir to Quebec parliament a more likely occurrence. This set of concerns place Iranians in Montreal in a unique context, one that is quite different from networks of Iranians in other North American cities.

IRANIANS ELSEWHERE

The dominant culture of Iranian Americans mainly comes from Los Angeles, called Tehrangles and Irangeles by both Iranians and others. While the making of Iranian American culture in

Los Angeles is not the subject of this thesis, I find it important to briefly consider the shape of it and mediate on its affect on the making of Iranian immigrant culture in Montreal. From my conversations with actors I have mainly come to think that Iranians in Montreal think of the culture they cultivate as quite different. There is the difference of country of residence to consider, Canada vs. America and the further difference to consider, Quebec vs. Canada. The actors I spoke with did not consider the Iranian exile media coming, primarily from Southern

California, as representative of the Iranian immigrant experience in Montreal. Talks about

Iranians in Southern California were usually discussed with humor due to what some of my actors found to be the materialistic nature of Iranians in Southern California. Hamid Naficy, in

53 Ibid. Hashemzadeh 30

his work “Identity politics and Iranian exile music videos,”54 classifies Iranians in Los Angeles as “secular anti-Khomeini royalists who support a form of constitutional monarchy.”55 While

Iranian immigrants of this nature surely exist in Montreal and through the course of my fieldwork I even encountered some,56 the central actors of this ethnography do not identify themselves as monarchists. While they have expressed a sympathy with those who were forced to leave Iran when the Shah’s regime toppled, they are generally either first wave immigrants who at least formerly had communist leanings or second wave immigrants who currently live in Iran and were not particular forthcoming in regards to their political leanings.

The main similarities that I glean from my study of Iranian immigrants in other locations, is that Iranians in America and Iranians in Montreal I study, seem to have a desire to integrate into the larger landscape of their new countries. In “Who We Are: the Perplexity of

Iranian-American Identity,” Nilou Mostofi “describes Iranian-American identity as a combination of (1) American notions of freedom and liberty and (2) Iranian cultural traditions and concepts of family.”57 She suggests that Iranians are able to “simultaneously identify with their ethnic characteristics and American civil nationalism based on American notions of liberalism, democracy and laws – proving the possibility of coexistence.”58 The descriptions I have provided in this ethnography attempt to illuminate this characteristic of Iranians in

54 Hamid Naficiy, Identity Politics and Iranian exile music videos” Iranian Studies 31, no. 1 (1998): 51-64. 55Mohsen Mobasher "Cultural Trauma and Ethnic Identity Formation among Iranian Immigrants in the ," American Behavioral Scientist 50, no. 1 (2006): 111. 56 See “Taking a Walk” section where I discuss the owner of “SunVideo,” a supporter of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi 57 Nilou, Mostofi "Who We Are: The Perplexity of Iranian-American Identity," The Sociological Quarterly 44, no. 4 (2003): 682. 58 Ibid. Hashemzadeh 31

Montreal. Some actors have specifically told me of their desire to integrate and welcome ideas of Canadian democracy; others show this desire through participation in such organizations as

CafeLitt. The very notion of café culture, as will be further explained in Chapter Three and

Chapter Four, has particular ties to idea of liberalism.

NOTRE DAME DE GRACE 59

I chose to live in NDG for the extent of my fieldwork (May 2008-May 2009) in order to come to a more comprehensive understanding of the larger network of Iranian immigrants in

Montreal. This experience also helped me stay “in the field” even if I was not able to attend as many events or speak to as many actors as I would have liked due to the constraints of being a graduate student. Living in NDG kept my mind on my project. While riding on one of the area’s most popular bus lines, the 105, I overheard a comment in the spring of 2009 that reinforced my regard of NDG as an area popular with Iranians. There were two teenagers talking about the neighborhood and discussing how NDG is an area where speaking in French is not particularly stressed as it is in certain other areas. And then the teenage boy said that in NDG you can speak English, French or even Iranian and told his friend that there were “tons of

Iranians” in the area. Of course he mistakenly referred to the Persian language as “Iranian,” but the important point is that this conversation suggests a consciousness of this immigrant group’s presence.

59 This section is meant to acquaint the reader with Iranian businesses in NDG. It is mainly descriptive in nature in an attempt to help the reader imagine what this area of Montreal is like. Some places are described in greater detail, as these are locations I often frequent and have acquired more intimate knowledge of. Detailed analysis of some of these sites will appear in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Hashemzadeh 32

While Iranians live throughout the city of Montreal, a large number are concentrated in the neighborhood Notre Dame de Grâce,60 known as “NDG” by locals. Iranian Montrealers, who do not live in NDG, are still familiar with the neighborhood due to the significant number of

Iranian-run businesses present and I see NDG as a crossing and meeting point for Iranians.

Throughout the course of my fieldwork there were several times that I bumped into people that I had seen at Iranian events in NDG. Some of them noticed me, and others did not. But, the point I am stressing is that NDG is an area where many Iranians come occasionally whether or not they actually live in the area. NDG has come to represent a space where Iranian immigrants can go, knowing they will see and be able to interact with other Iranians. In NDG, speaking Persian at the neighborhood businesses is acceptable and a common occurrence, eating Persian food is an easy task as well as doing such things as picking up one of the Iranian weeklies or finding special imported products from Iran. The significance of this is that NDG is a space Iranians can go and get little tastes (literally) of their homeland. It is also interesting to note how certain individuals I spoke to discussed NDG. Choosing not to live in NDG is a statement in and of itself because those that do not live in the area are actively choosing to live away from other Iranians and exhibit a desire to integrate into the larger city of Montreal. I

60 This neighborhood is located in the southwestern area of the island within the political borough of Cotes des Neiges, – Notre Dame de Grace Even though each area is thought of as a separate neighborhood by inhabitants, on official city neighborhoods, the two adjacent neighborhoods are mapped as one larger borough. It is also interesting to note that a large number of second-wave Iranian students live in Cotes des Neiges. As of 2001, NDG had a population of 30,102. The neighborhood is largely working-class and Anglophone, with 54% of residents reporting English as the language spoken at home. 36% reported French as the language spoken at home and 9% of residents speak a different language at home. 27% of the neighborhoods residents are immigrants, compared to 28% of the population of Montreal. In NDG represent 9% of the immigrant populations followed by French with 7% and Americans with 6%. See Geographie De Notre-Dame-De-Grâce", (accessed December 3 2008), http://www.quebecpolitique.com/2007/comtes/notre-dame-de-grace.html () and "Profil En Bref: District Electoral De Notre-Dame-De-Grâce", (Ville de Montreal, accessed December 3 2008) , http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/cmsprod/fr/observatorie_economique/media/content/11_notre-dame-de- gr_ce_2005.pdf Hashemzadeh 33

found that generally Iranians that have lived in Montreal for a longer period of time have ventured off into other neighborhoods even if they had lived in NDG upon their arrival to the city.

TAKING A WALK 61

Many of the Iranian businesses are located along Sherbrooke Street, NDG’s busiest artery. A twenty block stroll down Sherbrooke walking westward from Autoroute Decarie to Boulevard

Cavendish will include a walk past an Iranian owned and operated general store; Shiraz, an

Iranian restaurant; Gilan, also an Iranian restaurant; a Poisonnerie, a fish market that also sells

Iranian imports; Sun Video, a place where you can rent Iranian films; and Akhavan, a large

Iranian run grocery store.

The general store is on the south side of the Sherbrooke between the blocks Avenue

Marcil and Avenue Old Orchard. It is run by an older Iranian man and on many days a peek in the window will reveal a scene of him and a few other men chatting over a cup of tea. The store is very minimal in its merchandise and it seems to be more of a hobby for the man rather than a serious moneymaking enterprise.

Walking just a block and a half further (and a crossing of the street) will put you in front of Shiraz. 62 Shiraz, located in-between Avenue D’Oxford and Avenue Harvard, is a

61 The purpose of this section is to attempt to create for the reader the scene of NDG. Here I am employing certain techniques associate with creative writing – such as using the present tense, future and second person. I find that using the present tense and/or futures makes readers really feel the action of the sentences. Because the second person directly addresses the reader, it draws him/her into the text. 62 Shiraz is a city located in the province of Fars in southwestern Iran. It is very close (approximately 70 km) to Persepolis, the former capital of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty. It is known for being the birthplace for some of Iran’s most famous poets, including Sa’adî and Hâfez. Hashemzadeh 34

restaurant specializing in Cuisine Perse, Persian Cuisine. On the large front window of the restaurant the word “Shiraz” is written in Roman letters and flanking the word Shiraz on the right is the word hâlâl”63 in Persian script64 and on the left side the word Ouvert, which translates from the French to mean open.65 After walking through the arched front door,66 there is a small magazine rack, which has two of Montreal’s Iranians newspapers on it. Other advertisements, such as notices for upcoming art shows or Persian rug sales can also be found here. When you enter the restaurant you are greeted by two rows of medium sized tables. On top of the tables sits a glass vase with plastic pink flowers inside of it, salt and pepper shakers and sûmac, a dried berry native to Iran that is typically sprinkled on top of kebâb. There are also two types of sugar on the table - ground sugar and hard sugar cubes. Some Iranians, such as my grandmother, prefer to place a sugar cube in their mouths while drinking tea rather than dissolving the sugar in the tea.

The walls are stucco and white and light brown in color. Decorating the walls are many photos of Iran. Quite a few are pictures of Shiraz, including one of Hâfez’s Mausoleum.67 There are photos of the Qashqâi, a tribe that lives in and around Shiraz and Persepolis, the former

63 Hâlâl is a word of Arabic origin that mean lawful or permissible. It is commonly used in reference to foods that meet Islamic standards of preparations. By having the word hâlâl on the front window of Shiraz it is an indication to Muslims that the meat served has been prepared according to Islamic standards. 64 The Persian alphabet was adapted from the Arabic alphabet, but includes four additional letters. 65 The combination of French, Persian and English on the signs, menus and other forms of literature is very common in Iranian spaces in Montreal and serves as a reminder to those in the space that they are in a bilingual city (Montreal), but within a space where Persian is also a common language. 66 Several of the Iranian spaces in Montreal make use of arched entryways, which I believe is an illusion to Iranian-style architecture. 67 Hâfez, born in Shiraz (1315-1390), is one of Iran’s greatest and most well known poets. His collection, Divan-i Hâfez, is still used by Iranians as an oracle. Some Iranians also use this collection in place of the Quran; for example, during Nûwrûz, the Iranian New Year, Iranians decorate a table called the Sufreh Haft-Sîn and while many Iranians place the Quran on the table or the Qur’an and the Dîvân-î Hâfez, some only use the Divan-î Hâfez. Two Iranian men, Khosro and Hossein Sharang shared that with me that when they escaped Iran as political refugees in the early 80’s, the Dîvân-î Hâfez was among the very few books they took with them. Hashemzadeh 35

capital of the Persian Empire. Mirrors with white plastic flowers on them and a Shiraz license plate (with Persian script and numbers) also adorn the walls. The restaurant is brightly lit and in the left corner, next to a short row of tables that have chess and backgammon boards on them, is a large flat screen Sony television that is usually tuned to Persian TV, a Toronto based station or one of the Persian language stations from Los Angeles.

Behind the bar area there are hookahs, a samâvar68, a fridge stocked with America soda products and dûgh69, a gold caviar dish, two clocks, medallions to ward off the evil eye, a few plants, a rooster figurine along with several other smaller glass knick-knacks. Most of the clientele are Iranian and the owner of the restaurant, who is also the man who will usually take your order, greets those he knows in Persian. The menu is written in French and English, but uses the Persian name for dishes, such as Jûj-î Sultan-î, meaning “the royal chicken.” All dishes are served with pita bread and butter, fresh herbs (mint and parsley) and onions and a cup of tea at the end of the meal.

A mere half block later on the corner of Avenue Harvard, on the south side of

Sherbrooke, you will see Gilan,70 another Iranian restaurant. Gilan, as the name suggests, specializes in fare from the northwestern area of Iran, which includes seafood dishes.

An Iranian run poissonnerie, or fish store, can be found on the corner of Marcil, just two blocks down from Gilan. On the storefront of the poissonnerie, the word seafood is written in

Persian, gazâ-î daryâ-î, and in French, fruits de mer. Besides seafood, the store also sells a few

Iranian imports like pistachios and a small selection of spices.

68 Iranian tea maker 69 A yogurt drink very popular in Iran 70 Gilan is a province located in northwestern Iran, along the Caspian Sea. Hashemzadeh 36

Another two and a half blocks and a crossing to the north side of Sherbrooke, will have you walking by Sun Video, a video rental business. Sun Video, between Avenue de Hampton and Avenue Hingston sells a large selection of Iranian films, although, there are usually a few other films for rent, mainly the most popular Hollywood blockbusters of the moment. The store is small and the walls are packed with VHS and DVD cases. There are also several shelves stuffed with cases. At the back of the store is the checkout counter. At the checkout counter there are also books of DVDs – mainly of Iranian films. The owner will happily flip through the book and give you a quick plot synopsis of each film. One of the most striking things about the store is the assortment of pictures of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi that hang behind the counter. Many individuals I have spoken to through the course of my fieldwork have a small laugh when I bring up this man (he is very well-known) and his support for the fallen Shah, which suggests, in general, the individuals are not Monarchists, but also do not seem to have a hostility towards those who do/did support the Monarchy.

Perhaps the most important Iranian business in NDG is Akhavan, a large grocery store.

