Is New Reality Show ‘Shahs of Sunset’ Really an Accurate Depiction of Iranian-Americans?
- Posted on March 14, 2012 at 11:44pm by
Erica Ritz
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“Shahs of Sunset,” Bravo’s new reality TV show, is being branded “Real Housewives” meets “Jersey Shore,” with Persians.
According to Fox News:
The program, which premiered on Sunday night, follows a group of six Persian-American socialites in Los Angeles as they navigate love and life with what seems like bottomless checking accounts.
They are the children of the Iranians who escaped their country after the 1979 Iranian Revolution ended the reign of the Shah Reza Pahlavi.
[...]
The show’s focus does seem to be on the characters’ frivolous sides. Golnesa ‘GG’ Gharachedaghi, who is being heralded as the next Kim Kardashian, is a 30-year-old trust fund baby who uses her father’s credit card to buy designer clothing and vehemently argues on the first episode that she does not like “ugly people.”
“Charge it to my Daddy” is one of her favorite sayings, and could end up being the series’ tagline.
(Photo: Hollywood Reporter)
Needless to say, many Iranian-Americans aren’t happy being branded with this sort of stereotype. Fox reports:
Several petitions to halt the show have been circulated around the Persian-American community. One of them, “Protest Shahs of Sunset,” encourages signers to “help the Persian community by signing this petition to end ‘Shahs of Sunset’ and other such racist, exploiting television programming.”
Another, which has collected 500 signatures on Change.org, argues that the show promotes racial stereotypes. One signer of that petition, Shepard Jacobson, commented: ‘The show wants to present caricatures of Iranian-Americans. This is not entertaining. Rather, it is racist and only encourages others who do not know Persians in our American society to feed into the worst kind of stereotype, rather than showing a new generation of ambitious yet hardworking Iranian-Americans.’
But what do the actors have to say about the controversy? Mike Shouhed speculated, “The only reason people are petitioning is that they are 100 percent jealous that they aren’t on the show. All we are doing is hanging out and being ourselves.”
Nomar Elmi, the director of community outreach for the National Iranian American Council in Washington, D.C., saw another benefit to the show. “Usually we are depicted as terrorists from the axis of evil. At least this is another side to the community. It isn’t the most positive or accurate, but it will get the American public talking.”
Watch Ryan Seacrest, executive producer of the show, introduce the cast:
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Comments (44)
SHOOTnCRASH
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 11:23amIf I was Iranian I’d rather be depicted as a terrorist that these Jersey shores wannabes.
Report Post »binks007
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 10:21amIt‘s nice to see where all that American taxpayer aid we gave to the Shah’s government is being spent.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 9:41amRegardless of the ethnic background of the lead characters, the last thing we need on T.V. is another Dynasty.
Report Post »snilloconator
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 9:39amThank God we know longer have cable TV in our house. We dropped our TV and only have internet access. It has done a good service to our family. Saving money and not being brainwashed! :)
Report Post »IndianaJan
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 11:31amI’m close. I’m very close. TV is unbelievable now. And they don’t even know they are driving viewers away in droves. The less money they make {fewer viewers), the more commercials they put into their already saturated time slot. I can’t even watch it anymore. Only old movies on Turner, and re-runs of Criminal Minds. With Glenn gone from Fox, I don’t watch ANY news or talk TV.
Report Post »kdizzydaze
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 8:53amOh, i forgot. They are actually fairly nice people, though.
Report Post »wuggly ump
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 8:25amWhy do a reality show on Iranians in the U.S.. Go to Iran and do a real story.
Report Post »no1hd
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 8:23amI have always thought of bravo as an alternative viewing channel – I don’t go there, so won’t be even close to that show..
Report Post »Opinion of Seacrest has taken a beating..
soybomb315
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 8:22ami’ll look forward to it. iranian women are some of the most beautiful
Report Post »kilo62a
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 8:13amWake up people. This is no more reflective of Iranian-Americans than Jersey Shore is reflecticve of real New Jersians. It’s television and there is NO REALITY in reality shows.
Report Post »majasdad
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 7:28amWow what screw up. One of the few attempts at presenting an alternative picture of Iranians in the American media and they choose to promote these superficial dorks. Way to go.
Everyday Iranians are a warm-hearted, generous people, but these idiots make me want to puke. Gross.
Report Post »majasdad
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 7:39amIf these idiots are in any way reminiscent of the real Shah’s closest circle of friends in the late 70s, no wonder there was a revolution – it’s just a shame the religious fanatics (as opposed to countless other groups) took over.
