This website was designed by an Iranian+American.

Terms of Ethno-dearment

In English we have terms like happa-haole, oreo, and so forth to categorize various multi-ethnic distinctions. Not to be outdone, Persian expressions for dual ethnicity abound.

[Yes. I have only two expressions here, so that’s not exactly “abounding”, is it? Do you know of other expressions?  Please comment below!]

do rageh - Two Veined

This one means “two-veined”.

It makes you think of Frankenstein, woven together from the veins of two cadavers. And, of course, there’s the (not so) subtle purity of bloodline connotation. Is there a judgement here about your purity? Is it a good thing? A bad thing? (see Ajam Media Collective in sidebar). 

Perhaps it’s just an approximating statement of the practical reality that you embody two cultures that are sometimes seen to be at odds?

Note that this is a flexible expression. You can specify how many veins/ethnic strains you have.  You can be three veined, four veined, and so on.  This comes in handy in the event you are the product of diverse multi-veined people.

But don’t spend too much time trying to calculate how many veins you have, just find out what your blood type is and then GIVE IT AWAY! People can always use some blood. Usually when they need it, they aren’t too picky about how many veins the person giving it had.

bAzAr moshtarak - Joint Venture

This is also a standard way to identify a dual national.  bAzAr is, of course, bazaar - which means “market”.  And moshtarak means “shared,” “partnered,” “joint.”  Together, these two words mean “Joint Venture.” A dual national can be said to be the product of a joint venture.

I like this expression more than “two veined”, because of the partnership, business, adventure and enterprise connotations.