Every Iranian that I have spoken to in Montreal has been to this grocery store. It seems that at some point in time every Iranian in Montreal has needed to go to Akhavan to get a special spice, a certain import, or a specific type of tea. The store also has some of the best produce and meat in the neighborhood and draws a large following from non-Iranians who live in the area. The store also has a parking lot – a bit of rarity in Montreal – for customers. After entering the first set of doors, there is a magazine rack, where bundles of copies of a few

Iranian newspapers sit. The produce section of the grocery store is typical to other large grocery stores, but there are items at Akhavan that cannot be found in other grocery stores, Hashemzadeh 37

such as lîmûn shîrîn-î, sweet lemons. The store also stocks a variety of juices imported from Iran and dûgh can also be found here. Akhavan also sells Iranian rice, spices such as sumac, and

Iranian spice mixtures such as Advieh, a special blend for rice. The meat is hâlâl and many in the neighborhood line up, take a number, and wait their turn to choose from what is the easily the best meat selection in this area of NDG. Akhavan also has a small café that sells a few

Iranian dishes. In addition, they also have a bakery, complete with a full case of tasty Iranian

(and Arabic-style) sweets.

RECREATING IRAN: THE IMPORTANCE OF NDG

The importance of this chapter is to give the reader pertinent background information regarding the particularities of Quebec and Montreal, Iranian immigration to Canada and to provide a description of NDG, a space with a high concentration of Iranians and Iranian things.

While the focus of this thesis is practices of association between Iranians in Montreal, I find it necessary to bring attention to NDG because it is a space where Iranians can feel Iranian. It is a place of exchange –in terms of commerce and most importantly, knowledge. As mentioned previously, the Iranian weeklies, specifically Chacâvac, whose significance will be further discussed in Chapter Three, can be found in little stands in many of the area businesses. These magazines are meant to distribute knowledge about the happenings within the Iranian community and it is through them that certain groups dedicated to cultural exchange, such as

CafeLitt, are publicized and made known to the larger Iranian community. So while Akhavan is not a site specifically of cultural exchange, it is a place where Iranians can pick up a copy of Hashemzadeh 38

Chacâvac and learn of upcoming Iranian cultural activities. Places like Akhavan are essential because they provide a space for this information to be distributed.

Akhavan, Shiraz and Sun Video and other spaces in NDG also allow for opportunities for

Iranians to meet and see other Iranians, creating a sense of home, even though it is displaced feeling. These spaces also allow Iranians to cultivate a sense of Iranian-ness. Persian is an acceptable public language in these spaces and Iranian food and products are easily found here allowing those in the spaces to feel, however briefly, that perhaps they have stumbled back to

Iran somehow. The actual absolute physical space of the stores and restaurants, which were described above, also reference the key discourses of Iranian culture: Persian poetry and

Iranian history. Shiraz decorate its walls with photos of things like the Hâfez Mausoleum, which not only allows visitors to see a physical image of Iran, but it also invokes the discourse of Persian poetry, reminding viewers of one of Iran’s most cherished poets, Hâfez. The pictures of the Shah in Sun Video and the images of Persepolis in Shiraz also reference Iranian history – specifically the pre-Islam and pre-Islamic regime history, respectively. These images provide

Iranians in Montreal with another association to their far away homeland, reminding them of their nation’s history.

Hashemzadeh 39

CHAPTER TWO: THE PAINTER AND THE POET

THE PAINTER

My initial encounter with the actor-network of Iranian Montrealers was through an informal meeting with the painter from the film Faces, Khosro Berahmandi. Khosro invited me over to his apartment for dinner. His apartment is located in a Montreal neighborhood called the Mile-

End. Adjacent to the neighborhood known as the Plateau, this area has a reputation for being an artist’s neighborhood. While the Plateau is thought of as a hip and young neighborhood, it has become increasingly expensive. The Mile-End, however, has kept relatively low rents and has qualities of a transitioning neighborhood. The area was and to an extent still is, where many Portuguese immigrants live, making it a more linguistically diverse area than the Plateau which is largely Francophone. Although, even this is changing, as the Plateau has become a favored neighborhood for students of Montreal’s main Anglophone universities: Concordia

University and McGill University.

Khosro’s apartment is part of a co-operative. All the tenants of the building share certain common spaces like the inner courtyard where there are picnic tables and a grill. The atmosphere is very friendly and Khosro tells me everyone often shares meals together and they all generally help one another out when necessary. The inside of his apartment is very warm; the colors he has chosen to decorate with are rich - red is prominent all around. His paintings also adorn the walls. They feature womanly and animal shapes and are mostly gold, red, blue, and purple in color. During our first visit, his school-aged son was home and refused Hashemzadeh 40

to speak any language except for French, which serves as a reminder of where we are, Quebec.

During the Iranian revolution, Khosro’s sympathies lied with the Communist party. His activities within the organization lead him to fear persecution by the regime and it was this that eventually forced him to leave the country in 1982. When he left Iran, he tells me that he wanted to be in a place that had a similar political consciousness and the reputation of Quebec

(“the Cuba of the North) for having socialist leanings was very attractive to him.

During our first conversation, Khosro spoke of Iran as “so beautiful, so pure.” At least these are his thoughts about the Iran of the past. Presently, he said that he feels as if he

“doesn’t know that country anymore.” One of the major themes present in his stories about

Iran of the past are the feelings of “solidarity” that he felt. He describes having strong ties of solidarity with his family during his youth, for example his siblings all went on a hunger strike

– usually a strategy used in public demonstrations - when his parents first divorced and the kids were, for a limited time, prevented from seeing their mother. Because of the strike, the children prevailed and were reunited with their mother. He told me that ideas like this, where people came together for a common purpose, were prevalent before the revolution, but when speaking of present day Iran, he said that somewhere along the way “these ideas were stolen in a radical way.” His sense of loss as he told me this seems to fill the room.

During this first meeting, Khosro also told me some of his thoughts about the network of Iranians in Canada. He loosely divided the group into two categories: those that came around the time of the revolution and those that came after. He says the first wave of immigrants came to escape the Islamic Republic’s new regime and he places himself and several of his closest friends in this category. He also mentions that at first many Iranians did Hashemzadeh 41

arrive in Montreal, but as the city went through its own changes related to the after effects of

“the Quiet Revolution,”71 Iranians followed the trend of immigrants to Canada and began to either move to Toronto or Vancouver or choose to immigrate to those cities from the start.

Many of the immigrants of this first wave do not go back to Iran and those that do usually only go back sparingly. Khosro has not been back since he left in the early 80’s.

The second wave of immigration that Khosro described is mainly composed of Iranians on student visas or those who have come to Canada because of economic reasons. While some of them do have political reasons for coming, this is not the driving force of immigration.

Unlike the first wave of immigration, 72 Khosro said this wave maintains much closer ties to

Iran, traveling back and forth quite often. He added that when they come to Montreal, they are more likely to attempt to recreate an environment of their vatan, or motherland. He says many of them live in the same apartment buildings; one building particularly notorious for its high numbers of young Iranians is located in Côte des Neiges is called Tehran Tapeh, or Tehran Hill.

KHOSRO ON BEING A MONTREALER

71 Steven Peck, an Urban Planner and historian who works in Montreal told me that the Quiet Revolution, which took place in the 1960’s in Quebec was a period of rapid change for the province: the government underwent a process of secularization as the Roman had controlled various public institutions and it was also a period of increasingly nationalism with many political groups actively advocating for an independent Quebec. 72 In an article by Georges Sabagh and Mehdi Bozorgmehr, (see Mehdi Bozorgmehr, Georges Sabagh "High Status Immigrants: A Statistical Profile of Iranians in the United States." Iranian Studies 21, no. 3 (1988): 5-36.) they state the first wave of immigration as arriving in the United States as those who came between 1950-1977 and the second wave beginning until 1977-1986. I acknowledge this different definition of Iranian immigration, but have chosen to label what Sabagh and Bozogmehr label “second wave” as “first wave” mainly because the actors in my network have followed this definition. Also, the presence of Iranians in Canada prior to the revolution was extremely low and I am wary to call this an actual “wave” of immigration. Hashemzadeh 42

Khosro tells me that while he knows many Iranians and is very aware of certain things within the larger network of Iranians in Montreal, he sees himself as existing on the fringes of the network. When he first arrived in Montreal he was more interconnected to Iranians in

Montreal; he worked in an Iranian restaurant in NDG and also volunteered at Nima Library, 73 which is relatively in the same area. As he spent further time in Montreal, he became very interested and committed to also being a citizen of Montreal. He is very involved in the local arts scene as he has an important position with one of the local arts festivals. Maintaining ties with the arts scene in Montreal is important to him and he presents himself as someone who knows quite a bit about different projects that are going on. He actively attends arts events of all kinds. While the festival he works for, Accès Asie, does promote Iranian artists at times, he also very energetically tells me about the other artists and events they promote which include artists from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia and South Asia.

His actions show that while he is interested in continuing to cultivate himself as an

Iranian, he does this in his own, individualized, way and seems to be quite conscious of the choices that he makes. For example, while he has worked as a chef in Iranian restaurants and is quite knowledgeable in the area of , when he makes Iranian food at home he adds his own twists to things and he says he enjoys adding new spices to things and never quite follows any traditional recipes. While he acknowledges Iranian traditions, he also actively wants to change things up a bit and take more active role in building a self that he views as unique and individual. He also said that while he does occasionally go to Akhavan, if he

73 Nima Library is a lending library that was started by left-leaning Iranians in the early 80’s. The library is run by volunteers and is currently located in Côte Des Neiges, the neighborhood just north and slightly east of NDG. Hashemzadeh 43

is looking for a specific spice or other item, he usually will go to a small dépanneur74 in that is close to his office for certain Iranian items such as zerishk, a small berry, and Iranian teas.

During this first trip to Khosro’s apartment he also told me about a group that he thinks

I would be interested in. The name of the group is Cafe Litteraire and he told me that they are a mix of students (second wave Iranians) as well as several older professionals and intellectuals

(first wave Iranians). He shows me an ad for the group in Chacavac. He mentions that he has been to the meetings a handful of times and found them interesting. I made a note to look into this group.

‘FROM THE PERSIAN PLATEAU TO PLATEAU MONT-ROYAL’

The Maison d’Edition Ketab-e Iran Canada (MEKIC) is a place I characterize as a space of cultural exchange; Khosro has had exhibitions here, CafeLitt has hosted meetings here and I have had compelling interactions with many Iranians within the walls of MEKIC. MEKIC is located at

4438 Rue de la Roche in the Plateau Mont-Royal and is located east of

– which is now known to be a fuzzy dividing line between the Anglophone and Francophone parts of the city; the street used to be an official division between the East (Francophone) and

West (Anglophone) part of the city. The name MEKIC incorporates both Persian (Ketab), meaning book, and French words, Maison d’Edition, meaning publishing house. MEKIC is several

74 Dépanneur is the Montreal name for a corner store, similar to a New York City style bodega. Hashemzadeh 44

concepts rolled into one space: it is a bookstore, lending library, art gallery, cultural center and publishing house.75

Although MEKIC is a public business, it caters to Iranians living in Montreal, but it also desires to be a space to introduce Montrealers to Iranian culture. The following sentence appears on the MEKIC’s website, when describing its bookstore: “We invite the Iranian community to enjoy the only bookstore in the city of Montreal which provides the current and latest books published in Farsi”76 The MEKIC Art Gallery is “the main venue to exhibit the artists who are from South West Asia and live in four corners of the world;”77 its publishing house “aims at publishing the important literary works of South West Asia in English or French with the mission to introduce the old and rich cultures of this region to the Canadian public”78 and its mission as a cultural center is to bring artists - which it describes as poets, authors, film directors and sculptors – “from South West Asia, specifically Iran, and organize seminars for creating an atmosphere of dialog and debate.”79 Another interesting phrase that appears on a promotional brochure is “Du Plateau Perse au Plateau Mont-Royal”80 which translates to “From the Persian Plateau to Plateau Mont-Royal.” This phrase once again suggests the idea that

MEKIC is a space that brings elements of Iranian culture to a place that is known to be the

75 Although MEKIC still describes itself as a publishing house on its website and in its promotional literature, I have been told me that the company has ceased publishing due to the challenges involved in publishing books in Iran.

76 "MEKIC,” www.mekic.ca (accessed December 8 2008). 77 Ibid. 78 Ibid. 79 Ibid. 10 "MEKIC Brochure," Montreal (2008). Hashemzadeh 45

heart of culture of Montreal, the Plateau Mont-Royal.81 I have found that MEKIC is an essential space in the formation of Iranian-ness in Montreal because through its various events – whether they be art exhibitions, academic lectures, film screenings. or CafeLitt meetings,

Iranians in Montreal can engage in a practice or association that is essential to their continued cultivation of Iranian-ness. It is these activities, or as I like to say, practices, that are the substance of subject formation for Iranians in Montreal. MEKIC is a space that makes the subject formation of Iranians visible.

EXPERIENCING MEKIC 82

MEKIC is nestled on the some-what quiet street of Rue de la Roche and if you are not careful, you will walk past its discreet storefront. In the glass windows a painting from the current exhibition will be hanging to give you a taste of what is displayed inside. When you enter from the mostly glass front door your eye will be pulled by many visual elements. The floors are wooden and a medium brown tone and their planks stretch throughout the length of the space and the room will be filled with the click-clack of people’s shoes, sometimes the high heels of women, on the hard floors. There will be paintings on the wall and several large books – the kinds that will later be displayed on coffee-tables – will be propped up on shelves in the far left

81 From my experience of living in Montreal since summer of 2007, I have come to know that the Plateau is thought to be a place of cultural richness –many of Montreal’s hippest restaurants, bars, cafes, clothing stores, etc. are located in this neighborhood. Several of the actors in this ethnography – mostly those who self-describe as artists - live in this area and have said they can not imagine living in any other part of the city.

82 For this section, I once again use creative writing techniques such as second person as well as the future and present tense. Hashemzadeh 46

corner and the near right corner. MEKIC has the white walls and track lighting83 typical of a gallery space. To the left of the entrance are a small office and a makeshift coatroom when the weather is cold enough for coats, which is generally the months of November - April in

Montreal.

