Shaffy Moeel helped edit the book Another World is Possible; Conversations in a Time of Terror. We discuss 9/11, racial profiling, Students for Justice in Palestine and the recent arrests at UC Berkeley.
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A bit old, but still relevant. Please let me know if you use this. Here is an article written by Shaffy Moeel.
Developing Another Identity The struggle to grasp more than one heritage. By Shaffy Moeel
I grew up listening to my mother's lullabies. I spent my childhood in three different countries. I was born in Iran, then as a toddler lived in Turkey, and at school age - five years old - my family moved to the United States. In all of these places, my mother's Turkish lullaby was soothing, and now is one of my strongest memories of childhood.
But I grew up feeling closer to my father's Iranian background. And because the Iranian community around us in America was huge compared to my mom's handful of Turkish friends, Iranian culture prevailed in our household.
It was our Iranian heritage that my parents insisted on preserving. While in my American school, I mastered essays, writing from left to right. On the weekends, I struggled with the Persian alphabet and writing from right to left. My parents didn't want me to lose ties to the culture I was born into. But wearing Guess jeans and Keds, listening to the New Kids on the Block, I was also developing another identity - American.
Now, years later, as a college student hanging out with my friends, I may seem indistinguishable from my American peers. I talk like they do
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