Persian Girl Podcast

Na rumi-ye rum, na zangi-ye zang which literally translates to "neither a Roman of Byzantium nor a Black person of the Subsaharan region",  means to say that some things cannot be black or white.  In this episode, Millie and Natalie discuss the struggles specific to the dual identity of being Persian and Jewish, diving deeper into the nuances of Sephardic Jewry, the stress of living for your ancestors and being the descendants of persecuted people, pressure to marry within your own religion for the sake of keeping your culture/ "people" alive, and not feeling 100% understood by secular Iranians nor Ashkenazy Jews.

Intro music: Dokhtar Ahvazi - Sandy

PGP hosts discuss behavior and etiquette at Persian weddings, Millie is reinvigorated by recent traumatic interactions with mega doodool tallahs, upper class Persians who define their worth based on how many lavish parties they go to,  Persian men who use having a white girlfriend to flex on Persian girls, snobby Persians who think doing drugs makes them in any way bohemian,  and other tea is spilled.

In this episode PGP features Lavashak (dried fruit candy) from their Lavashak.com monthly subscription box, which can be found on their website or instagram @lavashaklovers!

Intro song: Salam - Sogand

​PGP interviews Mandana Salehi, founder of Zibahub, an inclusive beauty services app. They discuss how she got started with her company, beauty standards and how they're changing, how she met her husband and the response she got from the Persian community for marrying a Black man, ​dealing with being ostracized by your family for marrying outside your culture, and more.

To get the app go to https://www.zibahub.com/

Intro song: Hasoodi by Kamran & Hooman

In this episode Dr Sherry Rostami comes on the podcast to share her life story: how her father making decisions for her changed the track of her life and how she's still picking up the pieces. We also discuss "ahberoo" (reputation/honor), what it was like being the daughter of a famous actor, being forced into marriage for the sake of ahberoo, raising your children in a certain way for the sake of ahberoo, how she's making a difference in raising her children, and her tips for creating a backup plan if your marriage doesn't work out. 

Find more articles on Sherry's blog here: 

http://drsherrytalks.com

Email or direct message PGP any questions you may have for the next episode with Sherry!

Intro song is the score from the film Ehsase Dagh (1971) starring Sherry's father, Iraj Rostami and Googoosh.

Punk Elle Woods//Sahar Shiralian, returns to the podcast (previous episode Performative #Girlboss) to discuss how her outlook has changed since the last time she came on PGP from "man hating girlboss" to lovable lawyer. They talk about the temperament of Persian women, how Persian women are pigeon holed when dating a Persian man, the advantages of dating outside your culture, the advantages of dating "wonderbread", why Persian men worship natural blondes and treat non-Persian girls better.

They also discuss how Persian women are perpetually stuck in a daddy/daughter relationship from their parents home to their husbands home and not being able to share everything with their mothers.

Intro song - Yeki Bood Yeki Nabood by The Black Cats

In this episode PGP interviews  a 25 year old biomedical engineer based in nyc, who grew up in Tehran. They discuss her experience living in Calabasas and Los Angeles, the culture shock she experienced in America during high school at Calabasas High despite speaking English and visiting annually, her childhood in Tehran and education, and the "life lessons" that were taught to her from a young age that she's been working on unlearning in her adult life. 

Intro song: 

Fataneh - Namehraboon فتانه - نا مهربون

In this episode Millie and Natalie discuss the guilt that Persian parents pass on to their children, running errands for the rest of their lives for their parents, absurd Persian grocery shopping habits, difference between brown parents vs. white parents, coddled vs. non coddled children, families who have live-in nannies, and more. They also discuss the results of the polls they conducted on jewelry ceremony at engagement parties and rave style weddings, ft a brief guest appearance by Millie's cousin who chimes on the trend of dancing down the aisle. 

In this episode Millie and Natalie discuss their experience with covid, why Persians dance/rave down the aisle at weddings, how bridal showers have basically become weddings, how proposal parties have basically become weddings, "suprise" proposals, and the engagement proposal video trend. They also talk about which Persian traditions they would keep for their own wedding and if they would still expect, for example, the whole jewelry on silver trays to be given at their engagement party, if they were to marry a non-Persian and other cultural clashes that would occur while getting married to a non-Persian. 

In this episode PGP interview Sarvin Esmaeili a 21 year old Vancouver based/Tehran born actor and writer. They discuss her upbringing in Tehran, what school was like there, dress code and the "nomreyeh enzebat", fashions for women there and the different ways to style the headscarf, the obsession with plastic surgery and how women in Tehran stick out if they don't have a nose job. 

They also discuss how women's bodies function as another trend in fashion in most societies now and how too much freedom or too little freedom affects the way we express ourselves.

Find Sarvin on instagram to follow her work and see her solo show: https://www.instagram.com/sarviiinak/

In this episode, Millie and Natalie interview Persian Jewish comedian Aaron Zarabi. Aaron is from New York and recently grew to prominence after being featured as the asshole of the week on antisemitism.org....The three discuss censorship in comedy, pushing boundaries with his humor, laughing at the truth, "fluffy" PG Persian comedians, Aaron's two bar mitzvahs, and what it was like living in Iceland. 

Interview begins at 4 minutes.