The front door opens up to a medium-sized display room. The artwork on display will almost certainly be by an artist of southwest Asian origin and you also might notice that the labels naming the piece will be in French, English and Persian. In the middle of the back wall is an arched entranceway to another display room that is much like the first. Although, this second room only displays artwork – there are no shelves displaying books in this room. To the far left there is yet another arched entrance way and this opens up to a small display room.

And as you walk through the arch you also might notice the large flat screen TV on the wall to your left. The screen is used for film screenings or for the showing of video-installation pieces.

This room also has two large armchairs in far right and near right corners – inviting people to sit for a moment. If you walk back into the second room and continue walking towards the back of MEKIC, you walk past a door that opens into a small garden area. When the weather is warm this door is usually ajar and you might catch a glimpse of people sitting on the wooden bench, enjoying a cigarette. A little bit past the door to the garden is a small area. If you have come during a vernissage, the opening night of an exhibition, you will be treated to a glass of red or , tea and shîrînî, Iranian cookies. Next are the washrooms and then, after going down a few stairs, you will be in the bookstore/lending library.

83 Art galleries typically have white walls so the viewer can focus solely on the art on the walls and most galleries also use track lighting so that the light is easy to adjust to ensure ideal lightening conditions for each exhibit. Hashemzadeh 47

The lending library is one floor to ceiling shelf filled with an assortment of books. Many of them are about Iran, but there are also quite a few other titles like a travel guide to Costa

Rica, a Persian to French dictionary and The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. You will also notice the books for sale are also mostly about Iran. You might see Marjane Satrapi’s

Persepolis,84 Hamid Dabashi’s Iran: A People Interrupted,85 or a shortened version of the

Shâhnâmeh.86 There are also children’s books written in Persian along with several books about artwork, Iranian and European. With a turn of your head to the right and towards the back of the room you will see a medium sized window and underneath it sits a wooden desk.

If you have come during a vernissage, there will be people everywhere and many of them will be Iranian and Persian will be most people’s language of choice. It is entirely possible to spend the evening at MEKIC and only speak Persian. At MEKIC, most likely due to its position in a francophone area of town, the other language most likely to be heard is French.

It will be difficult to see the artwork because the place will be packed and if you look Iranian people might greet you with a Salaam. The evening will begin to wind down around 10:00 pm and you will say good-bye or perhaps khodâ hâfîz to your friends or maybe the new friends you have made while visiting MEKIC.

84 Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (New York: Pantheon, 2003). 85 Hamid Dabashi, Iran: A People Interrupted, (New York: The New Press, 2007). 86 Ferdawsî wrote the Shâhnâmeh, the Book of Kings, around 1000 AD. It is written in “pure Persian” (Ferdawsî attempted to exclude any Arabic words) in the form of an epic poem. The poem tells the mythical history of Iran’s kings, queens and heroes. Hashemzadeh 48

MEETING THE POET

On my second trip to visit Khosro, the poet featured in the film Faces, Hossein Sharang is also there. This was not my first time meeting Hossein. After watching Faces, I researched Hossein on the Internet and found that he had a public page on Myspace.com. I asked to become his friend and a few weeks later I visited MEKIC during a vernissage and bumped into him. My first impression of Hossein was, that while he is small in stature, he was full of energy. He has a clutch of curly white-gray hair and a big smile. When he first saw me he quickly recognized my face from Myspace.com and asked me if that was how we know each other. I said yes and told him my name. He was very excited to meet me and invited me outside to chat while he had a cigarette. Our conversation was quite casual and was mainly composted of getting-to-know- you types of questions and answers.

It was not until several weeks later, after my initial meeting with Khosro, that I realized how close of friends Khosro and Hossein are. The next time that I saw Hossein was when I was picking up some leftovers from a meal Khosro and I had shared. Khosro insisted that I come to get the leftovers and I gladly accepted his invitation. When I arrived I was greeted with the surprise of also seeing Hossein at Khosro’s apartment. While Khosro worked on getting together some snacks for us to eat, Hossein and I sat outside on the balcony and Hossein began to tell me his story.

Hossein explained to me that when he first arrived in Montreal he did not want to associate with any Iranians. He said that he did not even tell people that he was Iranian and generally avoided other Iranians. However, after some persistent urging from his friends he Hashemzadeh 49

met with Khosro. He says when they first met they immediately got along well and have been good friends ever since. Their first meeting took place in 1989.

They not only get together to simply enjoy one another’s company, but they also work on projects together. Their most recent being a book titled Fâsele dar Khod, which features

Khosro’s paintings alongside poems by Hossein, Bahman Sadighi and Mohammad Hossein

Model. In the book, the poems appear in both Persian and French. They have also worked on translations projects together, along with other Iranian friends. When they work on projects together they usually plan to meet one another weekly, on a set day and time, creating an informal practice of association.

Hossein strongly self-identifies as a poet. He has published seven books of poetry and also has had two of his poetry collections translated into French. He prefers to write in Persian because he says that he likes “to taste his mother’s milk”87 as he is thinking and writing. Most days when the weather is nice, he reads and writes in Jeanne Mance Park.

The day that we sat on Khosro’s balcony and talked he told that he had just been in the in the park thinking about Iran. He says that before the revolution people were generally happy, carefree and energetic; being in the park reminded him of this because he believes that

Montrealers are like this. He says that he now considers Montreal home and has not been back to Iran since he escaped the country in the early 80s. Although, he does say that he would like to go back one day. He describes his forced departure from Iran as a ripping and when he says this he gestures towards his chest. When he describes his experience during the revolution he

87 Hossein often referred to Iran in matriarchal terms. Referring to Iran as mother rather than father is was a historical shift that took place around the turn of the Twentieth century. See Mohamad Tavakoli-Taraghi, "From Patriotism to Matriotism: A Tropological Study of Iranian Nationalism," International Journal of Middle East Studies 34, no. 02 (2002): 217-238. Hashemzadeh 50

appears very emotional. As he speaks of it, it suddenly seems as if I am not there and he begins what seems to be something like thinking-out-loud. He offers a thought: that perhaps the

Iranian people deserved this revolution because they were very pretentious and he suggests that maybe they need to go through some sort of purge to get rid of something foul inside the nation. When he says this he gestures towards his belly.

HOSSEIN’S DEPARTURE FROM IRAN 88

Hossein, the son of a Mullah, grew up in Kerman. He described his father as peaceful mullah, and one who was not involved in the revolution. He spoke very fondly about the province he is from and said that it has “the best carpets in the solar system.” He also mentioned that he felt like it is a little India and an agriculturally rich place. His hometown is Jiroft, a town that he described as being over 7,000 years old. When he described his old home, a wide smile spreads across his face and says that in Jiroft it is possible to grown watermelons that are more than 2 and half feet long and dates that are as big as fingers. He said the oranges are huge and juicy and he insisted that he is not exaggerating; he insists that these are facts. The very taste of the fruits, he said, is different. However, years of raising the water from underground to create these rich crops has devastated the water supply and now the area has become very dried out.

Hossein said that his family, mostly date farmers, lost between 5-6,000 date trees due to the

88 The following story was told to me by Hossein when we met for dinner one evening at his apartment. What is different about this meeting is that I digitally recorded the conversation which created a more formal environment and perhaps gave a feeling of importance to the event as Hossein was very detailed in his answers and seemed to work hard to really captivate me with his fascinating story. Hossein also lives in the Plateau and his home is mostly filled with books. On the walls there are pictures of him and friends throughout the past several decades. Hashemzadeh 51

droughts. He expressed distaste for the wealthier people in the area, who, in his opinion used up much of the underground water supply to grown plants like melons and cucumbers rather than growing things, such as dates, that are more suitable to the natural climate. Hossein compared the climate of Jiroft to California, and says that in springtime it is like walking through a perfumed garden and when he said this he reference to the fragrant eucalyptus tree.

Although, the California dates, he said, taste artificial.

Similar to Khosro, Hossein was also part of the leftist movement in Iran. After the effects of the revolution began to spread throughout the nation, Hossein saw many of his friends and comrades jailed and some executed. Fearing that the same would happen to him, he began plotting his escape.

When he left Iran, he was a member of the Iranian Communist Party and he left because, not only did he fear for his life, but he saw the revolution turn into something that he was not longer interested in participating in. He tells me he brought several books with him when he left: the Divan-î , Forough Farrokzad’s Rebirth, a book by Reza Behrani,89 a book of poetry by Ahmed Shamloo and Capital by Karl Marx.

When he arrived in the Unites States he went to the Russian Embassy because he said he wanted to get papers from the Tudah party, recognizing him as a fellow comrade. However, this did not happen and he was actually arrested at the Embassy and turned over to the

American authorities. He told me about this experience in a humorous way. He said a

89 It is interesting to note that Behrani also left Iran and immigrated to Canada. He is the former president of PEN – Canada, an organization that states on its websites that it “stands for the principle of unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations, and members pledge themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country and community to which they belong, as well as throughout the world wherever this is possible.” Hashemzadeh 52

policewoman ended up taking him to her home to feed him. He says that the house was filled with guns and animal heads. When he arrived at the house, the man she lived with began speaking Persian to him. Hossein explains that the man had been sent to Tabriz by the Unites

States government to train SAVAK.90 At one point in the conversation the man pulled out a gun and told Hossein that he had killed Iranian communists before. The woman made them a dinner of hamburgers and mashed potatoes and one particular thing Hossein remembered was a large dog licking him.

He was eventually sent to Honolulu and was then deported to Hong Kong via Air

Singapore. Hossein says that the flight was nice and he had a plethora of tickets for food and drinks. At this point he was traveling on an Afghani passport with a fake name. He was next sent to Bangkok and remained there for fourteen days until he finally boarded a plane to

Montreal. He had to leave his book of Hâfez behind because he reasoned that if he were caught with this book then he would be discovered as an Iranian.91 Surprisingly his Bangkok friends who knew of this books significance to him later sent him his Divan-î Hâfez.

He arrived in Montreal on December 5, 1983. When he got off the plane he raised his hands over his head and exclaimed: “I am a refugee.” He said that people immediately treated him with respect and from that moment on he felt like Canada was his country.

In order to get through the immigration process Hossein sought the expertise of two lawyers, one he described as an American and the other he described as “a relative of

90 SAVAK was an intelligence gathering agency set up by Reza Shah Pahlavi known for their use of torture and their active assault of counter-government movements operating in Iran during the mid-Twentieth Century, including communist and Shia movements. 91 This suggests that in Hossein’s mind that the Divan-i Hafez=Iranian. Hashemzadeh 53

Mossadeq.”92 Hossein spent his first night in Canada in a “very nice” Holiday Inn. Next, he was transferred to a refugee camp where he found himself among Caribbean’s, Palestinians,

Iranians and Afghanis. He said these people immediately welcomed him into their fold and became his friends.

When he arrived in Montreal, winter was still in full force and it was snowing relentlessly. He said he feared that he would “die here,” but he has managed “to survive for twenty-five years.” He now describes his life in Montreal as “simple” and “peaceful”

CONVERSATIONS WITH KHOSRO AND HOSSEIN

I continued meeting with Khosro and Hossein throughout the course of my fieldwork and their thoughts affected things that I became attuned to, things such as the prevalence of poetry in my conversations with other Iranians in Montreal. Our meetings became something we both looked forward to. Hossein once mentioned that he felt like he could talk to me like a niece. He

92 A key figure in Iran’s oil struggle is Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq, who headed efforts to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, taking away the British run Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s (AIOC) control of Iran’s oil reserves. Mossadeq was elected prime minister in 1951 and is described in Nikki R. Keddie’s book, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution, as “an anti-imperialist nationalist who intended to keep Iran from being controlled by any foreign country or company.” Mossadeq’s actions were highly objectionable with both the British, and later the Americans, who disapproved of his move to nationalize Iran’s oil, meaning great loss of capital for the AIOC, which would later become British Petroleum. Mossadeq, who experienced periods of robust popularity amongst the Iranian people because of his efforts to rid Iran’s government of foreign involvement and because he did such things as donating his monthly salary to those less fortunate and turning over monarch-owned land to the state was overthrown in a coup in August of 1953. The coup was orchestrated by a collaboration of British Intelligence and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who planned“Operation Ajax,” with the cooperation of Iran’s Monarchy. Winston Churchill gained much of the momentum for the project by painting Mossadeq as communist, playing on the US’s cold war era fears of communism. Today Mossadeq is idolized by many Iranians, who revere him, amongst other things, for his efforts to make Iran independent from foreign powers and his reputation as a secular-leaning democrat. See Nikki R. Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution, (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003), 128-129 and Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, Princeton University Press, 1982. Hashemzadeh 54

said that there were many nieces that he does not get to spend time with in Iran and that by spending time with me, he felt, in a way, that he was spending time with them.

As I mentioned above, Persian poetry was often either a focus of our conversations or was simply brought up frequently in a manner of reference. The poet who seems to focus most prominently in their minds as a Persian poet is Hâfez. When Khosro left Iran, he says that he only had Hâfez and Hossein mentions that any Iranian that does not have a book of Hâfez “is a bastard.” Hâfez, for Hossein and Khosro seems to be a figure loaded with meaning. Hossein says that after he left Iran he could not even read Hâfez verses for three to four years. It seems that this correlates with the time period (the first few years he spent in Montreal) in which

Hossein wanted nothing to do with Iran, which suggests that Hafez came to represent, to an extent, Iranian-ness for Hossein. When speaking of this time period Hossein says that he wanted to become “un-Iranian,” and “a bastard.”

Hossein tells me that Iranians often consult Hâfez daily and he believes that both the

Quran and the Divan-î Hâfez are “Persian holy books.” He also believes that Hâfez is comparable to Shakespeare. He tells me of how people kiss it and put it in front of their eyes and Khosro interjects that his mother sleeps with it under her pillow. Reading Hâfez, they tell me, is like a ritual and the poetry is loaded with meaning.

