Introduction
This essay will demonstrate how being raised in a foreign country becomes the reason for the formation of new ways of behavior in various communicative situations and an occasion to try on new communicative roles. This paper will be compiled using the main concepts of the book Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity, written by the Iranian-American writer and essayist Porochista Khakpour in 2020. The central theme of this collection is the problem of identity for migrants. The common denominator in the multifaceted problem of identity in all the essays of the writer is the concept of “alien” (Khakpour 52). On the one hand, the migrant’s consciousness implies the existence of a foreign cultural reality; on the other hand, it presupposes the presence of the context of native culture in it. It is the mixing of these realities that Porochista Khakpour sees as the reason for the interaction of cultural elements and the emergence of a new, intercultural space (Khakpour 172). Thus, both in this book and based on my own experience, the situation of migrants, due to different dimensions of diversity, is described as intermediate, not belonging entirely to any of the cultures.
Gender
My first choice of the dimension of diversity is gender since I am a female. Porochista Khakpour states that “the main provisions of the Muslim faith in the gender aspect” make it difficult for women to integrate into both their native and host countries (Khakpour 38). There is no hostile form of sexism in this culture, but a benevolent one is present. This kind of sexism consists in half-crossing out female weakness and fragility. As a result, internal sexism arises when a migrant woman unconsciously defends the patriarchal foundations of society since she considers them the only true ones.
After many years of fighting to get equal rights for women in this society, I still can see different scenarios of inequality. I felt this more when I was in my country, Iran. Unfortunately, in my country, women do not get the same rights as men do. When I was there, I was not allowed to travel alone or stay overnight with my friends. My parents kept telling me that society does not accept the same freedom for women, especially young single girls. I have always suffered from inequality in my country and still have the same issue in the United States. I still see so many women who do not get paid as men do in this country.
Thus, although there is also a gap between men and women in the United States, the situation is even more serious in Muslim countries, for example, Iran. A migrant cannot accept Muslim values, as they contradict what is accepted in American society. American women, unlike Iranian women, can make a career choice. At the same time, raised in a traditional Muslim family, migrant women cannot get rid of the habitual pattern of behavior shown to them by their mothers (Soleimani and Mohammadpour 946). Thus, the gender dimension of diversity becomes one of the causes of internal identity conflict.
Education
My second choice of the dimension of diversity would be education since it is my family’s top priority. Porochista Khakpour states that many migrant parents want their child to “realize their unfulfilled dreams”(Khakpour 188). To do this, they set very high requirements for the child’s education, starting with the school straight A’s and ending with a diploma with honors at a prestigious university. Migrant parents are often sure that if a child knows everything perfectly, learns to work hard and achieve goals, then success will accompany them in life. In their opinion, only with a good education their children will be able to become rich.
My dad’s family are well-educated and successful people who measure others’ personalities and behaviors based on their education. The first question that they will ask my friends or any strangers they meet, would be their education degree. This made my parents, especially my dad, very sensitive about me. I think education is necessary for me to be successful in the future; however, I feel like I am under pressure. My parents do not force me to study a specific major, but sometimes I feel like I never have a chance to think about having a business or being self-employed.
Most often, it is difficult for migrant parents to get a good job in a new country because of the habit of a traditional way of life and the language barrier. In this regard, they often feel the desire to rehabilitate themselves due to the successful study of the child. In addition, Muslim cultures are characterized by a high level of competitiveness, and the success and education of children is one of the main indicators of a good parent (Terrazas-Gallego 204). Therefore, migrant fathers and mothers demand good grades in order to proudly tell others about it. In all these cases, an adult cares, first of all, about their own self-esteem and forgets that with their excessive demands, they negatively affect the child’s self-esteem and complicate relations between generations.
Race
My third choice of the dimension of diversity would be race since I am Iranian (Persian). Porochista Khakpour pays a lot of attention to the issue of race, noting on the example of my ethnicity that there is a set of views implying “a biased negative attitude” towards representatives of the Persian culture (Khakpour 104). Racism continues to exist in most countries, including the United States. Many people are convinced of the incompatibility of different races, so they have a very negative attitude to foreigners. They have a negative attitude towards migrants who settle in the white neighborhood, start families, give birth to children and take them to the same kindergarten or school.
