WE MAY HAVE BEEN BRUTAL AGAINST THE SPARTANS...
...BUT WE SURE KNOW HOW TO ROLL HI-CLASS TODAY.
Why does Beverly Hills have the first Iranian-born mayor? It might be due to the fact that Persians only hang where the weather is nice and the people flaunt their cash - straight royalty style. From the great palace of Persepolis to the neo classic designs of suburban Beverly Hills, us Persians know the importance of keeping up appearances.
Beverly Hills will have first Iranian-born mayor in USA
| ||||||||||
Delshad, 66, who emigrated from Iran at age 19, was re-elected to a City Council seat. Since council members serve as mayor based on seniority, Delshad is next in line to assume the office. He will be the highest-ranking Iranian-American elected official in the country, says Trita Parsi, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Iranian American Council.
"The Persian-American community has been very successful in business, but in politics, the area that affects them locally, they have been very weak," Delshad says. "My election tells them America does not hold it against them just because Iran and America don't have the greatest government-to-government relations."
Parsi says Delshad's win is "the biggest electoral achievement of the Iranian-American community, and it will make every Iranian-American happy. Even though Beverly Hills is a small city, it's a very well-known city."
Census figures show that 8,000 of Beverly Hills' 35,000 residents are of Iranian descent. Most, like Delshad, are Persian Jews. An influx of wealthy, well-educated Iranians into celebrity-crammed Beverly Hills began after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran toppled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
City Clerk Byron Pope ordered ballots in last week's election printed in English, Spanish and Farsi. City Hall received hundreds of complaints concerning the ballots, including many from Iranians, outgoing Mayor Steve Webb says. "They were upset and embarrassed. They're very proud of being Americans, proud of their command of the English language."
The 2000 Census estimated that 338,000 Iranian-Americans live in the USA. Few hold elective office, says Ross Mirkarimi, 45, a Chicago-born Iranian-American who was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 2004. "The number is very small, but with Iranians becoming more influential in public policy, we're beginning to see the awakening of a sleeping giant," he says.
Iranians took little interest in local politics until Delshad first was elected to the City Council four years ago, Webb says. Two other Iranian-Americans, an attorney and a city planning commissioner, ran for the two City Council seats at stake. They lost.
Parsi says Iranian-Americans are ending a "self-imposed 25-year silence" in politics. Starting with the 1979-81 captivity of American hostages in Tehran, "admitting your Iranian-American background was not the most desirable thing," he says. Discriminatory treatment of Middle Easterners after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks "persuaded the community that they need to wake up and participate fully in American political life," he says.