Hossein tells me that anytime he visited Shiraz he would always visit the Hâfez

Mausoleum. He then launches into a story about the mausoleum. When he was, in his words, “a fugitive,” he was in Shiraz for a while and was hanging out underneath of a palm tree. He noticed a woman who was not in hîjâb. The year was 1982 and almost all women had begun wearing hîjâb, so this woman’s bare head stuck out in the new landscape of scarf –covered Hashemzadeh 55

heads. He says the woman was British and the man she was with was from Tehran. Hossein says she had “a Benson Hedges cigarette on her lips” and sat on the tomb of Hâfez. When she did this, men around her began yelling at her and the young woman began to cry. He then says the old oracle man, who according to Hossein gave people fortunes by using the poetry of

Hâfez, gave the woman an oracle in which the central theme was that the only blasphemy is to hurt others. After the men who yelled at her heard of her oracle reading, Hossein says that they felt very ashamed, because, in Hossein’s opinion, Hâfez would not have been bothered by this woman sitting on his tomb.

Khosro then, with nostalgia in his voice, tells a story of a famous arts festival that took place in Shiraz. He says that one artist brought a piano and pushed if off the top of building.

This also took place at the tomb of Hâfez; Khosro says that this would not even happen in New

York City. After he tells this anecdote he says that he feels that some people think they own

Hâfez’s Mausoleum, but it is his belief that the Mausoleum belongs to all Iranian people.

During this conversation about Hâfez and Shiraz, they tell me about Shahin Parhami’s film project to compare Shiraz and Montreal and they say that both cities have a smoothness in the air and Hossein says that even the religious shrines in Shiraz have poetic-ness to them.

It seems that they find similarities between the center of Persian poetry and Montreal, a city renowned for its arts. Montreal is often thought of by Canadians to be the most artistic city in

Canada; whether or not this is true is open for debate, but it does have a reputation for being an artistic center. It seems that Hossein and Khosro, men who both self-identify as a poet and painter respectively, feel that the city of Montreal helps them in their self-cultivation as artistic individuals. Hashemzadeh 56

THE SHÂHNÂMEH

Another work of literature that surfaced a few times in our conversations was the Shâhnâmeh, the epic poem telling the mythical story of the Persian Empire, which Hossein describes as “a delicious book, a Persian cake.” Hossein and Khosro both say that they had to memorize the verses when they were children and they both can still remember some of the pieces they had to memorize.

During one meeting Hossein provides me with a compelling metaphor taken from the

Shâhnâmeh. He says that the story of Sohrâb could be a metaphor for the entire nation of Iran.

In the story of Sohrâb, his father Rostam kills Sohrâb, but tragically only discovers he is dueling his son after he kills him. This story is a metaphor for the Iranian nation, because, in

Hossein’s opinion, “Iran is a country with no future,” and “an old civilization with no future.”

When he told me this, he also contrasts Iran’s myth with the Greek myth of Oedipus, in which the son kills the father. Hossein told me this is suggestive of a civilization with a future, but no regard for the past.

Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi in his work Refashioning Iran explains that the through the reciting and reading of texts like the Shâhnâmeh, Iranians engage in a practice to recover “the

‘forgotten history’ of ancient Iran.”93 Through this practice, particularly during times of “social dislocation, military defeats, and foreign infiltration” reciting and reading the Shâhnâmeh allowed for the rearticulation of Iranian identity and the construction of alternative forms of historical narrations and periodizations.”94 The Shâhnâmeh, according to Tavakoli-Targhi

93 Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism and Historiography (New York: Palgrave: 2001), 97. 94 Ibid. Hashemzadeh 57

“provided valuable semantic and symbolic resources for dissociating Iran from Islam and for fashioning an alternative basis of identity.”95 During the nineteenth century, the Shâhnâmeh was often recited in coffeehouse and the narrative’s form often became a subject of mimicry for the nation’s poets. The Shâhnâmeh is a work of literature that is seen as preserving Persian language and Iranian history during a time when the nation was under the threat of becoming an “arabicisized” nation. Ferdawsî, the author of the Shâhnâmeh attempted to write the narrative exclusively in Persian, using as few Arabic words as possible. This painstaking feat is cited as one of the main reasons for the preservation for the Persian language and some go so far to say, such as Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, as Tavakoli-Targhi notes, that without the

Shâhnâmeh Persian speakers would have lost both their nationality and race as the hand of the

Arabs.96 Tavakoli-Targhi believes that the Shâhnâmeh played a huge part in constructing

Twentieth-century Iran’s interpretation of Iran’s pre-Islamic history, which he views as one of the key contributors to “a distinctly nationalist memory and identity.”97

In his article, “Recultivating "good taste": the early Pahlavi modernists and their society for national heritage,” Talinn Grigor discusses the activities of The Society for National

Heritage (SNH), formed in 1921 under Reza Shah, an organization whose main objective was to promote Iran’s pre-Islamic past. As Grigor suggests, the organization’s activities centered on promoting a certain Iranian historical narrative, one that was selective and was essentially a

“modern reduction of history.”98 Among this organization’s activities was building

95 Ibid., 99. 96 Ibid., 99. 97 Ibid., 100. 98 Talinn Grigor, "Recultivating "Good Taste": The Early Pahlavi Modernists and Their Society for National Heritage." Iranian Studies 37, no. 1 (2004): 31. Hashemzadeh 58

mausoleums to particular figures from Iran’s past. One of the central projects, which roughly lasted half a decade, was building a new mausoleum to Ferdawsî in Tus, the place of Ferdawsî’s birth. The SNH invited German archeologist, Ernst Herzfeld to deliver a lecture on the Iran’s heritage and Herzfeld focused on the importance of Ferdawsî Shâhnâmeh Grigor quotes Herzfeld as saying that “the true Iranian heritage is the Shâhnâmeh, which is the masterpiece of Ferdawsî, the only great poet of this country.”99 One of the central purposes for constructing a new mausoleum to Ferdawsî, was, as Reza Shah declared in his 1934 speak marking the inauguration for the new mausoleum, “to give the Iranian people a physical structure to “display their apparent appreciation” for Ferdawsî and the Shâhnâmeh. The final structure’s most striking characteristic is its central façade, which is adorned with an icon of Ahura Mazda, the

Zoroastrian god, which according to Grigor is “a direct copy for Persepolis Hall of One Hundred

Columns or the Throne Hall.”100 The mausoleum also employed certain pre-Islamic architecture techniques including borrowing from the style of Cyrus the Great’s101 tomb. The significance of this is that through this landmark, Ferdawsî and his Shâhnâmeh were directly linked to Iran’s most celebrated historical figure, Cyrus. The monument helped to create a collective nationalist memory about Iran, one that specifically focused on celebrating Iran’s pre-Islamic past.

Tavakoli-Targhi and Grigor’s arguments are useful for this thesis because, considering the past uses of the Shâhnâmeh in the forming of a nationalist Iranian identity and noting its

99 Ibid., 28. 100 Ibid., 37. 101 Cyrus the Great (600 or 576 BC – 530 BC) as the founder of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty, is a celebrated and cherished Iranian figure. Reverence for Cyrus increased during the Twentieth century as the Pahlavi’s strongly promoted Cyrus’ achievements in efforts to produce a collective modernist interpretation of Iranian history. Hashemzadeh 59

frequency and continued citation in Montreal suggests that as the actors discuss, remember and think about the Shâhnâmeh the are performing a certain aspect of their Iranian-ness, one that is intimately connected to the Twentieth century project of reconstructing a collective historical narrative that privileges Iran’s pre-Islamic past.

HOSSEIN AS A MONTREALER

A particularly interesting event I was invited to by Hossein was a performance he gave as part of the 14th Annual Festival Literature – International de la Literature, which took place on

September 19, 2008. It is interesting to note that Hossein chose to read at this event rather than at an event called: “The Commemorative for the 1980’s Massacre of Iranian Political

Prisoners.” According to the event’s website “In 1988, thousands of political prisoners were brutally murdered by the Iranian government in what has come to be known as ‘the 1988 Iran massacre.’ It was the climax of a decade of mass executions in Iran.”102 Hossein told me that he had agreed to this event earlier and was very excited to be working with some of the Natives on a piece. He did express disappointment with not being able to attend the commemorative, but had already promised to be at the literature festival prior to agreeing to be a part of the commemorative.

The evening began with dinner at Khosro’s place. I arrived a bit exhausted from my day and was happy to be greeted with the smell of saffron and rice. Khosro was also preparing a stew of vegetables and kufta meatballs. A friend of Hossein also joined us for dinner. She is half

102 "Commemorative for 1980's Massacre of Iranian Political Prisoners," http://www.1980smassacre.com/home.html (accessed December 8 2008). Hashemzadeh 60

Polish, half Afghani and is studying fine art in Montreal. An Iranian friend of Khosro’s,

Hooman, picks us up to take us to the festival. It takes place in a small theatre, Le Lion D’Or, in the eastern, francophone part of Montreal. Hossein greets us excitedly as soon as we arrive. He is clenching a water bottle and speaking sometimes in English and sometimes in Persian to us, telling us about what is going on backstage. He tells us that he has saved a table for us near the front. The table is circular and located stage right. The entire place is filled with similar sized circular tables and it is the type of place where people eat and drink while enjoying a show.

Shortly after we sit, a server comes around and takes our order. We all order a round of drinks and talk amongst ourselves while we wait for the performance to commence.

The evening in an interdisciplinary event featuring “artists and performers from different origins.”103 In the program for the festival, Hossein is described as “ le poète Iranien.”

The event featured many musicians, performance artists and writers. There was a Quebecois slam poet, Ivy, an Algonquian rapper, Samian, Quebecois singer Karen Young and perhaps most notably Quebecois poet and singer, Raoul Duguay. Performances took place in

Algonquian (by Samian), English (by Young), Persian (Hossein) and French. Both Ivy and

Duguay performed exclusively in French. Hossein’s first performance was singing a song about

Jiroft in the dialect of the province. He later also recited poems in Persian in a very energetic delivery.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the evening was when all performers sang parts of

“La Bitt a Tibi” in their representative languages. “La Bitt a Tibi,” written by Duguay, was described to me by Khosro as a sort of Quebec national song. As the verses were performed in

103 14 Festival International De La Litteraure, “Cabaret Des Mots Qui Sonnent,” (event brochure) 13. Hashemzadeh 61

French many of the audience members joined in, showing it is a song they are very familiar with. Having this song performed in French is a usual occurrence, but to have it performed in

French, English, Persian and Algonquian in the same rendition is quite unusual. It is important to note, however, that all performers joined in to sing the song in French together at the end, which reinforced Quebec’s practice of interculturalism.

At the end of the event, Hossein came over to us and we all congratulated him on his successful performance and he told us he felt his performance did not have enough energy, but we all reassured him that he had quite enough. He spoke of his enthusiasm for performing with the Natives and said that he will hopefully be working on more projects with them in the future.

MEMORIES CREATE (ABSENT) SPACES

This chapter has profiled two first-wave Iranian artists that I spent a large amount of time with throughout the course of my fieldwork. I have shared some of their stories in an effort to give readers a better picture of first-wave Iranians and the way they continue to cultivate a sense of

Iranian-ness as well as to give readers an idea of the way their memories become a part of the relative space they exist in. Of the actors I spent time with, Khosro and Hossein have been in

Montreal for the longest period of time and thus their memories of their past time in Iran are distant, but still constantly present. The loss of place they feel is evident through the stories they have shared; this loss has its own affect on their current inhabited spaces in Montreal. A feeling of nostalgia and longing hung in the air as I spoke to them about their memories of Hashemzadeh 62

Iran. This sense of loss of place not only becomes a part of the relative space, but it also becomes a part of their subject-formation, as they continue to cultivate this loss through such acts as reminiscing about Iran. This feeling of loss is not particular to just Khosro and Hossein, but rather most Iranians in Montreal. Iran becomes a sort of absent space that is always present. Cultural centers like MEKIC attempt to reconcile this loss by brining essential elements of Iranian culture to Montreal, providing a necessary space for Iranians to continue to cultivate themselves as Iranians.

Hashemzadeh 63

CHAPTER THREE: CAFELITT, CAFÉ CULTURE, & CAFÉ SABA

WHAT IS CAFELITT?

As I now turn to focus on CafeLitt and their activities, I find it necessary to explore the connections between Montreal and Paris and discuss the history and proliferation of café culture specifically in Iran and Paris. While Paris is not the only city with a strong semblance of café culture, from my conversations with Iranians in Montreal, it seems they – specifically those involved in CafeLitt - associate café culture with the city of Paris and look to the history of café culture in Paris as a guide for some of their own activities. This is likely due to the pivotal role cafés played during such times as the French revolution where the cafes where spaces to organize and dissent. As will be discussed in the following sections, CafeLitt promotes ideas of liberalism through CafeLitt.

My initial conversations with Hossein and Khosro provoked me to look into the group they referred to as CafeLitt and soon it seemed that everyone I spoke to about my project suggested that I learn more about this group. Because of my focus on practices of association and how they assist the subject formation of Iranians in Montreal, CafeLitt is an ideal organization to study. The group meets regularly (every week) and is a relatively large and well known within the larger Iranian community in Montreal. I found CafeLitt to be an embodiment of the idea I wished to study – that is how, through practices of association

Iranians cultivate a certain sense of self.

