Iranian Environmentalists
In Celebration of Nowruz, نوروز مبارک.
As we head into Nowruz, also known as Persian New Year for Iranians, this a big celebratory holiday for the new calendar year and in time for the first day of the Spring Equinox. This holiday that is based on spring and renewal dates back to thousands of years with its roots in Zoroastrianism and is still celebrated by millions all over the world. There are a lot of beautiful traditions that ties into Nowruz, from spring cleaning, celebrating a season of new life and wishing for good luck for the following year ahead. Of course, this upcoming Nowruz and last year’s looked a lot different, but it’s still a gentle reminder to cherish those that are close. So as we settle into a new awakening for Nowruz, SUSTAIN wanted to spotlight amazing Iranian environmentalists on how their culture blends in with their eco-conscious warrior side.
Azita Rasoli, 31, Los Angeles
SUSTAIN: What projects or orgs are you part of and your roles within those?
Azita: After getting trained as a Climate Reality Leader last year I've since joined the LA chapter and was fortunate enough to be included in a series of presentations to the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) on their sustainability initiatives. I've also started my own sustainability consulting service called The-Underline working with fashion brands and design studios.
SUSTAIN: How does your Iranian culture tie into your environmental journey? Do you have any specific stories or experiences that you would like to share?
Azita: I'm Persian and Indonesian so being mixed and first generation American definitely played a role in how I view sustainability. Things that we now consider "zero waste" would just be how my Maman Joon, my grandma, did things. Regrowing vegetable scraps, repurposing ingredients from one dish to make more dishes, mending and sewing your own clothes, etc. is just how we grew up.
SUSTAIN: As an adult I can now appreciate how much nature is intertwined with Nowruz. It's two weeks of celebrations leading up to the arrival of spring, which in itself is so beautiful. It's a testament to how embracing the outdoors is a big part of our culture, whether it's for Charshanbe Suri to jump over fire or devoting an entire day (Sizdah Bedar) to just picnic. After my grandma moved back to Iran we didn't really keep up with the typical Nowruz traditions, having the haft-sin set up or going to the park, but I still get together with my family every year to have lunch, always sabzi polo and mahi.
Mohammad Ahmadi, 17, Hinsdale, IL
SUSTAIN: What projects or orgs are you part of and your roles within those?
Mohammad: I am the Cofounder and Communications Coordinator of Earth Uprising International, and Cofounder and team member of Hinsdale for Black Lives Matter.
SUSTAIN: How does your Iranian culture tie into your environmental journey? Do you have any specific stories or experiences that you would like to share?
Mohammad: My Iranian background has helped me realize the importance of looking at the climate crisis and other environmental issues from the perspectives of different cultures since each culture has its own attitudes toward and relationship with nature, and often its own ways of taking care of it. When conversing with someone from a specific culture and trying to educate them on these issues, it is important to take their cultural views/values, and other influential factors like religion, into consideration so you can effectively appeal to them and get them to understand and care about what you are saying, and maybe even get them to take action based upon it.
As for my experiences in Iran, when I spent a year there in 2014/15, I saw environmental issues like dust storms; air, water, and ground pollution; droughts; desertification; and deforestation. For example, the area around my grandmother’s home in Karaj was filled with trees when I left the country in 2005 (two years after I was born there), but when I went back in 2014, almost all of them had been cut down and the area had turned into a dry, polluted, and dusty plain. And one time I saw that someone had put their trash around one of the few remaining trees there and set the trash on fire. With the help of another kid, I was able to put the fire out and save the tree from burning.
Everything that I saw and experienced that year opened my eyes to these environmental problems and motivated me, even more, to keep educating myself and fighting for the planet and the people on it.
Overall, being Iranian and learning about how the climate crisis is affecting and will affect Iran gives me another reason to continue my climate justice activism.
SUSTAIN: What does Nowruz mean to you? What is the significance of it and how do you personally celebrate?
Mohammad: For me, Nowruz is a time to reflect upon the previous year while looking forward to the new year and starting it with happiness and a fresh mind. My family and I celebrate it by spending time with each other, creating a haft-sin table, inviting our Iranian friends to our home or visiting them at their homes, attending a Nowruz celebration hosted by our local Persian cultural center, doing a spring cleaning of our home, and cooking sabzi polo ba mahi, ash reshteh, and kuku sabzi.
