I first came up with the idea for the t-shirt logo as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley back in 2003 and I’ve been meaning to put it online ever since. I simply grew tired of Iranians calling themselves “Persians” or lying to people about where they came from, i.e. Italy, Greece, Spain, etc.Thus, the purpose of the shirt was two fold:
1. To tell fellow Iranians, “hey, if I’m not embarrassed about being Iranian, nor should you be.”
2. We are Iranians from Iran, not from “Persia” – the Greek name for Iran.
In other words, I made the shirt to promote the Iranian identity in the diaspora.
See the t-shirt for yourself at www.iranrepresent.com.
I didn’t know you to be such a capitalist, Pouya. 😉
Ill give you a couple years of graduate school and we’ll see what you do to try to stop a huge debt from accruing 🙂
If anything, it’s the opposite since I’m trying to resist enslavement by the credit companies!!!
I dont like that they say represent on the back.
You can get it wo the “Represent” on the back.
I know I’m pretty dumb; I don’t get the shirt’s point! (?)
[I wrote this for iranian.com and I think it answers your question. Either way, I’m sure there’s more point to this shirt than anything I have in my closet made from Gap or Express, right?]
I first came up with the idea for the t-shirt logo as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley back in 2003 and I’ve been meaning to put it online ever since. I simply grew tired of Iranians calling themselves “Persians” or lying to people about where they came from, i.e. Italy, Greece, Spain, etc.
Thus, the purpose of the shirt was two fold:
1. To tell fellow Iranians, “hey, if I’m not embarrassed about being Iranian, nor should you be.”
2. We are Iranians from Iran, not from “Persia” – the Greek name for Iran.
In other words, I made the shirt to promote the Iranian identity in the diaspora.
Lets give credit where credit is due. We got the idea/style from Berkeley’s Arab Student Union.
Actually, i dont know if that was the name of Berkeleys Arab group, but it was the Arab group
Agreeing with Ali Sanaei (Comment # 5 above), I can understand the message if the front said “An Iranian”, and the back said “Representative”.
I could even understand if the front said “Iranian”, and the back said “Represents…”, or “Presents…”
But the front saying “Iranian”, and the back saying “Represent” does not make any sense in English language, unless the interpretation is intentionally left to the viewers’ imagination.
Hey CJ, the “represent” on the back is more slang than anything else 🙂
I speak English fluently, and I have a Marketing Degree. The shirt definitely has a message that makes sense in English. It certainly makes sense if you know Pouya.
Hi Pouya. Thanks for starting/joining the conversation on “Iranian vs/or Persian.” I’ll keep my opinion to myself for now…. But surely it’s really important for us to start talking about it, to explore the implication of using Persian instead of Iranian. That’s what I am writing on for my thesis. It’s in the work.