Follow Aaron Zarabi on TikTok and Instagram @aaronzarabi

Check out his podcast Your Boyz: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-boyz/id1550770554

In this episode, PGP interviews Cyrus Veyssi, an intersectional wellness/beauty advocate and non-binary model. They discuss what it means to be queer and non-binary, cyber bullying, Persian instagram accounts, transphobia and homophobia (within the gay community as well), the need for Iranian queer representation, the spectrum of privilege and being able to speak with others with opposing views.

Find Cyrus on instagram @cyrusveyssi
https://www.instagram.com/cyrusveyssi/

PGP interviews Nicole Emrani Green, the CEO and co-founder of Givingli, a greeting card and gifting app. We discuss how she started Givingli, how she and her husband met, understanding why Persian-Americans are still holding on to certain values, dividing responsibilities equally with her husband at home and at work, and how their different cultural backgrounds compliment each other. Millie and Natalie also share the story of the first time they met...

Download the Givingli app: 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/givingli/id1386635163

@givingli on Instagram

givingli.com

PGP interviews sister duo Pardiss and Saba Mehrzad who started the Iranian American Youth Group. They discuss how gen z Iranian Americans differ from the prior generation, what their intentions are for their youth group, what being Iranian means to them, how they're trying to improve the ways in which Iranians support each other and stepping away from competitiveness and toxicity from older generations. They also answer some questions sent in by the listeners such as...can they speak Persian? are they more open about sex? and more. 

Check out their youth group on ig: https://www.instagram.com/iranianamericanyouthgroup/

The google form to apply to IAYG: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc7jAVbTN_COLJ8bOKj93VBv_6hdOlUeyQTtiOjMS0lV28YAw/viewform

In this episode, PGP interviews Sayé Yabandeh, an actress, polo player, and humanitarian. Sayé talks about her childhood in Iran and living in both Tehran and Shiraz after the revolution, what her experience of moving to America was like, how she got into acting, the inspiration for her first film and women's rights issues she focuses on, and sex trafficking on facebook. They also discuss her love for Polo and how manifestation worked for meeting her career goals and personal goals. 

To learn more about The Miss Sayé Show and her Give Back Around the World charity: https://themisssayeshow.com/

Nadia Murad's book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555106/the-last-girl-by-nadia-murad/

The Good Charlotte music video where Sayé plays ice cream!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rISYCquFeI8&ab_channel=GoodCharlotteVEVO

For the first episode of season 3, PGP interviews Doris Yadidi Micheletti, a certified sex coach and clinical sexologist. They discuss the emphasis of women's virginity in the Persian Jewish community, vaginal anatomy-like where is the choochooleh (clitoris) and g spot, old school customs of monitoring sex, how Doris educates her children about sex, vaginismus, female ejaculation, consent, and self pleasure. 

Shoot a DM or email for questions to be answered in the upcoming instagram live with Doris!

Find more about Doris on her website: https://www.dorismicheletti.com/

In this short episode, Millie and Natalie bid adieu to the second season. They reminisce on past episodes and memories, discuss potentially becoming divorce lawyers, why they're obsessed with post-breakup/divorce women, and what's to come in season 3. They also address their tiktok which sparked some controversy...

In the final episode of Season Two, PGP interviews a second time guest, Dr. Ladan Hariri, to talk about her experience of pregnancy as a first-time mother. She discusses the expectations of mothers these days, working as a psychiatrist with no maternity leave, the tribulations of pregnancy and errors in the health system, the importance of finding the right ob-gyn and listening to your body and its instincts, prodromal labor, natural birth vs a c-section, the epidural shot, hospital policies on inducing labor, and the postpartum period. 

In this episode, singer/songwriter Mami Moon (Arielle Lavian) comes on the podcast to discuss her new song "Kissing on me". They also talk about her experience at Beverly Hills High School, what precipitates clique-y Persians girls saying "we can't be friends with you", what it meant to be Persian at Beverly High and the different types of Persians there, reclaiming her Persian identity after resenting what it meant for years and contrastingly, how it's trendy to be ethnic now.

Music video for Mami Moon's "Kissing on me": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTk_WcTAbwM&ab_channel=MamiMoon

https://mamimoonmusic.com/

In this episode, PGP interviews actress and comedian, Tara Grammy. Tara talks about her experience of the Persian community in Los Angeles compared to  her hometown Toronto, being asked if she's Jewish repeatedly, the Persian fixation on class and religion, her upbringing, and more. Tara's alter ego Manijeh makes an appearance...The three also discuss the inescapability of smelling like fenugreek, kaleh pacheh, her 2018 film A Simple Wedding, the contrast of LA vs NY Persians, and racism in the Persian community.

Tara on YouTube + Imdb 

Music: Snoh Aalegra - Home

In this episode, Millie and Natalie compare stereotypes about people from the different cities in Iran with the men of the Tehran based podcast, Ask An Iranian. They discuss the Turks/Azeris, Esfahanis, Shirazis, Kashis, Hamedoonis, Qazvinis, Rashtis, Yazdis, and Tehroonis. Also shared are some explicit jokes about these peoples. Unfortunately, we had to resort to explicit language to accurately depict the depravity of some people from these places. All love!!

new acronym alert>TK = torkeh khaar

Don't forget to check out new PGP merch at persiangirlpodcast.storenvy.com/

& Ask An Iranian merch at teespring.com/stores/askaniranian