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from infancy to university graduation

I was born on the eve of April 2, 1951 in Isfahan, the 13th day of spring- “sizdah- be-dar” which is called “the Nature Day” in the Iranian culture and put step to this world of passage and wonder. Carefully bearing me in herself, my mother who had refused to take part in the family picnic, gave birth to her first child with the help of a kind blind woman in our neighbourhood, my friend- to- be. Some people superstitiously think that number 13 is ominous and brings bad luck. That’s why my father got my birth date changed from Farvardin 13 to Farvardin 15 in my ID card. I spent my whole childhood in an extended family in which I learned to love natural elements of the world. There were three grandmothers with their own children, the uncles and aunts, all living with my grandfather at the head of the family. It was during the primary school that my father who was a teacher too, bought a house in the suburban next to his brother’s. My first experiences of a nuclear family goes back to that time. The half/rural, half/ urban life-style has made me a lover of nature and unconsciously harmonious with natural elements, domestic animals, etc.

Beginning my education, I entered Golbahar primary, Sa'adi elementary and Adab high schools. I also attempted in several project during that time such as taking a 5 year course in  rhythms of the Iranian traditional  music, playing "tumbak", studying singing rhymes of the traditional songs, getting familiar with theoretical as well as practical principles of mysticism, exercising in body building and wrestling. I also exercised poetry, especially the modern Iranian poetry (post- Nimaeian poetry) with Mohammad Hoghoughi and my friend Ahmad Hob-e- Ali. I attended Ayatollah Haj Seyyed Ahmad Emami’s Quran interpretation courses at Houze - ye – Elmieh at Bazar- che-ye Haj Mohamad Jafar, named as Nimavard in Esfahan. Years later, after I got back from the U.S.A., I tried to help rearrange the Latin books of its library established in a mosque on Abdorrazzagh Street. I also reviewed professor Khazaeli’s “explication de text” on Sa'adi’s Golestan with the help of Professor Movahedian. In 1968, I formally joined the “Ass Party”, the organ of Tofeegh Newspaper. This has been the only party I’ve ever had got its membership during my whole life. Graduating from Adab High School in 1970, I entered Esfahan University to study philosophy and psychology. I also took an extra course in counselling. In 1974, while I used to attend some courses in violin, as a global music, a short time on taar, I got my B.A. in Psychology too. By the last year of that course, I wrote and directed a pantomime script, Hengaam, and performed it at the college of educational science in Esfahan University.

To improve my education, I travelled to the U.S.A. It’s true I had been accepted as a university student for clinical psychology, but despite my eagerness to study philosophy, I followed sociology due to my acquaintance with Herbert G. Blumer and attendance in his classes.  That’s how I got my M.A. degree in sociology from San Diego University in 1978. The thesis was about the study of humanistic tradition of sociology with Professor Campisi as the thesis chairperson and Professor Blumer as the advisor.

I then, started teaching sociology of family and marriage. My Ph.D dissertation was on dialecticismas a socialogical methodology with Professor Blumer as the chairperson and Professor Kampeizi as the advisor, both symbolic interactionist sociologists as well as Professor Schmighy, the philosopher.

During the process of writing my thesis, I succeeded to get Herbert Blumer’s recommendation for teaching sociological theories.