Funny in Farsi (Dumas)

Author Bio
• Birth—1965
• Where—Abadan, Iran
• Reared—in Tehran, Iran, and Whittier, California, USA
• Education—University of California, Berkeley
• Currently—lives in northern California

Firoozeh Dumas was born in Abadan, Iran. At the age of seven, Dumas and her family moved to Whittier, California. She later moved back to Iran and lived in Tehran and Ahvaz. However, she once again immigrated to the United States; first to Whittier, then to Newport Beach, California.

Kazem, her father, dominates many of her stories throughout her 2004 memoir Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America. She takes pride in her Iranian heritage, but at the same time, mocks her dad's fascination with "freebies" at Costco and television shows like Bowling for Dollars.

Growing up, Dumas struggled to mix with her American classmates, who knew nothing about Iran. She also retells firsthand experiences of prejudice and racism from being Iranian in America during the Iranian Revolution. However, throughout hardships, she emphasizes the significance of family strength and love in her life.

Dumas is a wife and mother. She often visits schools and churches (as for example in November 2008 at the Forum at Grace Cathedral) to discuss her book and conduct book talks. As a result of Funny in Farsi's success, Firoozeh Dumas was nominated for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Not only was she the first Iranian author to be nominated, she was also the first Asian author to hold such an honor.

Firoozeh became a hot topic when she challenged Ayaan Hirsi Ali to a debate on women in Islam.

Funny in Farsi was a finalist for both the PEN/USA Award in 2004 and the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and has been adopted in junior high, high school and college curricula throughout the nation. It has been selected for common reading programs at several universities including: California State Bakersfield, California State University at Sacramento, Fairmont State University in West Virginia, Gallaudet University, Salisbury University, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse and the University of Wisconsin–Madison

She is also the author of Laughing Without An Accent (2008), which is a memoir containing a few stories about her childhood, but mostly stories about her adventures as an adult. (Adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia.)