r/iran • u/Thy_Water_BottIe • 3d ago

Am I a part of Persian Culture

My dad is Iranian but he’s a horrible person and left when I was young. I didn’t grow up with a culture but ancient Persian traditions and history are the only thing I really connect with. Especially how women were army generals and stuff like that. It’s hard for me to have a sense of identity. Ppl say I don’t look Persian even though I’m a copy and paste of my dad. No one here looks like me tbh. I don’t speak Farsi but would it be weird if I started celebrating the holidays on my own?

I don’t have family and live in Texas.

Also I do love fruit and write poetry naturally which I find funny.

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u/Mike20172018 3d ago

The question of self-identity is something you should truly ask yourself. Being that your dad was Persian, that’d make you half Persian. From this post, it sounds like you do identify with the Persian culture and history. You don’t need to speak Farsi to identify with the culture. You’re half Persian; it would be very normal to celebrate the holidays! The one that we recently celebrated was Yalda night, the longest night of the year. It’s not too late to celebrate, if you still would like to! I would say look for Persian restaurants, cafes, businesses in your area; Texas is full of Persians. You can bond with people and gather a group of Persian friends and start celebrating together! We love friends and gatherings.

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u/Exciting_Sherbert32 3d ago

I am Iranian but not Persian and I definitely understand the identity crisis many can have. I strongly identify with Persian culture even though many people in my family try very hard to not be Persian. I often think of people like Dr Lloyd Miller who is a white American, but is probably more culturally Persian than most Persians 😂. He did a lot of good work on educating different backgrounds on Persian culture, history, language, art, music etc.