And the East Coasties from Long Island have let the Long Island newspaper Newsday hear about their displeasure.
“I now know what any normal Italian-American feels like after watching shows like ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘The Sopranos’,” said Steven Dann, a Persian-American who owns a high-end shoe store in Great Neck. “The show is repulsive, offensive and embarrassing.”
“Shahs of Sunset,” a Bravo reality show on Sunday nights at 10, features six wealthy Persian friends in Los Angeles. Their antics have included a night in Las Vegas, where one of the women got so drunk she had to be tossed in the bathtub to sober up.
One of the show’s players, Reza Farahan, will visit his family in Long Island during the April 8 episode. In a phone interview with Newsday, he said it was “ludicrous” to think anybody would stereotype all Persians based on the show. And if he is going to be a symbol of Iranian-Americans, Farahan says he prefers “successful” and “wealthy” as opposed to other, more negative stereotypes about Iranians. “We’re not terrorists, we don’t have camels and Uzis,” he said.
Most of the cast members are in their 30s and attended Beverly Hills High School. Some are Muslim; some are Jewish.
The show is supposed to be entertaining, Farahan says, and that’s why it focuses on partying and glitz rather than showing, for instance, Farahan’s volunteer life delivering meals to people with AIDS. “The stuff that’s fun, that’s what people want to watch,” he said.
Close to a quarter of the population of Great Neck and Great Neck Estates on Long Island is Persian-American, according to the US Census.
Some Long Island Persians agree with Farahan’s lighthearted take, enjoying the characters’ escapades and personalities.
“I think it’s addicting,” Malka Kohanim of Great Neck says of the show. She sneaked upstairs during a party at her sister’s house one Sunday night so she could catch the second episode. “I think it’s a little bit trashy maybe, but these shows usually are.”
Collette Hakimian, of Great Neck, gets together with three friends on Sunday nights to watch. “We get together to laugh,” she says. “It’s self-deprecating humor.”
But now isn’t a great time to portray Iranians as rich and arrogant, say the show’s detractors, citing the political tensions among Iran, the United States and Israel. While the show isn’t political, it does begin each week with the words, “When the revolution happened, we had to flee the country….”
“Shah means king. That’s the definition of it. It’s really more commonly associated with the last shah. To even use that word in the title of the show, it’s just disrespectful,” says Ray-mond Davoodi, who owns Atlantis National Services, a real estate title insurance company in Great Neck, with his brother, Radni. “I understand it’s a TV show. But they’re taking a beautiful, rich culture with so much to give, and they’re treating it like clowns.”
The “Shahs of Sunset” will become the “Shahs of Great Neck” for the April 8 episode, when Reza Farahan and Mercedes “MJ” Javid head to Long Island for a Jewish Shabbat dinner with Farahan’s family.
“Great Neck Persians live a super-glamorous lifestyle,” Farahan tells Javid as they head to the gathering. “My cousin’s house is a multimillion-dollar house on Long Island on the water, chock-full of super-expensive antiquities…. They are the supersize version of the LA Persians.”
Reza Farahan, 38, was born in Tehran and raised in Beverly Hills. He sells luxury real estate and is openly gay. His mother is Muslim and his father, who lives in Long Island, is Jewish.