Hashemzadeh 64

Café Littéraire (written in Persian script as Café Adabî on the group’s blog) is an organization that describes itself as a "weekly Persian cultural meeting.”104 Its organizers and those who attend the sessions call it CafeLitt. Around a dozen men and women organize

CaféLitt. These organizers,105 who are mostly university students or professional academics, occasionally make presentations, but also recruit others to participate in the meetings by providing a presentation on a topic of that person’s expertise. The meetings are attended by approximately 40-50 people, generally last for three hours each week and are centered around on a presentation, followed by a discussion. The presentations cover a variety of topics: from

Heidegger to Ecotourism in Iran to the poetry of Forough Farrokhzad. CaféLitt was started in the spring of 2007 and the size of the meetings has grown considerably since then. During a conversation with a woman106 at Nima Library107 who often attends CaféLitt, she told me that when she began to attend the meeting in the fall of 2007 the meetings were barely over a dozen members; the size of the meetings has since nearly quadrupled. The group promotes their activities through their blog, an email list-serve and advertisements in Chacavac,

“Chacavac also often includes a write- up of the past week’s CaféLitt session, a column called

“CaféLitt Reports” and occasionally pictures of the event are also published.

104 "Cafe Litteraire,” http://montrealcafelit.blogspot.com/ (accessed December 4 2008). 105 In particular, there are two organizers of CaféLitt who seem to forefront the necessary organizational tasks to keep the group up and running. These two men, who are key actors in this ethnography, are in charge of the CaféLitt blog and also send out information on the email list-serve and also answer any questions that are relayed via the email list-serve. 106 This young woman lives in an apartment building mentioned in Chapter Two which is officially called Forest Hills, but because of the many Iranians who live here, it has jokingly been renamed: Tehran Tapah. 107 Nima Library is a lending library that was started by left-leaning Iranians in the early 80’s. The library is run by volunteers and is currently located in Cote Des Neiges, the neighborhood just north and slightly east of NDG. Hashemzadeh 65

CAFÉ CULTURE: IRAN, PARIS AND MONTREAL

Important elements to discuss are the associations CaféLitt has with both the history of Iranian café culture and Parisian café culture. The woman whom I spoke to at Nima Library mentioned that CaféLitt reminded her of Café Naderi. Café Naderi, an Armenian run coffeehouse in

Tehran, was (and still is) the meeting place for many well-known writers, intellectuals and artists. It was within the space of Café Naderi that several of the members of the Writers’

Association of Iran108 met and discussed the ideas that ended up forming the constitution of their organization. This woman echoed this description, telling me that Café Naderi was a place intellectuals, artists, and poets frequented; although, she mentioned that meeting at Café

Naderi was always a lot less formal than the meetings of CaféLitt. She also described Café

Naderi as being a “recreation of French culture.” She told me that Reza Shah sent many students to – to France in particular – and there used to be a strong emphasis on

French culture in Iran. This woman also told me that when Mr. Shademan, the former mayor of Tehran who lives in Montreal, came to one of CaféLitt’s sessions he said it reminded him of

Paris sixty years ago.

The central organizers of CaféLitt, two young male students, also relayed to me the story of Mr. Shademan’s visit to CaféLitt, which suggests it is a story CaféLitt’s members are proud of. One of them also mentioned that he attended a similar circle109 in Tehran. They also told me that they are both fearful of discussing things of political nature in CaféLitt because

108 See Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, "Protest and Perish: A History of the Writers' Association of Iran," Iranian Studies 18, no. 2 (1985): 189 - 229. 109 It is interesting to note that he used the word “circle” to describe the group he used to meet with in Tehran as in circle, or dûwreh in Persian, is a word used to describe a groups who meet regularly and discuss intellectual matters. Hashemzadeh 66

many of the members go back and forth between Canada and Iran and are aware that the

Islamic Republic of Iran could monitor what they do and say in Canada.

One of the men said he is interested (upon his father’s urgings) to learn “the culture of liberalism” and bring it back to Iran. He said that he believed CaféLitt was a good place to begin to transfer the “culture of liberalism” to Iranians. They see CaféLitt, not necessarily as whole- heartedly continuing an Iranian tradition of meeting and discussing intellectual things, but as a practice of association that incorporates elements of French café culture, which they see as intimately historically connected to the idea of democracy building, So while the performativity that takes place at CafeLitt meetings does cite established discourses such as

Persian poetry and history that compose Iranian culture and also builds upon the centuries-old

Iranian tradition of gathering and debating, what takes places during CaféLitt is not simply a reenactment, but a performance that is particular to the conditions and historical moment the members of CafeLitt live in. And part of the purpose of CafeLitt, according to the organizers, is to promote ideas of liberalism – a philosophy that focuses on ideas of democracy, freedom and individualism.

Although the organizers of CaféLitt told me they model CaféLitt more on French café culture than Iranian, it is important to note that European and Iranian coffeehouse began to pop up during the same time period, during the early to mid-1600’s. The first known coffeehouse in Europe opened its doors in Venice in 1645 and the first record of coffeehouse in

Iran occurs in the 1620s. The coffeehouse was an important public meeting place for several Hashemzadeh 67

centuries in Iran and continues to be so.110 The Iranian coffeehouses of the Twentieth century- did mostly likely model themselves off of the Parisian coffeehouses, to some extent, especially due to the influence of important Iranian figures that traveled to Paris. Sadiq Hidayat, “the founding figure of modernist Persian fiction”111 was heavily influenced by European, especially

French culture as he lived, studied (and died) in Paris. His prominence, along with other intellectuals who lived in Europe, could be seen as promoting and bringing back certain elements of European/French culture.

Parisian cafes during the early Twentieth century were places where the public could meet and exchange ideas – especially political ideas.112 This phenomenon is very similar to the role of the coffeehouse in pre-revolutionary Iran, as mentioned above. In 1850-1851, during the

Qajar period, the coffeehouse faced restrictions because, according to Amir Kabir “people talked politics and engaged in too much opposition.”113 Matthee draws attention to the resemblance between these restrictions and the restrictions imposed by Napoleon III against

French cafes in the 1850s.

Although Montreal is obviously not Paris, Montreal is often spoken of, as being the

“Paris of North America” and it is interesting to consider the historical parallels between

French and Iranian café cultural. While CafeLitt is not wholeheartedly simply idealizing the notion of French café culture and its role in the promotion of liberal ideas, there does seem to

110 See Rudolph P. Matthee. The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900. (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2005). 111 Dabashi. Iran: A People Interrupted, 116. 112 Haine writes the networks formed through Parisian cafes “were the basis for the Parisian schools of art, literature and politics that emerged after the era of the Commune (1871) and included socialism, impressionism, anarchism, syndicalism and anti-Semitism” see Haine, W. Scott, "'Cafe Friend': Friendship and Fraternity in Parisian Working-Class Cafes, 1850-1914," Journal of Contemporary History 27, no. 4 (1992): 607. 113 Matthee, 279. Hashemzadeh 68

be some degrees of idealizing. While many of the second-wave Iranians who travel back forth between Iran frequently will not explicitly discuss politics, their words and actions suggest they would like to see changes in the governing of Iran and while CafeLitt’s meetings take place in a city far from Iran, some members believe the activities they are taking part in

(which they see as part of the culture of liberalism) can help bring about change in Iran.

CafeLitt’s focus on parts of Iranian culture that either pre-date Islam or can be separated from the Islamic regime in some way, suggest that the members are attempting to revive parts of

Iran’s past, but also wish to infuse this past with liberal ideas which they foster through such practices of meeting in cafes and discussing and debating ideas.

SPACES OF CAFELITT

CaféLitt’s meetings have been held at a few places throughout the city. The meetings began at a place called Cafe Linda, located in downtown Montreal.114 As I began to study the organization, they moved their meetings to Café Culturel Saba, a new café located in a predominately Anglophone area (on the edge of NDG). They would also occasionally hold certain events at MEKIC, located in the Plateau Mont-Royal, an area generally perceived as

Francophone. Before I embark on a discussion of the events that take place in these two locations, I find it necessary to provide detailed descriptions of Café Culturel Saba in order to

114 When I began my study, CafeLitt sessions did take place primarily at Café Linda, but the location soon changed. For this reason I did not provide an in-depth description of Café Linda. However, I have learned by continuing to follow the CafeLitt email exchange, that the location for the meetings has remained influx throughout the summer and fall of 2009. Hashemzadeh 69

give the reader an idea of what these spaces look like. These descriptions not only allow the reader to imagine the physical locations of CafeLitt’s meetings,115 but the descriptions also highlight the importance of space in the process of subject formation which takes place during

CafeLitt meetings. The various dimensions of space of places like Café Saba have productive roles in this process. The following descriptions mainly focus on the physical, absolute space of

Café Saba to show how the absolute space cites different elements (including the discourse of

Persian poetry and Iranian history that make Iranian culture) to create a place, which, as some individuals have told me, feels Iranian.

EXPERIENCING CAFÉ SABA 116

Café Culturel Saba117 is located where the affluence of Westmount begins to collide with the grit of working class Notre Dame de Grâce. A large sandwich board sits outside the café’s door, listing a few of the café’s drinks or lunch specials. The exterior of the building is made of a grayish-white stone and a bay window that extends about a foot gives additional dimensions to the other wise flat surface of the building which is bordered by buildings of a similar style. The buildings appear to create one large building- but slight differences in architectural style suggest they are not. The three-sided bay window is adorned with bright turquoise awnings.

They are rectangular in shape and the center awning features the words: Café Culturel Saba,

115 MEKIC was previously described in Chapter One as the place where I first meet the poet, Hossein Sharang. 116 Once again I employ methods of creative writing in the following sections 117 Café Saba is a new café and does not yet have many of the marketing materials that places like MEKIC have, therefore its mission is still in evolution. Hashemzadeh 70

printed in a typeset that, for some reason, might strike you as casual - perhaps it is the thinness of the lines and the relaxed curving of the letters.

To enter the Café, you must descend the half-dozen or so steps and enter through a glass door, which is open during times of good weather. After walking through the door, there is a long narrow carpet, which extends to the bar. Long panels of light colored wood line the outside of the bar; the panels run horizontally and have been left unfinished, making the wood grain prominent. The style of the bar might give you a feeling of freshness. Behind the bar, the employees, the owner and her teenage son take customers orders. Behind them is the espresso machine whose offbeat hissing lays a track of sound over the café. There is also a white refrigerator, which you will notice is mostly opened when milk is needed for a drink.

Most of the café’s physical space is concentrated in the area to the left of the door and directly in front of the bar. There are around 15, square and smallish wooden tables. They are stained a deep brown. Before the sun sets, light makes its way through the three large windows and glass front door and spills out onto the tiled floor. Over the windows is a rolled up projection screen and if your gaze travels back several feet you will notice a projector suspended from the ceiling. You might also notice the lights. They are made of smooth metal and they are grouped in threes. On the walls hang a few Iranian carpets, with red playing a lead role in all the color schemes. There are also four framed pieces of art and they remind me of giclee prints- although I am not sure if they are. All of them are scenes of the sea. One is quite simplistic, with only the flat line of the horizon stretching across its width.

A heavy-looking hutch made of a thick medium toned wood is near the door. It displays

Iranian carpets arranged carefully- they are folded in that sort of planned haphazard way. To Hashemzadeh 71

the right of the hutch is a magazine stand, also made of wood. On the stand there is the

Montreal Gazette, a copy of the latest Chacavac, a flyer for a Montreal poetry festival, a postcard for ceramic classes and an advertisement for Acacia electrolysis. Candles line the top of the shelf and on the end there is an incense burner next to a vase with plastic flowers inside.

Behind this magazine stand are four large bookshelves tucked into a small cubbyhole of space next to the bar. The wooden shelves reach up to the ceiling, and are only sparsely full. Café

Saba opened in the late summer of 2008, so it seems the café has not quite collected a full library. Almost all of the books are in Persian and some, on certain shelves, are for sale. If you are familiar with Modern Iranian poetry, your eye might be drawn to the book with the picture of Forough Farrokhzad’s face on it. You might also notice one of the books has the tile, written in English, “Café Naderi.”

CAFÉ SABA: A SET FOR CAFÉLITT

When the cafe is set up for a session of Café Litteraire, the tables might be arranged in two lines facing one another or in a circle – depending on the nature of the event. If the tables are arranged in two lines, there will most likely be a large red armchair, contemporary in shape; a microphone might be perched on a stand sits beside the chair. During these evenings, the café will be buzzing with the voices and movement of 35-40 people. The owner and the customers almost exclusively speak Persian. The employees speak to the customers in either French or

English, depending upon the individual’s preference. One of the organizers of CaféLitt will introduce the speaker and his/her topic and the session officially begins with a single person sitting in the red chair, speaking into the microphone. People’s heads and focus are shifted to Hashemzadeh 72

the person speaking and it is evident this person, at least momentarily possess a degree of authority and power. Some might rapidly scrawl notes, some might nod their heads attentively and others might take cigarette breaks. After the discussion, the floor will be opened up for questions, and there will mostly likely be quite a few. The co-organizers will wrap up the session and nearly everyone stands up and moves about the room, saying hello to friends.

These conversations generally will continue for about 15 minutes, and some, particularly those of the younger generation, linger outside the café to chat, discussing plans to continue their night in some other space.

A MEETING AT CAFÉ SABA

I arranged an appointment with a woman named Afsaneh and we decided to meet at Café Saba around six pm to discuss her Masters application. Afsâneh is a new arrival from to Montreal – originally from Iran and after a detour to Eastern Europe, she has immigrated to Quebec with her husband. He is continuing his studies at McGill University and she is hoping to do the same next year. Her background in Anthropology has made our past conversations quite interesting as she has taken a particular interest in the ethnography I am carrying out. We have met a few times at Café Saba and she even has occasionally explained the discussions of CaféLitt to me when they are entirely in Persian.

At this particular meeting I brought her a book – a vocabulary study guide for the GRE - and our tentative plan was to talk about the components of her application. When I walked into Café Saba, Afsâneh was already there and sitting down at a table close to the door. Hashemzadeh 73

Niloufar, the owner of the café was sitting next to her. Afsâneh, with her long light brown hair and light colored eyes does not look like a typical Iranian and sometimes people are surprised to learn that she is Iranian and speaks Persian fluently. Niloufar, with her short stylish hair, that has a streak of dark pink in it, is dressed fashionably in a way that I find typical to

Montreal. There was also an older woman whom I have seen, but have not been formerly introduced to. She was busy cleaning up some of the tables and I believe she only speaks

Persian.

