At the age of eight, Nadia Malek, a first generation American whose parents are from Tehran, Iran, was stopped at an airport while on vacation with her family.
“I was eight and I was on a terrorist list,” Malek said. “My brother [who was 10 at the time] and I both were.”
As an Iranian American, Malek has, at times, found a conflict between the way she identifies herself and the way she is identified by others.
“Yes, I’m Iranian, I speak Farsi and, yes, I’m technically Muslim,” Malek said.
Malek says “technically” because she doesn’t practice the religion in the way most familiar to those non-Muslim Americans.
“I was never raised with you go to the mosque or pray five times a day,” said Malek. “To me, being Muslim is the values my parents instilled in us rather than going to Mosque.”
Values like respecting your elders and adhering to the wishes of your father.
“Family is everything,” Malek said. “Anything my Dad says is right.”
Another thing Malek believes sets her apart from the American notion of what Muslim is, she does not wear a hijab.
“I don’t even own one,” Malek said. “The way that most people understand practicing Muslims isn’t the way it was before 1979 [the year of the Iranian Revolution] when my parents were there [in Iran]. For example, you could drink, it was fine.”
The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, began in 1978. Pre-revolution Iran was a monarchy ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In January of 1979 the Shah fled Iran and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power. Shortly after, Iran became an Islamic Republic.
“After the revolution, Iran became the Islamic state that people think of today,” said Kelia Preza, an Iranian who’s family fled before the revolution. “1979 is when Iran became that stereotype of Muslims.”
Another misconception both Preza and Malek say many people have of them is that they’re Arab.
“I’m Persian. That’s how I identify myself,” said Malek who speaks Farsi, the most widely spoken Persian language.
Preza agrees.
“I’m no more Arab than someone from like Germany,” Preza said. “It’s a completely different identity.”
It’s a common misconception in the United States, that all Middle Easterners are Arab and that they speak Arabic.
However, most Iranians are Persian, a name used interchangeably in pre-revolution Iran.
In contrast, Arab refers to those who speak Arabic, and is independent from a religious identity.
For Malek, identifying herself as Persian is the most accurate description of her ancestry.
“Saying I’m Persian means, to me, that I’m from Iran,” Malek said. “I don’t say I’m Muslim because I know what that means to people, it has such a negative stigma and I’m not the kind of Muslim that comes to most people’s minds.”
Despite owning her Persian identity, Malek has never been to Iran and instead grew up in Minnesota where she had very few Iranian friends her age. Now, most of her friends and her boyfriend are not Iranian, a fact that Malek doesn’t really even think about.
“Maybe that would be weird if I were in Iran,” Malek said. “But the Iranian and Muslim community where I grew up [Rochester, MN] was lacking. It’s the way I was brought up; I was raised here, not Iran.”
