PSA Celebration

PSA Celebration

University of Michigan Studentspresented an excellent program forNowruz this year. Congratulation toall.The following article was presented tocelebrate Dr. Windfuht’s retirement.On behalf of the University ofMichigan’s Persian StudentsAssociation, I have the honor ofrecognizing a very special person inour Persian community. No, he is noton the board of Khaneh Iran and iscertainly not a former board memberof our PSA. Nor does he have over 40cousins spread throughout WestBloomfield and Farmington hills withthe same last name. (Most of us knowwhich ‘dynasty’ I am speaking of.)No, this man, this leader of ourPersian community, is not the subjectof early afternoon gossip or gheybatand most of you here tonight perhapsare not familiar with him. For, he doesnot lead by loud words, rather byhumble actions that have benefited usand everyone who loves the PersianCulture. As a Professor of IranianStudies at the University of Michigan,students, most of whom being nonIranian, have been influenced mostdirectly by taking Dr. Windfuhr’scourses on Persian culture, language,mystical poetry, and more. As ascholar, he has contributed more than100 articles on Persian Culture,History, and Language that haveadvanced Western understanding ofIran, Farsi Language and Dialects,and Zoroastrianism. His textbooks onPersian and Persian Grammar areused widely to teach Farsi. He hasbeen a major contributor toEncyclopedia Iranica, and anesteemed invitee to Iran to explorethe importance of Ferdowsi’sShahnameh in today’s world, and Icould go on and on. Simply stated, ifpeople like him did not work hard tomaintain and further Persian culturehere in the West, then there would notbe such a receptive ear when weboast to our American friends howremarkable our culture is, howbeautiful our language is, how coolour music is, and how sweet ourpoems are. To the young guys in theaudience, if you are in the middle ofchasing a non-Persian girl at school, make sure she knows you arePersian and recite to her the first lineof any poem by Hafez or Saadi inFarsi,. It works like Jaa-Doo (magic)!Last semester, I was looking for aneasy class to complete my schedule,and I thought to myself, I am Persian,why not take a class calledIntroduction to Persian Culture andLanguage. For me, this should be apiece of cake. So I went to class, satin the back with the other Persians,potoghehmoon, if you will, and felt tooarrogant to do most of the assignedreadings. However, this class wastaught differently, it was not based onthe fear of quizzes or tests, in factthere were neither. It was basedupon passion! It was immediatelyclear that Dr. Windfuhr, not even anIranian himself, was truly in love withPersian culture, my culture, ourculture. And as time went on, not onlydid I realize how much I did not knowabout my ethnicity, but compared tohim, I would be considered apathetictowards it. It was not fear that led meto become a more attentive student,but rather a sense of guilt. A sense ofguilt that through his teaching grew toan appreciation of, and commitmentto, my Persian heritage. Dr. Windfuhrhelped me realize that I had beentaking it all for granted, and all that itwould take is a few generations ofpassive people like me to destroy thewonderful image Persians have herein the West. Despite whatever yousee or hear on the news nowadays,thanks to the contributions of Dr.Windfuhr and scholars like him, weshould still not shy away and/or hidethe fact that we are Persian orIranian. A current event cannot trumpover 2500 years of magnificentcivilization and culture. Do not forget,it is the words of Cyrus the Great thatadorns the entrance to the UnitedNation’s headquarters in New YorkCity. Of course, I did not know any ofthis beforehand; Dr. Windfuhr hastaught it all to me. He has taught meand my classmates, as well as tens ofclasses before us, that how trulydiverse Persian culture and its peoplehave been throughout history. Wehave always been a nation with thelargest sub group of languages andconsisting of many people of differentethnicities and religions. And, untilwe turn the page to modern history,such differences had never been apressing issue or a cause for divide.Because, we are all first, andforemost, Iranian. On the final day ofclass when he announced that hewould be retiring, the line of Hafezthat I had memorized earlier reflectedhow lucky I felt to have taken thisclass from him: Gar, man as baghe toyek meeveh becheenam, che shavad,Peesheh payee, ba norreh cheroghehto bebeenam, che shavad. Thank youDr. Windfuhr for lighting the way.Everyone, please welcome, ProfessorWindfuhr.

Dadashzadeh, Reza

Faslnameh_Summer_2008.pdf

Persia House of Michigan

2008 - Summer

Faslnameh_Summer_2008.pdf (p.3)

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