Afsâneh told me the café will be closing shortly and we will have to go elsewhere, but

Niloufar protested and asked us to please stay for a while longer. So, I took a seat and the three of us exchanged greetings – simple “hello” and “how have been?” sort of things. The conversation was mostly in English, but occasionally Afsâneh and Niloufar slip into Persian.

Although, I could catch a bit of what they were saying, they slowed down and then explained to me what they were saying in English. Before I came in, it seems that they were talking about organic and natural foods. Café Saba’s menu contains many organic items and it is a passion of

Niloufar’ to have this type of selection on her menu.

Niloufar began to talk in detail about the different teas that she serves and invited us over to the counter to look at and smell some of the teas. She was on the other side of the counter and Afsâneh and I stood opposite her – the same place we would stand if we were ordinary customers. Although the relationship between Niloufar as storeowner (seller) and

Afsâneh and I as customers (buyers) exists, I couldn’t help but notice the relationship feels slightly different. It felt to me like I was having a conversation with friends. Hashemzadeh 74

Niloufar removed a long rectangular metal magnet from the side of the fridge, which had six round metal jars attached to it. The jars also had magnets on the bottom of them and she pulled off three of them and opened the lids. She lined them up in front of us. Afsâneh and

Niloufar began speaking Persian – and I gathered that they were talking about the teas. I excused myself to go to the restroom and when I came back they were smelling the teas and talking over them quickly. Niloufar asked me in English to smell one of the jars. She extended it towards my nose and I took a whiff. It smelled nice to me and I told her I though it smells pretty good. She turns to Afsâneh and says that I said this because I did not grow up in Iran and do not know what the best teas smell like. Afsâneh agreed and they have me smell another tea.

It smelled similar to the first, but when I smelled the first tea and then this one I could detect a slight difference. However, my American nose was not confident to declare one tea better than the other. They had me smell another tea and again asked my opinion. I said that I thought it smelled best and they told me I am right. Niloufar moved the three teas so they were directly in front of me. She told me which teas are the lowest grade, the highest grade and the ones, which are in-between. She pointed to the low grade and explained that the tea is ground very small and you cannot make out what exactly is in it. Next, she moved on to the mid-grade, which had slightly bigger pieces of something – what these pieces were, I wasn’t quite sure.

The highest grade had the largest pieces and Niloufar explained that loose tea is best because you can see exactly what is in it. She dismissed tea bags as a sort of scam. She continued to talk about the tea she serves and told me this particular kind that we just smelled is imported from

Iran and is very expensive. Hashemzadeh 75

Next, she brought up the kind of coffee she serves and she insisted that Afsaneh and I each have a cup of coffee. We offered to pay, but she shoed away our money and poured two cups of coffee. Niloufar explained that she has several different grades of coffee customers can choose from. The basic is exactly that – just a basic coffee - and it is what we were drinking.

She had me smell this one and my nose, which is a little more knowledgeable about the smell of coffee, agreed that this is a pretty ordinary coffee. Then she pulled out another coffee. It is packaged in a smaller jar and she explained that this one is organic and very expensive. She also mentioned that she does not even make a profit from selling this coffee, but she wants to be able to offer it to her customers. The coffee has a rich aroma and I could immediately tell that it is a good quality. By this time, Afsâneh and I have finished our coffees and decided that we don’t want to linger too long. Niloufar mentioned she had a long weekend a few times and we knew she must be tired. We both thanked her for the coffee and sharing her knowledge of coffee and tea. We left together and chat for a few minutes outside, and decided that we will have to meet again soon to talk about Afsâneh’s application.

CAFE SABA: RECREATING IRAN

The above descriptions have attempted to give readers an idea of the atmosphere of Café Saba.

As I mentioned in the introduction, as Latour suggests, I am attempting to use detailed descriptions to capture various associations within particular spaces – whether they be between spaces people, things and/or discourses. I use this method because it lessens, at least somewhat the power of myself as the writer of this ethnography. Although descriptions are also interpretations, by sticking to a method of vividly describing rather than jumping Hashemzadeh 76

immediately to analyzing what I have seen, I believe I am giving more authority to the actors of the ethnography.

However, for the sake of clarity, I do find it necessary to stress certain elements that I brought up in the descriptions. Café Saba is a place that is filled with a variety of references to

Iranian culture: ceramics, rugs, books of poetry, Iranian food, Iranian tea, etc. These physical objects create a certain atmosphere that feels “Iranian” to those they spend time there. The space, in itself, is a sort of performance of Iran – a stage where different props are laid out to create a certain scene in hopes to make the audience have a certain response or feel a certain way. Just as Iranians can go to different businesses in NDG and feel - at least for a little while - as if they are in Iran, Café Saba, as well as MEKIC are spaces that have a central agenda to make visitors feel Iranian.

Café Saba strives to be much more than just a café, just as MEKIC strives to be much more than just an art gallery. Both places desire to be cultural centers and this is made evident by the variety of things and events present in each space. They both house books; Café Saba’s collection is mostly limited to Persian poetry and Modern Iranian literature while MEKIC’s collection of books, as noted previously, is much more extensive and includes books of a wide assortment – including books which do not directly relate to Iran. Both places also strive to be a sort intermediary between Iranian culture and the city of Montreal. This makes them sort of

“spaces in-between,” which echoes the situation Iranian immigrants in Montreal find themselves in. They are away from their homeland and attempting to exist in a new space while still trying to cultivate certain characteristics of Iranian-ness. Of course, the thing that really brings these places to life are the actual people who come here and I have found that the Hashemzadeh 77

process of subject formation that takes place in these spaces is most visible during CaféLitt meetings.

Hashemzadeh 78

CHAPTER FOUR: CAFÉLITT AS AN ACTOR-NETWORK

THE WAVES CONVERGE: CAFÉLITT

In the following pages I provide an in-depth look at CaféLitt, focusing on detailed descriptions of the meetings. The descriptions I provide build on the information provided in Chapter

Three and include additional details regarding the physical (absolute) spaces of where the meetings took place and highlight the movement and placements of members during the meetings (relational space) as well as provide insight into the thoughts, ideas and memories of

CaféLitt members in an effort to reveal aspects of the relative space of CaféLitt meetings.

The first meeting of CaféLitt that I attended took place at Cafe Lynda in July 2008. For this meeting there were around 40-50 people in attendance. The cafe was packed and the cafe owner seemed a little disgruntled about the number of people inside the small space. He constantly kept checking the air vent for the air conditioner, insisting that no one sit or stand in front of it.

The evening’s discussion focused on the works of German philosopher Martin

Heidegger.118 I noticed that the crowd was mixed, both men and women were present and they represented a wide spectrum of ages, from the undergraduate level, to the graduate level to professionals to people of the older generation. When I arrived people smiled at me and greeted me in Persian. Behrad, one of the main organizers who I mentioned in Chapter Three and who I had been communicating with via email, came over and said hello and told me a little bit about the evening and thanked me for coming. The group made me immediately feel

Hashemzadeh 79

welcome despite the peculiar situation: a young Iranian American woman who just began learning Persian attending a philosophical talk conducted entirely in Persian. The man who presented is a practicing dentist in Montreal, a fact that was announced as the evening’s agenda was stated at the opening of the session. Parviz (the other organizer I introduced in

Chapter Three) introduced this session, but from the way that Behrad moves around the room, making sure people have seats, making sure people get their cup of espresso and assuring the owner the air conditioner unit is okay, it is apparent that he is also one of the chief organizers.

Hossein arrived just a little late and he immediately came over to greet me. He stays and listens for a while and then takes a cigarette break. He continued this pattern throughout the evening. People seemed to be listening to the speaker quite attentively. A few that were sitting close to the front were taking notes as he spoke. The complexity of the talk was very apparent. At one point someone asked the presenter to speak more simply and everyone laughed together.

While most sessions of CaféLitt only run for one evening, because of this one’s detailed subject matter the session was continued to the following week, which suggests that the audience has a vested interest in Heidegger and his philosophy.

MEETING WITH BEHRAD AND PARVIZ

Shortly after going to this first session of CaféLitt, I arranged to meet with Behrad and Parviz.

They suggested we meet at Cafe Lynda. Both are graduate students at ,

Behrad is studying for his Masters in and Parviz is working towards his PhD in engineering. Hashemzadeh 80

They are both relative new arrivals to Montreal and generally hang around other people like them - which several people have indicated are among the brightest Iranians, those who had high enough marks to pursue their studies outside of Iran. They mention this to me, that to get to a university in Canada is difficult; one has to have very high grades and go through several levels of screening.

Throughout the course of our informal conversation they mention several interesting things. They speak of how when they first came to Montreal they tried to find an intellectual circle to join within the larger Montreal community, but were unable to find one so they decided to form CaféLitt. They asked me if I knew of any circles and told me to tell them if I ever came across one.

One of the first things we talked about was how I could participate in CaféLitt. They asked me if I would be interested in presenting in an upcoming session that they were planning to conduct in English. The session would be about September 11th and they needed someone to do a summary of different conspiracy theories surrounding this event. I of course said yes as I desired to not only observe the goings on of CaféLitt, but to participate in them and to become a part of them. They told me they want to hold some sessions in English as to reach out to non-Persian speakers who might be interested in coming to CaféLitt. They said this effort was not only for people like me who are half-Iranian, but also for anyone in

Montreal that is looking to attend intellectual meetings.

It is interesting to note that another thing they focused on is the difference between their wave of immigration and the first wave of immigration. They expressed to me that there seemed to be a lack of understanding between the two. They told me they find that the men Hashemzadeh 81

and women who left Iran shortly after the revolution and have not been back since, do not understand what the situation in present day Iran is like. Those that left around the time of the revolution have not lived under the Islamic Republic as the second-wave of immigrants have and this creates a degree of: “you do not know what it is like live under the Islamic regime” attitude. While it was never said to me directly, I sensed that the second-wave Iranians might feel as if those that left abandoned them in some ways and their seems to be a bit of power struggle between the two waves as those that have lived in the Islamic Republic feel as if they know more (and this is rightly so) about what present-day Iran is like. However, this divide is not very deep as members from both waves of immigration attend CaféLitt. The divide mainly seems to be in a lack of being able to imagine the same Iran.

Another thing both men shared were their initial feeling and commitment to share the things they learn in Canada with Iranians back home. Behrad says that Montreal is second to

Tehran and Tehran will always be home for him. He mentions that he conducted a similar circle in Tehran, but the group stayed away from discussing serious political topics. He goes further and says that even within CaféLitt they are wary to discuss politics because if they do decide to go back to Iran they might encounter problems and have to face up to the things they have said while in Canada.

As I mentioned in Chapter Three, Behrad and Parviz view CaféLitt as a means to practice and consequently transfer “the culture of liberalism.” They both express that they are skeptical of being overtly political and radical in their views. For them, transforming the self through practicing what they believe to be an element of liberalism – cultivating the self to be Hashemzadeh 82

knowledgeable about a variety of topics via discussing intellectual ideas with their peers. This cultivation of the self – one that builds upon ideas deeply connected with Iranian culture as well as a self that aspires to practice certain liberal values – including public discussion and individualism through self-improvement, are what they see as the central ideas of CaféLitt.

MEETING ATA HOODASTIAN

Soon after I met with Parviz and Behrad I thought that I should contact other organizing members of CaféLitt. Although the two of them are the chief organizers, there are several other actors who frequently guide sessions and also help with the general running of CaféLitt.

One man who I noticed as one who was listening attentively while taking extensive notes at the Heidegger session is Ata Hoodastian, a professor of humanities.

He suggested that we meet at cafe near McGill University; he asked me if I had been to this place before and when I said no he said that I should definitely check this particular cafe out. I began my meeting with him by providing him with an overview of my ethnographic project. Ata began to take the role as intellectual guide and offered me advice on how to mold my project. His work deals with immigrants and the question of identity.119 He describes the

Iranian immigrant population as composed of intellectuals from the middle class and he distinguishes the young Iranians involved in CaféLitt as not exactly immigrants, but individuals on student visas. He follows the line of thinking that other actors I have encounter have and divides the Iranian network I am following into those that came before the

119 See Ata Hoodastian’s website for more information on his work: http://www.hoodashtian.com/index-old.htm. Hashemzadeh 83

revolution and have not been back to Iran and those that have come more recently in order to study or to pursue business ventures.

He told me that he does not really identify with either of these groups because he has grown up in Texas, Montreal and France. He himself has only been to Iran a handful of times, yet he does speak excellent Persian (as well as English and French).

He told me about his work on identity theory. His work, from what he expressed to me, focuses on the idea that a person’s identity is defined through the other. His definition of the other included all outside objects: other people, the space the individual exists in as well as other objects also occupying that space. A person, he told me, is a combination of these things.

As our conversation steered more towards Iranian immigrants he told me that he believed one of the most defining elements of Iranian-ness is the long history of Iranian civilization. He said that history helps one answer the question: “who am I” and it helps a person distinguish themselves from others. When he speaks of Iranian history he stresses that the history is rich and long.

Ata suggests that Iranian history is a defining characteristic of Iranian culture and by extension also a central element in the making of Iranian subjects. CaféLitt sessions often focus on different aspects of Iranian history, which supports Ata’s (and others such as Setrag

Manoukian) claim that through history Iranians are able to formulate an understanding of themselves as Iranians. In the past year there have been several CaféLitt sessions dedicated to different aspects of Iranian history, including: “History of the Iranian Flag,” “An Introduction to Iranian Architecture,” “The Decline of the Sassanid Empire,” “The History of the Persian Hashemzadeh 84

Scripts,” “Intellectual lacks in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution”, “Persian Myths and

Mythology,” “Cyrus the Great,” “Iran History of Cinema,” and “ The Death of Yazdgerd.”120

While there seems to be a trend in covering historical events and in a poll on the

CaféLitt website, history and poetry were chosen as the primary topics that people wanted covered in CaféLitt sessions, its important to note that one of the most interesting things about

CaféLitt is that the topics it covers are quite diverse despite the focus on literature and history.

