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Features

A Gift from the Iranian Community to the American People

August 29, 2017
Shima Shahrabi
5 min read
The  Freedom Sculpture, inspired by Cyrus the Great cylinder, in Los Angeles
The Freedom Sculpture, inspired by Cyrus the Great cylinder, in Los Angeles
Farhad Mohit believes that that Iranian culture helped him to succeed both in his personal life and in business
Farhad Mohit believes that that Iranian culture helped him to succeed both in his personal life and in business

Another Iranian-American You Should Know!

Farhad Mohit, born in 1968, left Iran one year before the 1979 Islamic Revolution when he was only nine years old. But he speaks fluent Persian. The family lived in France and England for a few years and then emigrated to the United States when he was 13. In 1986 he enrolled at the University of California and received degrees in mathematics, applied sciences and economics with a specialization in computing. Then he got his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1996.

Mohit has since accumulated an impressive range of expertise in various fields — product management, venture capital, web marketing, software and product development and startup management. He is the founder and CEO of Flipagram, Inc., which develops an app that allows users to create short video stories by sequencing photos, videos, and music on their smart phones. “With the ability to create, edit, and add music easily,” wrote Forbes magazine in June 2016, “Flipagram has had a stunning rise to popularity, with no signs of slowing. Recently the company celebrated the milestone of over 200 million creators having used the app to make more than 430 million video stories.”

He credits luck as the most important part of his success.

“I was lucky,” he says. “Perhaps I would have never succeeded if I had been born to a different family and did not have my father’s support, or if I had not left Iran and could not have followed my interests at good universities.”

“Of course, perseverance is very important,” he adds, after a pause. “I spent 10 years working to realize my ideas. But after 10 years I got results.”

Weaving Iranian Culture into an American Tapestry

But Mohit is more than just success in business and making a lot of money. He is also the vice chairman of the Farhang (“Culture”) Foundation in Los Angeles. Founded in 2008 by a group of prominent Iranians and Iran scholars, it describes itself as a “non-religious, non-political, and not-for-profit foundation with a mission to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture for the benefit of the community at large. ... We feel that Iranian art and culture can contribute positively and should be woven into the multi-colored tapestry of the great cultures that comprise America. That’s why our mission at Farhang Foundation is to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture for the benefit of the community at large.”

To better understand Iranian culture, Mohit studied Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, one of the most popular Persian classical poets, and hugely popular in the United States. He believes that Iranian culture helped him succeed both in his personal life and in business.

 “Iranian customs, mores and manners helped me establish good relations with people,” Mohit says. “I always say that Iranian culture is very maneuverable. Iranian manners, attitudes and even cuisine play an important role in forming relationships. Believe me, you can captivate a non-Iranian by offering him a spoon of ghormeh sabzi,” he says, referring to a popular herb stew in Iran.

Farhang Foundation has been working hard to encourage the Iranian community to contribute to its mission. Their first major chance came in late 2013 when the Cyrus Cylinder, celebrated as the “the first charter of the right of nations in the world,” was loaned by the British Museum in London to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

“In September, when the Cyrus Charter was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles,” says Mohit, “we entered into negotiations with the Getty. Originally the plan was to exhibit the cylinder at Getty for six weeks, but so many Iranians rushed to the exhibit that it lasted for 10 weeks. And with 75,000 visitors over that time, the Getty had one of its greatest ever runs.”

The success of the exhibit encouraged Farhang Foundation to capitalize on the popularity of the exhibit to better introduce Iranian culture to non-Iranians. That was how the idea of Freedom Sculpture was born, as a gift of the Iranian community to the American people.

“We asked ourselves how we could show the connection between the history of the Cyrus Charter and human rights today in America,” Mohit says. “Then we came up with the idea of the sculpture.”

Funding for the sculpture came from a large crowdfunding campaign that received contributions from about 1.1 million people around the world. It took a long time, but the contributions picked up speed especially after the 2016 US presidential election.

“It seemed that Iranians wanted to say: ‘this is who we are. Get to know our culture,’”says Mohit. “Each day about 10,000 people visited our site and Facebook page and contributed funds.”

Beverly Hills Welcomes Cyrus the Great

The next step was to ask sculptors for their design. “We never imagined that we would get 300 designs from sculptors,” Mohit says. “We shortlisted a few. But among them, the most interesting belonged to Cecil Balmond.”

Balmond is a famous British-Sri Lankan designer, artist, and writer. So why did Farhang Foundation not choose an Iranian sculptor?

“We want Iranian culture to be a global culture,” answers Mohit. “Besides, we never imagined that a famous sculptor such as Cecil Balmond would want to take part and submit a design. When he arrived from London we noticed that his ticket cost more than the Farhang Foundation’s award for the winner. Why did he participate in the competition, I asked him? ‘I love Iran and visited Iran a few times before the revolution,’ he said. ‘When I learned that your idea was about Cyrus the Great, human rights and Iran, I said to myself that I wanted to be the designer.’”

The last challenge was to find a location for installing the Freedom Sculpture. “We wanted to put the sculpture in a location that people could easily see it, a location accessible with public transportation,” says Mohit. “When we went to Los Angeles City Hall, we met a few senior Iranian employees there. They were all enthusiastic about the project and offered to help us. We were able to install the sculpture in one of the best spots in L.A., at the gateway to Beverly Hills.”

The sculpture weighs 20 pounds and is set upon travertine stone. The barrel is inscribed with the story of Cyrus the Great and was unveiled on American Independence Day, July 4th, 2017.

How does Mohit, with his busy life as a businessman and job creator, find time for Farhang Foundation? He laughs and says: “I work to have money for my physical needs. But what about my soul? Farhang Foundations provides me with a love that gives me energy and motivation.”

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