From the first day that I moved to the USA, I have experienced racism in different situations. Before I became a US citizen, every time that I traveled with my Iranian passport, they kept me in the airport and asked so many questions that they would not ask from other nationalities. In my opinion, it is not fair that the government and other nationalities do not treat me the same as others because I was born in a country that has an intense relationship with the USA. Moreover, I had different situations in my current job that made me cry for days.
Over the past decade, there has been a rapid increase in the number of cases of intolerance, discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the form of open violence to which migrants are exposed in almost every region of the world. Employees who are discriminated against on the basis of their race, skin color, nationality, origin and ethnicity experience stress, anger and fatigue, which can ultimately affect the quality of work (Soleimani and Mohammadpour 946). Racial discrimination in the workplace can have a serious impact on the situation of minorities and migrant workers and on the future development and career of their children.
Relationship
My fourth choice of the dimension of diversity would be parental relationship since I was raised in a traditional Iranian (Persian) family. Porochista Khakpour had the same experience, about which she says in her book that “authoritarian upbringing” prevails in most Muslim families (Khakpour 123). This is a type of upbringing in which certain attitudes are accepted as the only truth in the relationship between parents and children. The social role of the father as a translator of these attitudes is elevated to the absolute. Therefore, the child’s compulsion to behave according to these attitudes is strongly expressed.
For the children in my family, there were a number of responsibilities, the main one of which was the reverence of parents. In my family, we, the children, were forbidden to address our parents with expressions that could offend them. It was impossible to do anything that would show that I was emotionally hurt by my parents. During a conversation with them, it was never allowed to raise my voice or address them in an angry manner. I should have spoken to them respectfully, in a moderate tone and kindly, no matter what emotions I was experiencing.
The choice of authoritarian upbringing is connected with the fact that the family in Islam is primarily a tool for teaching children respect for the older generation, taking care of younger family members. Islam considers the family to be the most important source of such important Muslim values as respect. The Muslim society considers the family to be the foundation of the whole nation because the very first place where children learn for the traditions of their people is the family hearth (Soleimani and Mohammadpour 942). With the help of an authoritarian upbringing in the family, a strong foundation is laid for understanding the importance of children fulfilling their duties to their parents and love for them, which in this culture has the form of respect.
Religion
My fifth choice of the dimension of diversity would be religion since I was raised in a very religious Muslim family. Poroshista Khakpour notes that religion is “traditionally associated with education”(Khakpour 49). In the process of religious life, principles, and traditions are formed, and then an integral system of religious education. The culture of behavior at the table and in everyday life, the choice of friends and interaction with parents, and many other areas were determined in my family by the principles of Islam. Thus, it is a religion that is the core of secular education among Muslims.
Since early childhood, my grandmother often told me about such personalities as prophets and cabins. Both my mother and father taught me to mention Allah. When I was six years old, I began to be taught to perform prayer and read the Koran. The whole family often visited the mosque, including to perform tarawih and collective prayers. When I was ten years old, my father explained to me the benefits of prayer and why it should be performed. Religion plays a significant role in instilling Muslim cultural values and traditions (Terrazas-Gallego 209). It also determines how children are raised and their relationship with their parents. Religion sets a certain system of values for a person, defining accepted norms of behavior.
Conclusion
There are multiple dimensions of diversity, including religion, gender, race, education, and relationships with parents. All of them perform numerous functions that affect the future life of the child. They determine the interaction between migrants and representatives of the culture of the recipient country. These factors influence the spread of the culture of a group of carriers (writing, etiquette, morality and philosophy). The regulatory function of diversity measurements implies an individual’s awareness of the content of certain values and moral norms. In this case, they are developed in Muslim religious traditions under the influence of all of the above factors and act as a program of the behavior of migrants.
Works Cited
Khakpour, Porochista. Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity. Vintage Books, 2020.
Soleimani, Kamal, and Ahmad Mohammadpour. “Can Non-Persians Speak? The Sovereign’s Narration Of “Iranian Identity”. Ethnicities, vol. 19, no. 5, 2019, pp. 925-947.
Terrazas-Gallego, Melania. Irish Identity and Trauma: A Review of Trauma and Identity in Contemporary Irish Culture. Peter Lang, 2020.