Club aims to spread awareness

Persian Immersion Club stands with Iranian women

By Jane Clark| Editor in Chief

Juniors Yalda Haghighat, Sophia Afzalipour and Leila Tarighi

founded the Persian Immersion club to immerse their friends and peers in Persian culture.

“When I had the idea to start the club in 10th grade, my goal was to create a fun environment where the Hockaday community can educate themselves about Persian culture and build more empathy and awareness for communities they have little information on,” Afzalipour said. “We like to have meetings that include sharing classic Iranian cuisine and teaching our members about Persian holidays and traditions.”

Similarly, Haghighat believed the Persian community was underrepresented or misrepresented, so she wanted to teach people more.

“Our goal was to eliminate any negative stereotypes around Persian culture that have been promoted by Western media,” Haghighat said. “We wanted to showcase our culture and traditions and give everyone a look into how we grew up.”

In the past, they have had club meetings to celebrate Eid e Nowruz (Persian New Year) where they discussed traditions and some Persian desserts.

This year, however, their core mission shifted to the current situation for women in Iran and the protests going on there.

“Under Iran’s current regime, women’s rights are severely restricted and have been for the past 44 years,” Afzalipour said. “Through these protests, hundreds of activists have risked their lives in hopes for fundamental freedoms.”

After Mahsa Amini was arrested in Iran for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab and died in custody, the public reacted, leading to a women’s rights revolution. Afzalipour, Haghighat and Tarighi decided to help in the ways they could.

“Leila, Yalda and I wanted to host a dinner with traditional Iranian dishes that people love and raise funds to send to an organization to help Iranian protests,” Afzalipour said.

They raised over $2,000 and sent the money to a group that spreads information about Iran’s political climate through software apps in hopes for more widespread awareness.

“We’re really hoping to continue our mission to inform people about what’s going on in Iran right now,” Haghighat said, “and we’re hoping to continue raising funds for protesters.”