He can be reached at mohammad@earthuprising.org
Mohaddaseh Barghamadi, 17, Hoffman Estates, IL
SUSTAIN: What projects or orgs are you part of and your roles within those?
Mohaddaseh: Member of the Communications Team at Earth Uprising International.
SUSTAIN: How does your Iranian culture tie into your environmental journey? Do you have any specific stories or experiences that you would like to share?
Mohaddaseh: I would say that the values of cleanliness and purity in Iranian culture (especially in regards to sacred spaces) was the start of my focus towards environmental cleanliness and order”.
When I was nine years old, my siblings and cousins decided to climb Koh-eh-khizr (a special mountain with a Holy mosque at the top) and allowed me to tag along. I quickly noticed cans of soda and plastic bags covering the trail, and started to pick them up. Strangers found it weird, a cousin told me it was a waste of time, and I even caught another relative throwing their garbage where I had already cleaned. I found this confusing because physical cleanliness and purity are major concepts in Iran, along with respect for Holy spaces. Mosques and shrines are deep cleaned daily and everyone is checked for any signs of uncleanliness at their door. These parts of Iranian culture were why I cared so much about cleaning the mountain trail that night. I realized later that it was a contradiction to Iranian culture to leave the Holy shrines unattended, and that the value of cleanliness in Iran was the beginning/root of my environmental journey.
SUSTAIN: What does Nowruz mean to you? What is the significance of it and how do you personally celebrate?
Mohaddaseh: For me, Nowruz symbolizes a fresh, green, beginning. I find the sabzeh’s fast growth comforting. It gives me hope when a plant can grow that fast, that it could perhaps help take the place of the millions of plants we lose every year to the industrialization of nature. Its speedy growth reminds us that rebuilding is possible, easy, and now.
Kiana Kazemi, 21, Berkeley, California
SUSTAIN: What projects or orgs are you part of and your roles within those?
Kiana: I am a current undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, studying the intersections of technology and environmental justice, and Editor in Chief of the campus environmental publication The Leaflet. I am the Digital and Community Operations Coordinator at Intersectional Environmentalist, and the Co-Founder and CEO of Circularity, an upcoming multi-medium environmental justice platform.
SUSTAIN: How does your Iranian culture tie into your environmental journey? Do you have any specific stories or experiences that you would like to share?
Kiana: Environmentalism is an integral part of Iranian culture. Our people have a deep love for nature and many of our most important traditions incorporate our connection to the earth in some way. My love for the environment is a direct result of the emphasis my family put into living and caring for the earth when I was growing up in Iran. My grandparents would take me foraging for special herbs in the mountains, my parents would drive us to the beach as often as they could, even in our tiny apartment in Iran we always had flowers, a mini garden, anything to remind us all that we are interconnected with our environment. The love that my family and Iranian culture foster for the planet is the same love that has led me to pursue an environmental justice lens to all of my work. Understanding that the oppression of people is interconnected with that of our environment allows me to stay true to my roots and fight for both people and the planet.
SUSTAIN: What does Nowruz mean to you? What is the significance of it and how do you personally celebrate?
Kiana: For those that celebrate it, Nowruz signifies the beginning of spring and a new year. It is one of my favorite times of the year because it brings up a lot of my childhood memories. With the arrival of Nowruz comes a lot of beautiful celebrations and traditions, and my family is big on making these really special every year. Many of my memories from Iran are from around this time of year; road-tripping to where my dad is from to go visit my cousins, shopping for new clothes with my mum which is another tradition, deep cleaning the house with my grandmother, jumping over fires with my dad on Charshanbe Suri, there are so many beautiful things that come to mind when I think back to this time. Even now, Nowruz is a time for family and community. When I am not with my family, I set up my own haft-sin table, bring around my friends for some tahdig, and jump over a candle as a way to get ready for the new year. Continuing these traditions helps me stay connected to my family when we are so far apart, but also serves as a way to create stronger connections with the communities I am now a part of.