UNITED IN DIVERSITY : Iranian Festival Director Finds a Creative Outlet for Memories of Intolerance

By looking back, Homa Ehsan believes she can help children see a brighter future.

Now a resident of Orange, Ehsan says she vividly recalls the torment she suffered in her native Iran when, as a schoolgirl, she was taunted by classmates after her family converted from the Muslim to the Bahai faith. She knew persecution as an adult, too. In fact, she says her work as a well-known journalist and her anti-revolutionary views exposed her to such emotional and physical pain that she fled the country in January 1979, just prior to the takeover by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

For the past 10 years, Ehsan has found a positive outlet for these memories in the arts, acting as producer, director and writer of a yearly pageant for young people. She presents her 11th annual Iranian Children and Young Adults’ Festival Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The 2 1/2-hour program features the premiere of “Shangool O’Mangool,” an operetta by Ehsan and Iranian composer Reza Behzadi of Santa Monica, as well as original music, dance and poetry selections.

The performance, presented by 20 performers age 5 to 19 in the Farsi language with periodic English narration, is accessible to viewers from all cultures, Ehsan said. The program will also include information in Farsi and English.

Speaking by phone from the Iranian radio station she operates in Orange, Ehsan explained that, as she has with her past shows, she created “Shangool O’Mangool” by intertwining an old Iranian folk tale with her own messages. The story line follows a mother, Bobozi (the Farsi word for goat) as she searches for her children, who have been stolen by an evil wolf.

“Bobozi is kind, hard-working, teaching everything about life to her children,” explained Ehsan. In her search, the character “confronts different animals with different attitudes, which represent society with its different kinds of people.” Cats are self-absorbed aristocrats only interested in obtaining good seats for the fight between Bobozi and the wolf, while rabbits are the workers ready to help find the children in any way they can. Auntie Bear, the protagonist who saves the day, represents the importance of unity in crisis.

Although the operetta has a serious message, Ehsan says it won’t detract from children’s enjoyment of the show.

“There are double meanings,” she explained. “The children will find things funny or frightening--you know, those up and down feelings that they have--while adults will understand the seriousness.”

She does hope children retain one message: the same one she says she has tried to teach in each of 150 children’s works she has created since she began her journalistic career at age 13.

“At 8 (because of her family’s religious conversion), I lost my security of childhood and became a stranger in my own homeland,” Ehsan said. “I know what it is like to be a child who is discriminated against, what it means when others think you are nasty or different.

“My whole message is that with unity, even little ones can create a big power to fight the strongest powers. It doesn’t matter if you are a rabbit or a bear. You have your own beauty, and your own job to do, and you have to respect the beauty and the work of others.”

The United States could be a prime example, she said.

“Once upon a time, America was called a melting pot. But today it is more like a garden of flowers.

“Why should people melt (and) be alike? A garden is more beautiful . . . and this lesson, that you can unite in diversity, is the best export America can send out to the world.”