by Eemaan Jalili and Nesa Targhibi
The points of friction and harmony in a lawyer’s life change faster than the phases of the moon. A new client, a lost case, even a single email—each can change our lives as legal practitioners. But below this exterior, attorneys are informed by more subtle forces that affect our perspectives, identities, and our lives—both professionally and personally.
To be clear, legal professionals often condense their entire identities into a single bucket: lawyer. In reality, each of us is more akin to a multi-faceted gemstone that bears numerous identities every moment, each identity subtly influencing our perspectives, while shaping others’ perceptions of us. Man, woman, cisgender, non-binary, parent, child, rich, poor—each facet alters this lens of intersectionality. Although the facets are remarkable, this article focuses solely on three circles in our Venn Diagram: the categories of “Iranian,” “American,” and “lawyer.”
The Intersections of Being an Iranian American Lawyer Originally conceived as a legal concept, intersectionality is a conceptual framework for evaluating individual identity. At its most basic, it evaluates two factors: (1) the confluence (i.e., the intersection) of each trait that a person possesses in a single moment; and (2) how these identities influence one’s perspective and also how they are appraised by others at a specific setting in that specified moment.
As one can imagine, the intersections of being an Iranian American are themselves complex and multifold. The “Iranian” (sometimes referred to as Persian) intersection has its own blend of unique history, a palimpsest of identities evolved over time from a country over 7,500 miles away. Many from the Baby-Boomer generation will associate Iran’s history with one of revolution and war; the Shah of Iran was forcibly removed from power in 1979, and many refugees emerged from the experience looking for a new home in the Americas and Europe. Similarly, many Iranians who immigrated post-revolution will remember it as one of profound culture shock. While Phyllis Schlafly and Gloria Steinem were battling ideological reform for women in the United States, the Islamic Revolution fragmented Iranians into ideological factions, both within Iran and internationally.
But prior to the revolution, Iran had a history that paralleled the United States in many ways, with the first Iranian Constitution drafted in 1905 and the first Iranian Parliament formed in 1906. The Constitution even included the official recognition of Iran’s three main religious minorities: Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. Even the hijab (or headscarf) is a point of disagreement for many Iranians; underscoring this unique cultural dynamic, the first Pahlavi Shah of Iran controversially forced the great “unveiling” in 1936, in which hijabs were prohibited to push a more European style of attire. However, many Iranians viewed this act as an affront to Iranian individual rights.
Concerning the “American” intersection, Iranian American ideals align with the American cultural values of family, pursuit of knowledge and education, entrepreneurship, and, of course, food-filled celebrations of love and life! But many Iranian Americans feel dissonance when it comes to their American identities; Iranian Americans are paradoxically deemed “Caucasian” on the U.S. Census, a situation in which Iranian American legal racial identity (often used for certain legal privileges or resources) is discordant with cultural racial identity, in which common Iranian names like Monir (Mo-neer) or Anoushiravan (Ah-new-shee-rah-vahn) are deemed “foreign,” and where many relatives and friends suffered from prejudice and discrimination in a post-911 United States.
The Context Matters Intersectionality approaches context in an expansive, complex way, namely by evaluating one’s identity in settings as small as one’s home or as vast as the world itself. The Iranian American identity similarly assumes different flavors and textures depending on the context and setting. For example, in the United States, numerous variables—socioeconomics, gender, sexual orientation, intellect, and even hospitality—are experienced differently by immigrants and first-generation Iranian Americans as contrasted with persons in Iran. For Iranian Americans, the role of women, LGBTQ+ rights, and business dealings evoke beliefs that are uniquely shaped by broader progressive or conservative American perspectives.
Conversely, context also changes others’ priority of an Iranian American identity. More concretely, specific settings shuffle the cards of the Iranian American identity moment by moment, requiring quick and exacting calculations of a setting’s social dynamics to ascertain two things: first, which facet of my identity is getting the limelight in this moment? And second, is this facet seen as an asset or as a flaw? For example, an Iranian American lawyer may experience substantial privilege at a Persian New Year festival where attendees celebrate with Persian food and friends and communicate in Farsi. In contrast, an Iranian American with a first name of Eemaan or a last name of Targhibi may experience professional friction at a social mixer in the form of evasion from their colleagues looking to avoid the embarrassment of a mispronounced name. In a courtroom, the identity of “lawyer” may wrongfully be eclipsed by that of “Iranian” if a judge or opposing counsel projects an image of someone who is “foreign” or somehow less than fully American.
A Multi-Faceted Approach In sum, we ask that members of our legal community welcome and accept our intersecting identities. Iranian American lawyers—like other minority and non-minority groups—recognize that intersectionality rewards and marginalizes in unique ways, requiring us to adjust to which part of our “Venn Diagram” is being perceived by others in every new moment. We hope to share and celebrate our own intersectionalities with our legal community, exploring all of our unique stories and identities as we collaborate to bring unique perspectives to a more diverse, informed, and inclusive legal practice.
Eemaan Jalili is the Managing Attorney of Jalili Law PC where he practices tax and business law. He also is the National Representative for the Orange County Iranian American Bar Association. He can be reached at eemaan.jalili@jalililaw.com. Nesa Targhibi is the founding, managing partner of Holborn Law where her practice includes estate planning and business law. She is Social Outreach Chair of the Orange County Iranian American Bar Association. She can be reached at nesa@holborn.law.