The organization has a true collectivist nature as the group seeks to use the strength and expertise of its members in the planning of sessions; additionally the organizers reach out to those on the email list-serve for ideas at some points. For example, when CaféLitt decided to start a monthly book club they asked people to send in suggestions for books to read. They make an effort to acknowledge the desires of those that attend CaféLitt. While CaféLitt sessions focusing on things of poetic or historical importance have a high rate of frequency; the topics show diversity and a desire to cover a range of educational topics. This fact suggests that

CaféLitt members also want to cultivate themselves as individuals who possess knowledge about a wide variety of topics and this can also be seen as a way that CaféLitt attempts to cultivate aspects of liberalism, by exchanging ideas of a wide variety in order to cultivate a self that possesses knowledge of a large scope.

A PERFORMANCE OF HISTORY

120 "Cafe Litteraire,” http://montrealcafelit.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00- 08%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=50 (accessed December 4, 2008). Hashemzadeh 85

One CaféLitt session that I attended was the session mentioned briefly above called “The Death of Yazdgerd.” This session took place at Cafe Saba on September 25, 2008. I had arranged to meet Afsaneh at the session and we sat beside each other in the second row of chairs - they were arranged in a semi-circle for the evening’s meeting. She told me that she had met Behrad and Parviz and had told them she was a friend of mine. She said they were very nice and did not realize at first that she was Iranian because of her light eyes and light brown hair. At first they spoke to her in English rather than Persian.

Before the session, Behrad moved around the room asking if everyone was okay and just generally checking to make sure that everyone was comfortable with their seating arrangement. The session began as usual with Behrad speaking to the group and introducing tonight’s topic. Afsaneh whispers a rough translation in my ear, explaining that tonight some members of CaféLitt will be performing a play that is about the Arab conquest of the Sasanid

Empire. Bahram Bayaî, who among other things wrote both plays for the theatre and cinema, wrote the play they are to act out.

There are six members participating in the play: two women and four men. The participants seemed very engaged with the material and truly spoke the lines of the play with conviction. However, they did not fully act out their parts as they mostly stood in the center of the room and read from a page. There were some degrees of movements – some sat down at certain times in certain places and some gestured at one another as they spoke their lines. The audience also showed great interest as they laughed at certain parts, indicating they were paying attention. The crowd is dressed casually, but nicely, many are jean-clad and most of the men wearing collared shirts. Men and women mix freely and everyone spoke Persian to one Hashemzadeh 86

another. When a non-Iranian couple paused by the door and heard a foreign language being spoken by all the occupants of the cafe, they listened for a moment and then moved on. During the performance there is also a man moving around taking photos; I assumed at the time that he is from Chacavac as the weekly magazine runs coverage of CaféLitt every week.

I PARTICIPATE

Following my meeting with Behrad and Parviz, I began planning a short presentation on conspiracy theories surrounding the events of September 11th in order to participate in one of the CaféLitt sessions. Although this area is not in any way one that I have expertise in, I thought that participating as a presenter in CaféLitt would be an excellent opportunity to see another side to the working of a CaféLitt session.

The session took place on September 8, 2008 and was titled “September 11th: Roots and

Consequences.” My part consisted of going over the chain of events that occurred on

September 11th followed by a discussion of various conspiracy theories revolving around this historic event. Pari, a PhD student gave a presentation on the roots of terrorism; she focused mainly on Wahabbism and explored the popularity of this movement amongst youth with

Middle Eastern heritage in the West. Following Pari, was a presentation by Roksana

Bahramitash. She presented her paper “The War on Terror, Feminist Orientalism and

Orientalist Feminism: Case Studies of Two North American Bestsellers.” Behrad and Parviz had asked me if I knew of anyone who was working on any research having to do with the aftereffects of September 11th and I immediately thought of Prof. Bahramitash’s work. I had Hashemzadeh 87

previously met with Prof. Bahramitash about my research and she expressed an interest in learning more, so I thought this would be a great way to get her involved. The session was conducted entirely in English because as Behrad and Parviz had told me at our previous meeting that they wanted to include not only people of Iranian heritage that might not speak

Persian, but they also expressed a desire to include people with no direct tie to Iran. While there were several young people who were similar to – of Iranian heritage, but not fluent in

Persian – there were, to the best of my knowledge, no non-Iranians were present.

The tables of the cafe were set up in a long double line in the center of the room and spread across the tables was Persian desserts and other small foods. The presenter was to sit in a large red armchair at the head of the double row of tables. Tonight there was a microphone, which added an air of formality and seriousness to the session.

One of the things most interesting about presenting to CaféLitt that struck me was the way that the people give you their full attention. As I spoke about September 11th, all eyes were on me and the people seemed to be following my words carefully and shook their heads in agreement as I said certain things. There seemed to be a relative belief that the events of

September 11th did not totally occur as the United States government suggested. Some seemed to believe strongly in particular conspiracy theories - most showed agreement that the

United States government was actually knowledgeable of the events before they unfolded that day. When I mentioned that the rumor of Jewish people being told not to go to work on

September 11th was indeed a rumor as there were Jewish people inside the buildings, a lot of inner chatting began amongst the listeners and one woman said that this information must Hashemzadeh 88

come from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. When I completed my presentation, Behrad offered me his chair and Hossein who was also in attendance gave me a high-five as I sat down.

When Prof. Bahramitash began her presentation she thanked the owner of Cafe Saba,

Niloufar, for “creating this cultural space.” Niloufar replied that it is her “great pleasure.”

After this, Prof. Bahramitash said “this is a place to share our longing for a country we miss so much,” and she then mentioned that she felt like she was part of the lucky cohort that gets to travel back and forth to Iran in the name of research.

I came across Prof. Bahramistash’s work on Reading Lolita in Tehran while I was conducing research on this extremely popular memoir. Her paper examines how books like

Reading Lolita in Tehran and Geraldine Brooks’ Nine Parts of Desire helped to “stir anti-Muslim sentiment in North America as well as to promote the war on terror.”121 The plot of Reading

Lolita in Tehran circulates around a special class Azar Nafisi conducts within the privacy of her own home. The narrator, formerly a professor at Tehran University, quits her job due to the

University’s requirement that all female professors follow the dress code of wearing the hîjab.

The narrator organized an informal class “of [her] best and most committed students and invited them to come to [her] home every Thursday morning to discuss literature.”122 The seven chosen students were all women because, the narrator states “to teach a mixed class in the privacy of my home was too risky, even if were discussing harmless works of fiction.”123

The memoir circulates around this plot line, but the class often uses the discussion time to

121 Roksana Bahramistash, “The War on Terror, Feminist Orientalism and Orientalist Feminism: Case Studies on Two North American Bestsellers,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 14, no. 3 (Summer 2005): 222. 122 Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, (New York: Random House, 2004) 3. 123 Ibid., 3. Hashemzadeh 89

express thoughts about their personal lives, giving readers ethnographic-like glimpses into the lives of these Iranian women. Nafisi’s memoir, as mentioned in my introduction has received much criticism because of its seemingly “neo-orientalist” depiction of Iran and Iranians.

CaféLitt members greeted her critique of these books with mixed review. During her discussion, Prof. Bahramitash explained Azar Nafisi’s ties to “Neocons” such as Bernard Lewis, who in her acknowledgements, Nafisi says “opening the door.”124 Other details she mentioned included: the fact that American embassies have helped with book launchings for Reading Lolita in Tehran; the dismal portrayal of Iranian men in the memoir, particularly those who were depicted as Muslims; how Nafisi seems to deny the existence of art and literature after the

Islamic revolution - which inspires a comment from Hossein: “This is the case!” and Prof.

Bahramitash also brought up the questionable funding of Nafisi’s book, suggesting there is evidence that the book was partially funded by a Christian evangelical association. Her talk inspired a barrage of questions and comments. One woman - who interestingly began her comment by asking if she could speak in Persian, but was told she should speak English as not everyone present was fluent in Persian125 - said that she knows Azar Nafisi and had sat in her home in Tehran. She suggested that Prof. Bahramitash’s comments and allegations were off- based; Prof. Bahramitash responded by saying that a prominent academic who works in the field of Iranian literature is currently further researching these details as she is working on a book based around this topic. Hossein also furthered commented, saying that the Islamic revolution has committed a lot of crimes and he ends by letting this question hang in the air:

124 Ibid., 346. 125 I was not the only one present that was not able or comfortable with communication solely in Persian. There were a few young Iranian hybrids like myself who were just learning Persian. Hashemzadeh 90

“Why am I here?” Most of the comments concerning this subject came from Iranians of an older generation - those who came around the time of Islamic revolution. The younger generation of Iranians who are mostly students seemed to be more accepting of Prof.

Bahramitash’s critique.

OMAR KHAYYAM AND ALGEBRA

This CaféLitt session took place on March 12, 2009 and to my surprise, the venue for the session had once again changed. Throughout the course of my fieldwork CaféLitt held sessions at Café Lynda, Café Saba, MEKIC, McGill’s Graduate House: The Thomson House and

Concordia’s building for their Graduate Studies Association. One session, in which Omar

Khayyam and his work in Algebra was the discussion topic, took place at the Graduate Studies

Association and I first noticed how university-like the space was – the walls were mostly bare with the occasional poster advertising some sort of academic event and furniture had that used-for-too-many-semesters-to-count look. There were several chairs lined up opposite a small table, which housed the presenter’s computer on it. The computer was hooked up to a projector which channeled the images from the computer to the bare back wall.

When I first arrived, I was immediately greeted by Behrad and I asked him about

CaféLitt’s latest move and he said they were no longer allowed to congregate at McGill’s

Thomson House because the University would like only McGill students to make use of the space. He then said “we are like gypsies,” and then I offered “gypsy intellectuals?” and he laughed. Hashemzadeh 91

The session’s presenter was Paul Dumais, a Quebecois mathematician. He speaks French as his first language, only speaks a few words in Persian, but conducted the session in English, which suggests that most of the people that come to CaféLitt are more likely to speak English as their second language rather than French.

He opened up his talk by telling us how he first became interested in Iranian culture.

He said that the woman whom he shared an office with had Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis series and he borrowed the books and began reading them. His interest was immediately sparked and he followed up this spark by taking a Persian class and then traveling to Iran for a month. His presentation focused on the Algebra of Omar Khayyam. He mentioned that while Khayyam is renowned for his poetry, he is no expert in poetry, so he told us he would be focusing on his work in Algebra. He said that the members of CaféLitt are surely more knowledgeable about

Khayyam’s poetry and could likely tell him many things about it. And he also says “If you come to CaféLitt, you are interested in many things!”

His talk was quite complex and focused on different points of Geometric Algebra, particularly what he coined as “squaring the circle.”126 He says that both the Persians and

Arabs were able to go many points beyond the square and his talk focused on different curve equations that Omar Khayyam worked on during his live. One of the most interesting things that Dumais said was, when he was explaining the consistence of right angles, he said that a right angle will be the same in Montreal, Paris and Tehran. What caught my attention about this comment were the three cities he chose to use in his example. It shows that he relates

126 This phrase, Dumais told us, is a frequently used idiom in French and is used to as a expression to refer to something that is impossible. Hashemzadeh 92

these cities to one another and it seems like a comment that would only be made in the particular company of a group like CaféLitt in the city of Montreal.

OTHER VIGNETTES

My associations with CaféLitt as well as the circle of first wave immigration Iranians that I spent time with lead me to other events as well. This indicates that the actor-network of

CaféLitt is by no means closed and CaféLitt attendees are involved in a large variety of cultural activities. Often the first wave immigrants and CaféLitt organizers told me about and attended similar events, suggesting that the ties between the networks of Iranians living in Montreal are multilateral. In the following sections I will present descriptions of events that I attended at the invitation of the actors in this network. Some of the invitations were direct, while others were spread through electronic means, such as the CaféLitt email list-serve, MEKIC’s facebook page and/or Khosro Berahmandi’s facebook page.127

AN EVENING WITH RICHARD FRYE

This extensively publicized event was co-sponsored by Concordia University’s newly assembled Iranian Studies Department as well as the Chavacac Cultural Centre, a cultural center associated with the weekly news magazine, Chacavac, mentioned previously. Professor

Richard Frye is a well-known figure in Iranian Studies and currently is an Agha Khan Professor of Iranian Studies at Harvard University. He is said to be a Persianist and has even arranged to

127 It is beyond the scope of this thesis to analyze the effect of networking through such electronic means. Such a topic is vast and would require extensive research. However, I do acknowledge that communications that takes place via the Internet is much different than face-to-face communication. Hashemzadeh 93

have his body buried in Esfahan. His lecture was much anticipated. A notice was sent out via the CaféLitt list-serve and Behrad even sent a follow up email to say that he was writing an article for Hafteh, another Iranian weekly, about the lecture and was soliciting people’s opinions.

The talk is was very crowded - so much so that I had to sit on the side steps and others were spilling out from the sits and even sitting on the stage. Hossein was present as was

Niloufar from Cafe Saba and I recognized quite a few members of CaféLitt. Prof. Frye opened with a comment: “Iranians are not Arabs,” and to this some people applauded and others looked around at their neighbors to check their reaction. While this comment was met with some applause it is important to note that many of those in the audience did not clap.

