{"id":6730,"date":"2025-04-01T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/?p=6730"},"modified":"2025-05-15T22:15:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T05:15:03","slug":"in-ranchos-palos-verdes-iranian-seniors-are-coming-together-to-combat-loneliness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/?p=6730","title":{"rendered":"In Ranchos Palos Verdes, Iranian seniors are coming together to combat loneliness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It\u2019s a balmy Tuesday morning in Rancho Palos Verdes, and people are slowly starting to trickle into a nondescript medical office building. They bring plates, removing the aluminium foil and plastic film to reveal banana bread drizzled with chocolate sauce and a pistachio crumb, plump nazook cookies, a cinnamon cake and bite-sized pieces of cantaloupe. Black tea is poured into glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They greet each other with \u201cSalam, chetori,\u201d Farsi for \u201cHow are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These seniors are here for a meeting of what they fondly call Tuesday Club at the South Bay Persian Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maloos Ferasat started the gathering just before the pandemic to help seniors in the South Bay Iranian community combat loneliness. When her mother was visiting from Iran, Ferasat observed how she was eager to go back home; family members here were busy with work and school, and she struggled to speak English, essentially leaving her stranded at home.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scpr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/1b60d09\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3024x4032+0+0\/resize\/792x1056!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscpr-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbb%2F66%2F423cc1ba4755a15451d9af4ae52d%2Fimg-4458.jpg\" alt=\"A women with olive skin tone and golden hair carries a foil tray of kebabs. She is wearing a cheetah print dress and glasses. \" style=\"width:345px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roya Mehdipour brought kebab to share with the group.<br>(Yusra Farzan \/ LAist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The gatherings, Ferasat said, help seniors feel seen, with about 75% of people saying they attend because they\u2019re lonely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gathering starts with a poem and then it&#8217;s time for movement. Shireen Madani leads the group in zurkh\u0101neh rituals, an ancient Persian martial arts practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u200aEverybody enjoys it, so that gives a lift to the people too, to get up and do exercise,\u201d Madani said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, she plays sounds of a bubbling stream as the group of about 20 stretch before finishing the routine in a dance as they twirl in a circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u200aI think I have taken the most benefit of the class than anybody else. I think about it the night before so I don&#8217;t mess up,\u201d Madani said. \u201cIt helps me to have something to look forward to and enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6731\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-1536x1152.png 1536w, https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-150x113.png 150w, https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-450x338.png 450w, https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-1200x900.png 1200w, https:\/\/iranreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image.png 1584w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The exercise routine finishes with a dance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Home after home&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At every gathering, Ferasat organizes a speaker to encourage discussion among the group. In the past, a psychologist came in and spoke about how childhood trauma can affect adult life, they learned about Khashan \u2014 a village in Iran known for its rosewater production \u2014 and home insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes the group goes on an excursion. A recent one took them to the local public library, where they got library cards and learned how to check out books in Farsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u200aThis is a place that we can all come and feel like it&#8217;s our home after home,\u201d Ferasat said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a balmy Tuesday morning in Rancho Palos Verdes, and people are slowly starting to trickle into a nondescript medical office building. They bring plates, removing the aluminium foil and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6733,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730\/revisions\/6733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}