It is required reading at many junior highs, high schools, and universities across the country, and it is frequently the only hilarious and popular book on reading lists.

It has a cult following among educators, with over half a million copies sold. Since the publication of Funny in Farsi, her first book, she has been active on the lecture circuit, speaking at universities, conferences, high schools, middle schools, and other venues. However, throughout hardships, she emphasizes the significance of family strength and love in her life. She also retells firsthand experiences of prejudice and racism from being Iranian in America during the Iranian Revolution. Growing up, Dumas struggled to mix with her American classmates, who knew nothing about Iran. 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. Kazem, her father, dominates many of her stories throughout her memoir Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America. She attended the University of California, Berkeley where she lived at International House Berkeley and majored in art history. She began to write and submit essays to obtain money to go toward college. However, she once again immigrated to the United States first to Whittier, then to Newport Beach, California. She later moved back to Iran and lived in Tehran and Ahvaz. She is the author of the memoirs Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America (2003) and Laughing without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen (2008), and the semi-autobiographical novel It Ain't so Awful, Falafel (2016).Īt the age of seven, Dumas and her family moved to Whittier, California. Firoozeh Dumas ( Persian: فیروزه دوما) (born June 26, 1965, in Abadan, Iran) is an Iranian-American writer who writes in English.

Funny in farsi by firoozeh dumas