Media D. Parvaz in Iran
posted by November 29 at 11:20 AM
onIt’s no secret: D. Parvaz is one of my favorite writers at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. We met years ago on a writers panel, she wrote an installment of Last Days during the P-I/Times strike of the winter of 2000, and our “relationship” even earned some finger-wagging from huffy Weekly writer Mark D. Fefer.
Funnily enough, Fefer neglected to mention the sketchiest of Parvaz’s and my dealings: An afternoon visit to the downtown Deja Vu Showgirls strip club, for a P-I piece Parvaz wrote about my unhealthy obsession with the movie Showgirls. This strip-club visit was a trip for both of us. As a homosexual, I made cracks about how venturing into Deja Vu was less erotic than scientific; as an Iranian expatriate, Parvaz made cracks about how venturing into Deja Vu—without a head scarf, no less—would be cause for her execution in her homeland.
Which brings us to the purpose of this post: D. Parvaz’s three-part series on her return to Iran, which kicked off yesterday and continues today and tomorrow.
I haven’t been there in 22 years. I last saw the place as a 12-year-old girl who knew even then it was unsafe for her to express her opinion in public. I’m now a woman in her mid-30s who pops off for a living….[W]hy the heck am I bothering to go back? Because I need to see what’s left of the place I couldn’t have imagined leaving as a kid. Because I have yet to visit my grandmother’s grave. And, finally, because I fear neither will be there in a few years.
Check it out the whole thing (so far) here.
Comments
It's great stuff. Iran is a fascinating country. Much more interesting than the fluff she usually gets assigned. I'm not really sure she's cut out to be an airhead style reporter for a daily paper. She needs to write some books. With articles like this, she's actually making slowing down over the P-I worthwhile.
I was interested to see that in her Iranian passport, which they printed yesterday, she's still listed as living in Ottawa, issued in February, which can't possibly be true. Maybe it's impossible to have an Iranian passport with a Great Satan address on it?
I have family from Iran and have been reading her series with rapt attention. She IS a wonderful writer! I am going to start following her work more closely from this point forward. I am also sharing the links with my family.
Parvaz’s ace socio/politico/cultural smackdowns are the reason I get the P-I on Saturdays. It’s a shame she’s in the Lifestyle section on Saturday, when Joel Connelly is on the front page of the local section. She could be a Frank Rich in-training if they’d give her half a chance.
It’s amazing to hear ignorant right-wingers talking about how we need to do “nation building” in Iran. They had civilization over there when the ancient Greeks were still crawling out of their caves.
I doubt a chador is going to cover the chip on her shoulder. She's one of those self-important writers who fancies herself as edgy and is under the impression people care about what she's "Popping Off" about this week.
FIN
That was one of the most vividly written features I've ever found in a Seattle paper. Persian eyebrows or not, the woman's got talent!
I've always liked her columns, even when I occasionally disagreed with the premise of them. I think this series has definitely shown that it's time the editors moved her out of the fluffy features section and into news/editorial. She's too good a writer and observer to be stuck doing "lifestyle" columns forever.
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