White House Celebrates Iranian New Year
Last week, the White House quietly celebrated the Iranian New Year. Laura Bush invited a few friends over for tea, and the name of one of the attendees caught my eye, causing me to wonder what the crumpets were spiked with.
Last week, Laura Bush threw a small bash to celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year (spring solstice). According to the Washington Post:
…first lady Laura Bush invited about 40 guests to help celebrate the traditional Persian new year at a tea in the State Dining Room.
With the guidance of Susan Sheybani, a National Security Council staffer of Iranian descent, the first lady’s office set up a traditional Haft Sin table with items symbolizing rebirth, affluence, love, medicine, beauty and health, sunrise, and patience. Among those present were half a dozen ambassadors from countries that celebrate the holiday, as well as Haleh Esfandiari, the Wilson Center scholar who was imprisoned in Iran for eight months last year…
So, anyway…
1) Note how the WaPo characterizes Nowruz as the “Persian new year”, rather than the “Iranian new year”.
2) Susan Sheybani apparently has new employment in National Security Council, although her LinkedIn page lists her as Associate Director of Communications at White House. The last we heard from Ms. Sheybani, she created quite the little shitstorm in 2004 when she recommended that:
“American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones — or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better.”
Sigh.
No word on whether or not the Beach Boys provided light entertainment, or if Cindy McCain attended.
well her good friend laura certainly took her advice. she just popped the whole medicine cabinet.
I have no trouble believing that Bush or the WaPo might want to rename Nowruz to avoid mentioning Iran, the Current Linchpin of the Axis of Evil.
However, Nowruz is not exclusively an Iranian holiday. It has its roots in ancient Persian culture and is celebrated in many areas that have been heavily influenced by Persian culture but are not part of the modern nation of Iran.
I think there’s a strong historical argument for calling Nowruz the “Persian New Year” instead of the “Iranian New Year”, even if the Post is more likely to be echoing the Bush Administration’s spin than correctly suggesting that Nowruz is not just an Iranian thing.
thanks, ljdramone. I’ll defer to your wisdom on Nowruz. Actually, I was just looking for a reason to skewer Sheybani, and this story presented itself. Even when the cockroaches are exposed (as was Sheybani four years ago) they still crawl back out of the woodwork. In fact, for showing her GOP creds (”Let’em eat Prozac”) she was rewarded, apparently, with several promotions.