Report Post »Deane
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 7:11am“Usually we are depicted as terrorists from the axis of evil.” Really?? You’re surprised? Until your fellow Muslims rise in one voice against all extreme sects of your religion, until you foil those imams teaching violence in your “mosque” in “our country and seek to recognize Israel as a free nation with rights to live free of Islamic annihilation, you will always be viewed as terrorists from the axis of evil. Your country needs to opologize to the world, say at a UN council meeting and declare to the world your recognition of Isreal and live by your decree before any US citizen will believe you.
Report Post »KIROSH
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 1:06pmMost Iranians inside and outside of Iran do not care much about religion in the first place. If you ever actually went to Iran and met the average young Iranian you‘d see what I’m talking about. That being said, if you watched the show, you’d realize that none of the cast is actually Muslim.
Report Post »ChiRho4Life
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 6:22amnot 72 virgins…rather, *one* 72-year old virgin
Report Post »ChiRho4Life
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 6:20amIs it just me, or should the words “iranian” and “American” really go together to form one word? One of these things is not like the other….
Report Post »amerbur
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 5:05amThis is not American or Persian. All I see is perversion and Hollywood. More of the same of everything I despise in Hollywood and more of the reason I no longer watch movies or TV.
Report Post »txjb
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 6:09amAgreed .
Report Post »Wilma
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 8:06amI agree.
Report Post »wntsmallgov
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 4:29amImagine how peaceful Iran, Syria, etc would be if they allowed their women to dress smart and with class.
Report Post »Miami
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 3:50amAt least they seem to like America the way it is and have adapted to life here, unlike many ingrates who have been born here and want to transform this Great country into something else.
I agree with many of you who have a problem with immigrants who flee to this country from their own for a better life and then want to transform this country into the one they fled. It’s an insane slave mentality, they somehow long for the repression they fled from….?!
As for the school system,
It needs to be taken back, I left the teaching in the 90′s, here in Miami because I could not take the corruption with in the school system locally. I had planned to run for the school board but that got blown out of the water. Like I said the corruption in our school system is insane.
Report Post »Miami
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 3:55amSorry for the extra the before “teaching” change of thought….
Report Post »Gypsy123
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 1:42amTypical stupid Hollywood
Report Post »berlet98
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 1:04amMuslims in America
Notwithstanding TLC’s cancellation of the reality show, “All-American Muslim,” because it didn’t portray reality and because the Muslims depicted weren’t as much Americans as they were Islamists, Muslims have been making inroads into American society and becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Just a few examples of growing Islamic influence in America: Muslim schoolkids are given preferences over non-Muslims in New York City schools and elsewhere; the Muslim Brotherhood was “consulted” on the appointment of the Los Angeles police chief; Twitter just closed down accounts critical of Syrian dictator Assad on request of his wife; and the Black Muslim official newspaper characterized Glenn Beck as “a minion of the synagogue of Satan” for daring to intimate that President Barack Hussein Obama’s life could be in danger.
True, Islamists occasionally overstep but, for the most part, they are granted special treatment mainly due to the mainstream media’s fear of violent and bloody Muslim retaliation should the MSM report extensively on such horrors as “mercy killings” or treat Islamists with the same disdain they treat Christians.
One Muslim, the black racist leader of the subversive Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, knows no bounds when it comes to spewing his extremist views but he recently discovered that even the students and faculty at one of the most liberal universities in the country have their limits of tolerance.
Report Post »KIROSH
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 1:08pm>Muslims in America
You neither watched the show nor have ever met an Iranian in your life if you automatically assume someone is Muslim due to them being Iranian. Most youth in Iran are secular by the way and could care less about religion.
Report Post »AnAmerican111
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 12:35amJust another Liberal wacky attempt to justify their love for islam garbage…………….
No one will watch as we don’t care. Put it on the comedy network where it belongs along with the comic book koran
Report Post »Dougral Supports Israel
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 12:17amThere is nothing on mainstream TV that is a realistic depiction of anything. Its all circus-like hype designed to haul in the suckers and their money.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 12:09amAnother bunch of spoiled grown-up rich kids.
Report Post »SpeckledPup
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 12:08amas if any of us hardworking Americans will watch THAT show. haw.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 12:05amI just can’t help but think that if someone is so proud of where they came from that they cling to their heritage, then why bother coming? Oh I know why, because the “Colonization” is actually the reverse of what we are trained that it is.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 12:09amAmerica‘s days are very numbered if they don’t wake up to “I am Legion.” Not all separate, but a Legion of one.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 15, 2012 at 12:02amI don’t think it really matters how they depict them, because just the fact they are depicted as Iranian and American builds a wall in American society. It‘s an interesting contrast that when Europeans came to America they didn’t hang onto an in-your-face clinging to their European ties, but also many families didn’t actually erase all the family history either. I guess that’s why America used to function.
Report Post »whatthecrazy
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 11:59pmRyan Seacrest? Thats dissapointing…………….
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