The 'Nowruz Challenge': Emphasizing Similarities Over Differences

If you've been on Facebook these days, you might have seen videos being shared where some foreigners learn how to wish a Happy New Year in Persian from Iranians. Among them are well-known figures like Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram; Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube; and William Adams from the music group Black Eyed Peas. All these individuals have joined this online campaign with a hashtag: #livetogether. Ali Partovi, the initiator of this campaign, explains its meaning to Radio Farda: "One meaning of this hashtag is that we go live together on Facebook, and the other meaning is that we live together." Partovi is an investor in Silicon Valley who has been an early investor in many important companies, including Facebook, Airbnb, and Dropbox. He states that about ten days before Nowruz, he started the online campaign #livetogether in light of the current conditions in American society, adding: "For more than a year now, some politicians in America have been trying to divide American society. It was important for me to create an opportunity for people to stand against this division and show that this is not the real America. America is a country of immigrants, and immigrants built it from the beginning, and all different groups are accepted here." Now these immigrants, like Ali Partovi, who migrated to America with his family as a child, have invited their friends to the Nowruz challenge, including Firouz Naderi, a NASA scientist; Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist; and Cyrus Habib, a politician. The Nowruz challenge has also made its way to one of the prominent late-night comedy shows on American television. Maz Jobrani, a well-known Iranian-American comedian, was invited to this challenge by Ali Partovi. He tried to teach him how to wish a Happy New Year in Persian in front of thousands of American viewers on Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' on CBS. However, Ali Partovi emphasizes that the goal of the Nowruz challenge is not just prominent Iranian-Americans; the important thing is the participation of ordinary people in this campaign, and he notes that this challenge will be conducted in the coming months for other groups in America, including Jews and Mexicans. He mentions a creative example of executing the Nowruz challenge, saying: "A woman who was driving had car trouble and pulled over to the side of the road to fix it. A police officer stopped behind her to see what had happened, and this woman, a bit nervously and with a smile, asked the police officer if she could do this challenge with him, and the police officer, curious about who she was and where she came from, agreed. This woman started recording on Facebook Live, explaining about Nowruz, and the police officer kindly wished her a Happy New Year in Persian." Ali Partovi, who is a co-founder of the non-profit organization 'Code' in America, believes that such initiatives help people understand that although they have differences, they should not fear these differences and should emphasize their similarities. The Nowruz challenge, which started in California, has spread to various parts of America, and some Iranians in other countries have welcomed it and invited their friends to learn how to wish a Happy New Year. Non-Iranian participants have also embraced this challenge, such as an a cappella group near Lake Tahoe in America, which, despite having no Iranian members, decided to perform a song to emphasize the importance of being together while wishing a Happy New Year.