The Mohyeddin Family's Radical Restaurant Mission

如果Samira Mohyeddin在伊朗长大，她将是另一个人。她将无法在公共场合唱歌或跳舞，也不会揭开头发。当然，她必须掩盖自己是同性恋的事实。“如果我被另一名妇女抓住，根据伊斯兰教法，我将被杀。”

事实上,Mohyeddin是一名记者,radio and TV personality, instantly recognizable on the streets of Toronto with her shock of unruly silver hair and bright red lipstick. She is an affable guest on morning show cooking segments, where she can be seen encouraging the buttoned-up hosts to eat her mutton stew. On her popular CBC radio show,Unforked, she "picks apart the food we eat to reveal the culture and politics baked into it." You can tune in to hear her interviewing food historian and author迈克尔·特威蒂（Michael Twitty）有一天，或调查味精的侮辱下一个。

Mohyeddin is also a restaurateur who uses her restaurant,Banu, as a tool for her activism — helping refugees from Iran's oppressive regime and educating her local community about Iranian food, history, and culture.

"We're not standing outside with placards," she explains. "It's not that type of activism. It's more of a one-on-one discussion with each customer. When people think of Iran they think of terrorists and ayatollahs. At Banu, we show them what things used to be like."

In 1977, when Mohyeddin was two years old, her mother, Zarrin, and father, Faraj, visited her aunt, Parvin Mohyeddin, on her farm in Canada. Parvin had suggested the family apply to immigrate from their native Iran to Canada, as the political situation in Iran was becoming concerning. Zarrin pooh-poohed this. It was nothing, she said. It would blow over. Aunt Parvin wasn't convinced.

两年后，伊朗革命爆发，朝代，亲西方政府被推翻，由阿亚图拉·鲁霍拉·霍梅尼（Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini）领导的伊斯兰共和国取代，这严厉地惩罚了那些同情以前政权的人。莫希丁说：“我的父母接到了加拿大驻德黑兰大使馆的电话。他们感到非常惊讶。”帕尔文姨妈不为人知，帕尔文姨妈利用了加拿大的计划，该计划使农场主能够将外国工人当作农民。在1979年1月16日堕落的那天，莫里德大学获得了陆路移民身份的批准，该计划通过该计划授予了非加拿大人的永久居留权（现在刚刚称为永久居民）。他们收拾行装，飞往魁北克一个小型农业小镇威克汉姆（Wickham），计划等待革命，也许一两年，然后返回他们所爱的城市德黑兰。从未发生过。

这个家庭以这个词的真实意义流离失所。Moyheddins与他们的祖国离婚，被迫收养另一个国家。孩子们，莎乐美，萨米拉和阿米尔会说英语和法语。通过雪冬冬天和加拿大的鹅在夏末的天空中在V层中鸣叫，看着叶子在奇怪的树木上在奇怪的树上变成颜色，他们的父母从未想过他们会变得如此了解。但是，田园诗般的家庭只在农场里持续了一年。莫希丁说：“他们从800万城市来到了一个500人的城镇。”“有一家拐角商店。我妈妈就像，'我们不能呆在这里，我们必须到达城市。'所以我们五岁的时候搬到了多伦多。”

18岁那年，莫里丁（Mohyeddin）在一家法国小餐厅获得了她的第一笔工作，“爱上了剧院”。当她的兄弟阿米尔（Amir）上厨师学校时，她正在获得中东历史上的硕士学位。“我该怎么办？”Mohyeddin回忆起。她向兄弟姐妹建议他们开设了一家餐厅。

2005年，Mohyeddins的餐厅Banuwas born, an anomaly for Queen Street on the immediate west side of the city. At that time most of the Middle Eastern restaurants in Toronto were located north of the downtown core. "Most of them were in the Iranian part of the city and all the food and decor was the same; rugs hanging on the wall and it's 600 A.D. again." By contrast, Banu was surrounded by strip joints and karaoke bars, with only one other restaurant in sight. But Mohyeddin loved the neighborhood, which she'd lived in since the late 90's. They made it work.

长子莎乐美在巴努（Banu）的房子前面经营。婴儿阿米尔（Amir）经营厨房。Mohyeddin忠于她在中间的位置，在两者之间摆动。他们都根据需要走进碟坑。法拉杰（Faraj）五年前去世了，扎林（Zarrin）并没有以任何正式身份在餐厅工作，但她仍然是背后看不见的力量。萨洛姆解释说：“如果你有伊朗父母，你会知道你做的任何事情，他们总是扮演角色。”阿米尔说：“我一直是厨师，但一开始我妈妈对我有很大帮助。”

萨洛姆补充说：“我们在这里做的一切，我们按照她的教导方式来做。”“当我们有一个问题时，我们没有提到食谱，我们称她为她。”

从伊朗社会民主党的前任负责人和1930年代首次议会之一的成员中，莫里德丁人是骨头的政治活动家，而在其17年的历史上，巴努（Banu提供食物的房间。亚搏电竞隔离墙本身已经转变，上面挂着框架的新闻照片，以纪念1979年3月8日在伊朗进行国际妇女节的最后一次标记。

“前两天(最后一个国际妇女Day) Khomeini said women will have to cover themselves, and he disbanded the Family Law Act which allowed women to get divorced and to have custody of their children. All of that was taken away. All the female judges, including Shirin Ebadi who (later) won the Nobel Peace Prize, were fired and told to get secretarial jobs," explains Mohyeddin.

"A lot of people think Iran was always like this, but no. This was done under coercion, done forcefully. They did not go gentle into that night."