Prof. Frye continued with this lecture and was generally entertaining; he had a slide presentation and makes several comments about not quite knowing how to use the technology and he also says he has not adequately prepared for the nights presentation. His talk focused on historical accomplishments of Iranian civilization; he mentioned that secular laws are thought to have been first present in Iranian code of law. He also comments on Islam and says that it is Arab and several people clap at this. He continues on the idea of “Arabization” and says things like: “The Arabs stole Islam from the Persians,” which is again greeted with mild applause and when he says that Arabicized Iranians are running Iran there was not much clapping at all. In fact, people mostly sat quietly and looked around at each other. Prof. Frye ended his lecture with this comment: “The glory of Iran is and remains its culture.” After he said this, a woman who was sitting next to me turned to me and spoke to me in Persian, but I could not make out what she said. But it is interesting to note that she felt comfortable Hashemzadeh 94

speaking Persian in this particular space. The official language for Concordia University is

English and it significant that the Frye event transformed this feature of Concordia, making

Persian the prominent language used. Of course it is important to note that the woman would likely have not spoken Persian to someone who did not look Iranian.

The lecture was rather short and did not focus on any specific points but focused on certain highlights of the long history of Iranian civilization. I spoke with Hossein briefly after the lecture and he said that he was disappointed because of the seemingly anti-Arab tone of the lecture; he said that the Arabs and Persians have been fighting for too long and that it was time to make up rather than continue with this kind of thing and the woman who was standing near us agreed with this sentiment.

KHOSRO’S ARTIST TALK

One of the most interesting events that I attended was when Khosro Berahmandi gave an artist talk as a part of a CaféLitt session at MEKIC. Khosro had a new exhibition up at MEKIC, titled

Re-emerge, Resurgir (in French) and Bâz Paidâiesh (in Persian). He not only translated the exhibitions title into English, French and Persian but also translated all of the identification tags into each language with the Persian tag on the top, the French tag in the middle and the

English tag at the bottom.

The exhibition was spread throughout the three loosely defined areas of MEKIC: the front room you walk into when you first enter MEKIC followed by another room that you enter through a double-door sized archway and then finally another room off to the right of the second room. The third room is smaller and also plays a video that Khosro collaborated on Hashemzadeh 95

with Shahin Parhami, a few musicians and a dancer.128 In the first room there is a circle of chairs and it seems this is the intended space for the artist talk to take place.

The first part of the evening consisted of attendees wandering through the three areas.

They all spoke Persian to one another and greeted one another as they entered. When exchanging greetings they either shook hands or kissed on both sides of the cheek. The staff of

MEKIC served tea and small Persian sweets.

I met a young man named Kamshad - an Iranian filmmaker who is now living in

Toronto where he attends art school. He is from the province of Gilan and I spoke with him for a few minutes about Khosro’s paintings. He said that rather than Persian he feels that Khosro’s paintings are more African. I asked him to clarify a bit and suggested that maybe he means

North African. He responds by saying that he thinks Khosro is using “Egyptian colors.” He then said that some of the animals that Khosro has chosen to paint are Persian and that there are other elements of the paintings that are what he would describe as “Persian.”

People began to settle into the front room for the artist talk and Hossein sat beside me.

He was wearing a French beret and I immediately thought that I think he looked “very

Montreal.” Hossein often plays a game with me - telling me incorrect words for objects in

Persian. He did this one of the first times that I met him - he told me that the word for bread was pedar sag, a common vulgar insult. My little bit of Persian language knowledge did not allow me to quite fall for his joke and we both laughed about it. On this evening, he told me that the word for roof - and he puts upward toward the ceiling of MEKIC is kûr khar, which

128 This was the event where I first met Khosro in person; we had been in touch over email before and he had invited me to the event. Shortly after meeting me here he invited me over for dinner. Hashemzadeh 96

actually means “child of a donkey.” As Hossein said this to me several people turned around and gave us odd looks and Hossein just laughed and so did I.

There were about 35 people at this session of CaféLitt and they crowded the first room and also spilled into the second. Khosro sat in the first room in the middle of a circle and there was a microphone beside of him. There was a representative from Chacavac scurrying around the room photographing the meeting, which added a layer of formality and importance to the event - a knowledge that the events that took place tonight, are being recorded in a very concrete fashion.

Parviz introduced Khosro, in Persian, and after this, Khosro speaks, in Persian for 10-15 minutes about his exhibition. After he spoke, the floor is opened up for questions and Hossein goes first - he later told me what he said. He said that he was impressed by how well-spoken

Khosro is when discussing his paintings this paintings and he congratulated on his work and then, in typical Hossein fashion, he made a joke, asking if the giraffe in the paintings are

Iranian. This made everyone in the room laugh.

The next question came from a woman and she asked (loosely translated from Hossein) if the paintings are Iranian. This question struck Khosro and he got visibly emotional for a few moments. Another woman in the audience said, according to Hossein that “Khosro is just as

Iranian as everyone else.” Following this comment, Khosro discussed the idea of Iranian-ness in his paintings, explaining how he uses certain animals common in Iranian mythology such as rams and birds. He also points to the influence of Iranian miniature painting as his works have many small tiny details. There were several more questions and Parviz fielded questions, writing down people’s names down on a list as they raised their hand, which again gave order Hashemzadeh 97

and formality to the session. Kamshad, the man I spoke with earlier asked about color and symbolism and also commented that the small details in Khosro’s paintings remind him of the style of Persian miniature painting. By referencing a traditional style of Iranian painting in his artwork, Khosro is performing Iranian-ness and this performance of is visible as people like

Kamshad are able to identify the style Khosro is evoking through his own contemporary painting.

After the question and answer session, people again walked around the exhibition and several congregated at the area where the tea and sweets were being served. I struck up a conversation with one man and he mentioned to me that he thought that Khosro had a strange accent and he wondered what part of Iran he is from. I told him that Khosro is from Tehran and the man responded by saying that Khosro’s accent does not sound Tehrani. He said that he must be from somewhere else or that perhaps Khosro’s accent sounds off because he has not been back to Iran in over 30 years. To this, I said nothing.

This particular CaféLitt meeting showed the divides between the first and second wave of immigration, but it also showed the capacity for the two different waves of immigration to get along despite their differences. It also showed the different ways the groups think of

Iranian-ness. It seemed to be a general feeling that even though Khosro had not lived in Iran for around 25 years, he was still Iranian just the same. This suggests, as the CaféLitt slogan says, Iran is “not a place, but a culture.”129

129 “CafeLitt,” http://www.cafelitt.ca/ (accessed August 27, 2009). Hashemzadeh 98

THE IMPORTANCE OF CAFÉLITT

This chapter has given readers an in-depth look at CaféLitt – describing the spaces the group conducts their meetings in, several of the key actors of the organization and topics the group covers in their discussion. CaféLitt is an essential actor-network , which provides a forum for the cultivation/performance of a certain sense of Iranian-ness in Montreal. I have attempted to show in this chapter what CaféLitt meetings are like – how attendees move in the spaces where the meetings take place, what kinds of topics are covered and how the organizers and participants think about the practice of association they are engaging in.

The existence of CaféLitt provides Iranians with a variety of opportunities: 1. CaféLitt provides Iranians with a forum to continue to cultivate Iranian-ness. As mentioned, the topics of CaféLitt often focus on Persian poetry and Iranian history, which are key discourses in the cultivation of Iranian culture; through this focus, Iranians in Montreal are able to continue to imagine Iran and by extension, themselves as Iranians. However, this thesis acknowledges that this self-cultivation is contingent upon (and thus altered) because of the new spaces Iranians exist in. 2. Through CaféLitt, Iranians practice certain liberal ideas, the debate and discussion of intellectual ideas and self-improvement through cultivating a self that is knowledgeable about a wide range of topics; 3. CaféLitt also creates a space for first wave and second wave

Iranians to interact with one another. Although at times this creates slightly sticky situations, for the most part the two groups reconcile their differences as they both engage in practices of association in cultivate a subjectivity that can be described as “Iranian Montrealers.”

Hashemzadeh 99

CONCLUSION: NOT A PLACE, BUT A CULTURE

This thesis has shown, through ethnographic descriptions of a network of Iranian artists and intellectuals, how a particular Iranian subjectivity in Montreal is made. The focus has been on practices of association and the spaces and people that bring these practices to life. The central argument of the thesis is that through practices of association – whether they are CaféLitt meetings or a casual weekly meeting between friends –Iranians in Montreal cultivate/perform a sense of self that is altered by their new surroundings, but continue to become Iranian. In order to continue to cultivate themselves as Iranian, Iranians in Montreal engage in a performance through which they cite the established and dominant discourses of

Iranian history and Persian poetry. As it has been noted throughout this thesis, these two discourses are crucial for the production of something one can call “Iranian culture.”

As Ata Hoodastian told me, the long and rich discourse of Iranian history provides

Iranians with an answer to the question: who am I? As the answer to this question as well to questions concerning historical truths are never simplistic, Iranians engage in practices of discussion and debate about the history of their nation, a practice that is intimately tied to the subject forming process of Iranians. This debate and discussion of history is continued by

Iranians in Montreal and as Setrag Manoukian suggests, because of the often contested nature of certain Iranian historical events, Iranians turn to poetry, which because of its ambiguities is able reveal certain facts that simply would not find themselves into history books. It is as if poetry is a secret Iranians share and through the longstanding practice of reading and discussing poetry, not only for pleasure, but to learn of certain historical silences, poetry has a Hashemzadeh 100

special place in the hearts and minds of Iranians. Reading poetry, writing poetry and discussing poetry are acts which allow Iranians to know Iran and by extension, themselves.

In the writing of this thesis I have attempted to highlight the productive role space plays in the cultivation of Iranian-ness. In drawing attention to space as an essential category of study, I have borrowed ideas from Latour, (his giving agency to things), Harvey (his three- fold definition of space to include Absolute, Relational and Relative Space) and I have also been inspired by the writings of de Certeau, particularly his insistence that memories of people in certain spaces give those spaces their character. Memories, de Certeau suggests, are what creates ties between people and places.130 So, when talking with Iranians in Montreal about their memories of Iran, I have attempted to discover these unseen elements – things such as memories of loss - that give spaces certain characters. This thesis has attempted to capture these unseen things on the page.

In order to highlight space’s role I have provided detailed descriptions of the places

Iranians live, work and engage with one another. Neighborhoods such as NDG provide a space for Iranians to feel as if they might be in Iran as they can easily speak Persian to the business owners and other Iranian clientele, they can eat Persian food, buy imported products from

Iran, etc. The physical spaces of businesses in NDG, Café Saba and MEKIC reference certain elements of Iranian cultures, effectively building spaces that feel and look Iranian to an extent.

Through the use of decorative elements, displaying copies of Chacavac, having books about Iran and Persian poetry and serving Iranian food, these spaces make visitors feel like they are in an

Iranian space.

130 de Certeau, 108. Hashemzadeh 101

I have also provided detailed profiles of two first-wave Iranians, Khosro Berahmandi and Hossein Sharang in an effort to show a more informal practice of association as well as to highlight the differences and similarities between the two major waves of Iranian immigration. These two men, along with a few of their friends, met regularly to discuss different artistic projects they are working on and/or projects they are collaborating on. The

Iranian-ness they perform is different, yet similar to the Iranian-ness performed by second- wave Iranians. Both Khosro and Hossein are actively involved in the Montreal arts community and while they maintain ties to Iran and the Iranian community in Montreal through such actions as presenting at CaféLitt meetings, they also consciously cultivate a self that is well adapted to and influenced by the city of Montreal. Khosro, specifically, actively cultivates his

Iranian-ness through his artwork, which references Iranian mythological animals and is influenced by Iranian miniature painting. But he also works as a Manager for Accès Asie and attends artistic events throughout the city in an effort to not just cultivate himself as an

Iranian, but as an Iranian Montrealer.

Hossein performs a similar sense of Iranian-ness by continuing to write poetry in

Persian so he can “taste his mother’s milk” and keeping up to date with the goings-on in the

Persian literary scene. Like Khosro, Hossein diligently tries to participate in the wider artistic community of Montreal by participating in such things as Quebec literary festivals, collaborating with francophone poets and Hossein has recently tried his hand at writing poems first in French rather than having his Persian poems translated into French.

The time I spent with Khosro and Hossein, along with my desire to look into how practices of association function in the subject forming process of Iranians in Montreal on a Hashemzadeh 102

larger scale, soon led me to CaféLitt. CaféLitt, a larger actor-network where more formal practices of association occur, provides a space for Iranians in Montreal to do several things simultaneously. Through participating in the practices of association, they debate and discuss not only Iranian history and Persian poetry, but a wide variety of topics, which I characterize as an effort to not only cultivate Iranian-ness, but also an effort to cultivate certain qualities associated with liberalism, chiefly the idea of self-improvement through education. So, as I mentioned Khosro and Hossein seek ways to cultivate not only an Iranian self, but also an

Iranian Montrealer self, so do those who attend CaféLitt. The cultivation of a self that could be identified as a Montrealer is a new practice for recently arrived second wave immigrants, but their efforts to conduct some CaféLitt sessions in English and to cover topics outside of the immediate realm of Iranian culture does indicate the desire to cultivate a self that can be both

Iranian and integrate into the city of Montreal.

The title of this thesis, “Not a Place, but a Culture,”131 borrows from a slogan CaféLitt unveiled with the launch of their new website in early 2009. This phrase seems to epitomize the “work” this actor-network does – which is showing that Iran is not simply a physical space bounded by particular international borders, but is actually a culture. The slogan suggests that being Iranian is not simply about living within the borders of Iran; instead, what makes a person Iranian is their knowledge of and cultivation of Iranian culture. This makes it entirely possible for those living outside of Iran, in places such as Montreal, to still be Iranian.

However, to continue being Iranian, one must to cultivate themselves in certain ways and

CaféLitt provides a forum for Iranians in Montreal to continue to perform an Iranian-ness that

131 "Cafelitt", http://www.cafelitt.ca/ (accessed August 2 2009).

Hashemzadeh 103

builds upon established Iranian discourses, but is contingent upon their status of immigrants and the new space they inhabit, resulting in a self that is best described as an Iranian

Montrealer.

Hashemzadeh 104

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