Excerpt from Persians Find their Place: How Iranians in the East Bay hold their heritage.

By Maggie Fazeli Fard

Nowhere in the East Bay is the Iranian-American “melt” more apparent than at 1808 5th St. in Berkeley, the home of Golestan Kids.

Golestan, named after the Farsi word for “garden,” is a full-immersion Iranian language and culture program, offering full-day pre-school and after-school classes based on Waldorf and Montessori teaching methods. While Farsi language classes have been offered in the East Bay at locations like Nima Farsi School in Albany and the Andeesheh School at Oakland’s Islamic Cultural Center, Golestan is the first school to offer a daily program of not just language instruction but also science, math, nature, art, music, dance, cooking, gardening, and even yoga—all in Farsi.

Launched in 2005 as a playgroup for Iranian-American children and their parents, Golestan is the brainchild of those parents, including founder and executive director Yalda Modabber, whose sons Manu and Kian currently attend the school.

“Manu and Kian only speak Farsi to each other; they even fight in Farsi,” she says. This is a challenge for her husband, an American who doesn’t know Farsi, and Modabber often finds herself playing the part of translator. But it’s a small price to pay, she says. “If it weren’t for Golestan, my boys wouldn’t know Farsi. I’m sure of it.”

Like her own children, most of the students at Golestan are of mixed heritage, says Modabber. “Except for one, who has no Iranian in him at all. Both his parents are American, but they really just loved the program.”

“Being Iranian means something different to everyone,” says Modabber, who left Iran with her family in 1979, when she was 9 years old. “There is the poetry, the music, the language. But there is also a warmth and generosity of our culture. There is a fear that when our kids enter American schools, they will lose that. We want to teach them to love their Iranian heritage.”

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