If you go
What: Dayton Arab-American Forum 2015 Hafla
Where: Yankee Trace Golf Club, 10000 Yankee St, Centerville.
When: 7 p.m. April 25
More info: Daaf.org.
It’s impossible to escape stories today focused on the Arab world or Iran. It’s been that way for decades, but more so since the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Our worlds seem inextricably bound, west and east.
Since well before 9/11, the Dayton Arab-American Forum has sought to build cultural bridges. Maybe for that reason, it makes sense that Maha Kashani leads the forum as president. Her whole life has been something of a bridge.
Kashani, 31, was born in Tehran, daughter of an Iraqi mother and an Iranian father. Yet anyone who knows her will attest she is thoroughly American — and a proud Daytonian.
“It was an interesting dynamic, growing up,” she said.
Kashani moved to the United States as a young child and has spent most of her life in the Gem City. If there were a Who’s Who of Daytonians, the roster would be incomplete without her. A University of Dayton graduate, she has served familiar institutions such as the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and relative newcomers like Generation Dayton. Readers may remember her Dayton City Paper column, “Miss Maha and the City.” Today, she’s a senior account manager at DPL Energy Resources.
The Arab-American forum will host its 2015 Hafla (dance) at 7 p.m. on April 25 at Yankee Trace Golf Club in Centerville. The public is invited. (See daaf.org for more information.)
I sat down with Kashani to talk about her, the forum and more. This is edited and condensed.
Q: Why did your family leave Iran?
Kashani: "We came to the United States similar to most of the Iranians who came, after the Islamic revolution that happened in the late '70s. It's interesting when you look at the statistics, I think, from the census. Before 1980 and after 1980, the Iranians who were in this country, there really were barely any who came for education, as part of the program under the shah. A lot of them would go back. And then the revolution happened. That population stayed. And those who were closely aligned with the shah fled the country.
“You really didn’t see this mass of people who were migrating out of Iran until the (1980-1988) war (with Iraq) happened. …
“Right before the war was starting, my dad had just gotten his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison … He went back to Iran, to take care of his mom and met my mom in that timeframe. She had just arrived in Iran, too, because they had been kicked out (of Iraq). They got married, had me … my dad was working, starting a business and my mom was staying home.
“Then you really started to see some of the impacts of the combined revolution and the war happening on the streets … there was violence that was happening. My dad said at that point, ‘We’re leaving.’”
Q: After 9/11, did you experience recriminations or fallout? How did your family fare?
Kashani: "To be honest with you, I don't feel I was hit very hard from a discrimination perspective. I would get randomly selected (for airport inspections) a couple of times. You never know. Is it random? Is it not random? I do have a Middle Eastern name. Maha is a very popular Arabic name. Kashani is the name of a big city in Iran. A lot of people, if they see my last name and know anything about Iran, they'll know I'm Persian. …
“If I travel internationally, I’ll typically always be flagged. I think a lot of that is Iran vs. Iraq, though.
“What I think I’ve found, though, is people — especially in the Dayton community — seem to be very interested. … I don’t feel I personally felt a lot of it (discrimination). I remember my dad said the Secret Service showed up twice at his (University of Dayton) office. … They had interview questions, and they were interviewing people in communities all over the United States.”
Q: Tell me about the April 25 event. It’s open to the public?
Kashani: "It sure is. It's our hafla, kind of our annual, big social fundraiser. 'Hafla' just means a dinner and dance party. So we'll have an Arabic DJ; we'll have great Middle Eastern food. We have a belly-dancing troupe that we hire. You have cocktail hour. You have dinner. Then everybody gets up and dances all night.
“It’s a really cool cultural thing. Last year, we probably had about a 60-40 (split), Americans to Middle-Eastern people. We’re trying to actually bring in more American people because it’s a beautiful display of our culture. People who come, they find something different, something cool, they get great food, great entertainment, and they get to learn something about Arab-Americans.”
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