From Shahzadeh to Shah.

From Prince/Princess to King.

I live in Texas, when I say I'm Persian, people are like, "What?" Persian, like Iranian "Where's that?" Or better yet, "Iraq?" No, it's the country that we are currently NOT at war with, it's next to Iraq and twice as big. "Oh" is what they say with a big stupid look on their faces. Once, some guy was bitching about "Terrorist and Iranicans" I was like, Stop, do you mean IRANIANS "Yeah, whatever those people are called" It's pronounced Iranian not IraniCAN and I'm one of those people. "Oh" I don't mind when people don't know what/where Iran it. It surprises me but it doesn't bother me, but DON'T be rude about it jerkface.

Now everyone who watches Bravo will know, or at least have some idea, of who Persians are. Whether that's a good or bad thing has people complaining/arguing/straight up fighting about Shahs of Sunset and the impact it will have on the Persian community.

I watched the Shahs of Sunset and I loved it. Wait till I say why I loved it before you jump me. I loved it because it was a bunch of really rich, stuck up people, having fun with their friends. It was NOT about Persians doing normal Persian things living a normal Persian life. (No one with that much money lives a 'normal' life compared to the rest of us anyway.) To me if Persians are good at one thing it's just being Persian, and that's different to everyone. It's about heritage. So whatever you do, you do it right and you say, "Uh, hello? I'm Persian!" I heard someone complain that no one ever says that, Uh, I do. I justify everything I do with I'm Persian.

In fact I'm more Persian than most. I'm do rageh, literally 2 veined, I'm only half Persian. But I grew up with a father that always said, "eeven dough ve are in Amereeka, my eyes are esteel in Iran" which I always thought to meant his heart was there, too, and we were gonna to things Iranian style. We did. Oh, and my mom, who's Mexican-American and grew up in a very traditional home? She swears she was Iranian in a past life - no really, she says it all the time. Why does that make me more Persian and not less? I moved to Iran my Senior year of high school, came back and got my GED, then I went back again for 4 more years when I married my childhood sweetheart, I try to be the best Persian wife I can be, and my Farsi is perfect, (people tell me it is and I have no accent.) But I know plenty of Persian kids that don't every try -at all- to speak Farsi even though their parents only speak Farsi with them and when they try they just sound sefid (white) and butcher it. When I was a child I hated being only half, because the other lil Iranian kids didn't accept me but now everyone does, not that it even matters to me, but there were some of those Iranian women that didn't like the non-Iranian wives... they didn't always include my mom, but because of who I've become, she's in. I think it's stupid but at least she doesn't feel left out. [Not that we care that much.]

So where am I going with this? I understand why the Iranian community hates this show. I do, really. BUT do you think everyone who is from Jersey or Italian American acts like Snookie or the Situation or those other people on the show who whose names I don't know because I don't watch it? No. In fact I know that (a large percentage of) Italian Americans are Catholic and traditional and great people, who in fact love to eat and love big families and lots of friends. That last part sounds familiar. Persians love to party, they love being with the people they love, family, friends, and anyone that's fun. Oh, they LOVE to drink and make kabob and play poker every Tuesday night. (Or that poker thing could just be my dad and his friends.) When I watch Shahs of Sunset I see a lot of the people I know in them. Not as ridiculously rich, slightly less conceited, and in Texas but I see good friends, that fight sometimes, but that have each others backs, and just wanna party all the time when they are not working. I know these people. They are usually drunk at party's and they dance all night; the women talk dirty when the men aren't around. There's always good food, and there's always a party Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and sometimes Sunday afternoon. These people are rich, not Shahs of Sunset rich but big-house-on-the-golf-course or big-house-on-the-lake rich. Seriously, I'm 24 and I cannot keep up with these party animals. Anyway....

Another reason a lot of Iranians don't like it is because there are still plenty of conservative and/or Muslims who don't wanna hear the things their kids [might or might not] do. "OMG, he's GAY! Voy, khak bar saram, ma gay nadarim... " (Dirt on my head, we don't have gays!) Yes he is, yes we do, and whether you agree with it or not you should still accept him. I don't care if you thing gays are gonna go to Heaven or Hell or whatever, they are still people who deserve to live a normal life. "Sex, they said sex on TV, they are PERSIAN, ve do not talk about SEX" Yeah, you're right, we don't. Not in front of our parents at least and NOT on TV, but they don't care, they have too much money to care about things like not talking about sex. They are very liberal and have lived in Beverly Hills their whole lives and they are just people, who happen to be Persian, and happen to have a show on TV and happen to be rich. Besides, a bunch of "normal" Iranian Doctors, Lawyers, Business owners, and housewives would not be as entertaining reality TV.

I try to look at the bright side of everything, at least people will know that we aren't ALL terrorists and that some of us are rich and love to have fun, and hopefully anyone watching the show will use common sense to know that it's reality television, no body believes that it's 100% real. Even if that's what it was supposed to be, everyone changes in front of the camera.

So, people hating on Shahs of Sunset, it's just a TV show. And I love Reza Farahan he is all kinds of awesome. And seems pretty real. He took the time to have a twitter conversation with me, that say's something.