From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Iranians/Minoo Moallem
Iranians have created economic and cultural networks for support and to resist exclusionary practices by the dominant society. Cultural activities have to some extent provided a medium through which they can experience a sense of continuity and survival. These activities are not confined to Canada but are transnational, ranging across Europe, North America, and Iran. A considerable number of journals, periodicals, newspapers, and books are published by and for Iranian immigrants in Canada, the United States, and many European countries. Some of these publications are written in highly scholarly language or from a political or polemical viewpoint, but others are published for mainstream readers. In Vancouver alone, more than half a dozen different Persian-language journals or newsletters are issued on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. They include Dyar (Country), Payvand (Connection), Daftar-e-Shenakhi (Information Centre), Fara-su (On the Other Side), Iranian, and the organ of the Association of Iranian Zoroastrians, Payke-Mehr (Messenger of Kindness).
A number of theatre, dance, and music groups are active in Canada, among them Parva Pop Music, the Atash Dance Group, the Pars National Ballet, Theatre Atelier, and the Soura-tak Theatre Group. Los Angeles, with its high concentration of Iranians, has become the centre of popular culture in North America, and television shows, journals, theatre groups, and music video tapes, along with ethnic food and ceremonial objects, produced in that city are exported to Canada. In Vancouver, for example, the Persian-language television programs Be yade-Iran (broadcast six days a week) and Jam-e-Jam (twice a week) often air shows from Los Angeles, while Nour-va-Nava (once a week) offers productions from Iran. In addition, there are two radio stations, called Pejvak and Sahar, in Vancouver.
On the expanding electronic networks, issues ranging from politics to poetry are discussed. This phenomenon has had an impact upon Iranian society, since cultural and professional networks abroad are able to invite artists, writers, and musicians from Iran to take part. For many of these dislocated artists and intellectuals, the need to survive in a Canadian context has made it impossible for them to maintain any continuity with their life in Iran. Nevertheless, a considerable number of poets, writers, artists, translators, and academics are active in the cultural sphere in this country. They publish in Persian, English, and French and give readings or organize exhibitions. Their work contains themes that are Canadian in their focus (that is, politics, language, landscape, and climate) and is marked by their life experience in different parts of this country.
In terms of religion, those who observe Islam have great difficulty distinguishing between the political aspect, that is, identification with the Islamic state in Iran or Islamist political movements, on the one hand and Islam as a body of religious practices on the other. This confusion, added to the recent demonization of Islamic fundamentalism and the stereotypical identification of all Muslims as fundamentalists, has created a difficult situation for those who adhere to various political or religious interpretations of Islam, such as liberalism, socialism, and the mystic form known as Sufism.
Iranians of the diaspora who refer to themselves as Muslims are not necessarily religious. Indeed, being an Iranian Muslim in Canada can in no way be reduced to a question of faith; rather, it is a form of identification either with an Islamic community having a common culture and history or with a geopolitical region, the Middle East. Many Muslims in Canada practise Islam in private life without attending a mosque or participating in any public gathering, except for certain rites, especially those related to death. Some Iranians send their children to Saturday schools to learn about their faith. However, in recent years Sufi teachings and the practices of ascetic mysticism have become attractive to both secularized and non-secularized Iranian Muslims throughout North America.
Of the religious minorities, the Baha’is are the most cohesive group, although the percentage of members of Iranian background in Canada’s Baha’i centres and assemblies is small. Other religious groups from Iran represented in Canada include Jews and some Assyrian and Armenian Christians.