该餐厅毫不犹豫地就伊朗问题立场。在门口的外面，一个手绘的主题标签上写着“ #freenasrin”，以表明对伊朗人权律师的支持Nasrin Sotoudehwho was detained and arrested in 2018 and sentenced in 2019 to 38 years and 148 lashes for defending the right of women to choose whether or not to wear the hijab.

在lintel和左侧，是一块大玻璃窗格，上面覆盖着磨砂剧本，列出了176个名称。它是唯一的752航班受害者的公共纪念馆，该纪念馆是在2020年1月8日从德黑兰到基辅的途径，当时它被伊斯兰革命卫队发射的空中导弹击落。其中一百八8名乘客正在前往加拿大。几天后，Mohyeddins委托了阵亡将士。

莫希丁说：“你不会去餐馆被束缚在头上，提醒人们令人恶心的事情。但是我们感到被迫。”“我们尽力从遥远的地方做尽可能多的事情。”他们的努力为许多人提供了慰藉：在752航班上丧生的家庭成员定期访问。

他们还赞助难民。“现在有成千上万的LGBTQ伊朗人居住在土耳其，试图出去来这里。”尤其是多伦多市建立了政府计划这有助于逃离祖国战争，暴力和迫害的人们。

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Mohyeddins与彩虹铁路这是一家总部位于加拿大的非营利组织，可帮助世界各地的LGBTQ人民逃避国家赞助的暴力，并搬迁到对他们更安全的国家。一些来加拿大的人在餐厅得到了工作。莫希丁说：“令人惊讶的是，当您将某人带出压迫性社会时，他们会蓬勃发展。能够做到这一点真是太好了。”

To understand what she means when she says "oppressive society" according toHuman Dignity Trust, a U.K.-based watchdog organization that uses legal resources to defend the rights of LGBTQ people around the world, Iran criminalizes same-gender sexual activity, to the point of imposing the death penalty, which isoccasionally administered by stoning。

"Women's groups in Iran have tried to ban stoning but it never gets passed," explains Mohyeddin. The government-sanctioned method involves different physical tactics between the genders, and both are, per anAmnesty International report，旨在在造成死亡之前延长痛苦。“议会将通过它，但伊朗议会无能为力。监护委员会控制法律。我们有一个最高领导人和一个监护人理事会。这一切都是吉利德，”The Handmaid's Tale, which Atwood based in part on the rise of evangelicals in America under Reagan, and the Ayatollahs in Iran.

Not long after Banu opened, a man came in to eat. Mohyeddin was serving a table and her customer pointed him out. Did she know who he was? Mohyeddin shook her head.

客户说：“那是弗朗兹·费迪南德（Franz Ferdinand）。”

“奥地利的大公？”

“不！乐队！”

这就是Mohyeddin与首席歌手兼餐厅作家Alex Kapranos遇见Alex Kapranos的方式。他正在参加世界巡回演出，并写了一篇专栏，涵盖了他的烹饪冒险监护人。在他写了关于Banu的文章后，当地的食品媒体开始出现。亚搏电竞“这是那个典型的故事，”莫里丁笑着说。“直到您从其他地方引起人们的关注之前，没有人认识您。”

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2014年时尚published the Global Street Style Report, a list of 15 of the coolest neighborhoods in the world. These included Silver Lake in Los Angeles, Bushwick in Brooklyn, Miami's Wynwood, Kreuzberg in Berlin, and Shimokitazawa in Tokyo. In the number two spot was Queen West in Toronto.

"The landlords jumped on that and jacked the rent," recalls Mohyeddin. "It was instant, everything doubled. And the people who had made the community what it was were pushed out."

But, Banu stayed and the Iranian owners suddenly had a packed dining room. That's when their ad hoc in-house customer education program began in earnest. In Iran, a number of the words for food items are the same as in India. North American customers, more used to seeing these words on Indian menus, were confused.

“芝士只是奶酪 - 任何种类的奶酪。茶。”Mohyeddins在菜单上放了一个常见问题解答，它立即起作用。

"People did connect Iranian with Indian in the beginning," says Salome. "But our customers don't do that now. The FAQ isn't needed anymore."

教育计划还意味着脱离伊朗常规菜单项的斜睾丸和脑三明治。Mohyeddin说：“我们提供通常在其他伊朗餐馆提供的东西，而是在伊朗食用的东西。心脏，睾丸，大脑。伊朗的脑三明治很大。”卡车停靠站总是提供风琴肉 - 烤并配备伏特加酒。“这不是敲击的诱饵，也不是鼻子到尾巴的趋势。这就是我们的饮食方式。”

And by getting customers to treat it that way, not as a novelty, but as a delicious dish in its own right – then Iran doesn't seem so foreign. Immigrants have long used food to fight inherent bias, Banu is not unusual in that regard. They are exceptional because they do it with such intention and determination.

"We want to teach people about Iran before the revolution," says Amir. "We wouldn't have opened this place to just be a restaurant."

Salome adds, "We have been activists since we were children. We came to Canada because of the revolution in Iran. That shaped us into the adults we are today."

2020年，巴努（Banu）因限制而将其餐厅变成了一个市场，多伦多对波斯美食的需求日益增长。来自城市各地的中东移民来供应绿色葡萄干的清单，barbari bread, salted cherries, rose petals, and dried limes. The business changed but its menu items remained the same; saffron chicken and凉亭rice, green herb stew, and sumac-spiced koobideh.

当该市允许餐馆在大流行期间在人行道和停车场上安装露台时，Banu在其历史上首次建立了户外座位。在过去的两个夏天中，可以在前面找到Mohyeddin，监督一个木炭烤架，上面覆盖着串口，行人拥挤在露台伞下闲逛的顾客。她期待很快再次开火。随着地平线温暖的天气，他们的餐厅终于重新开放，但他们决定不完全关闭市场。“人们会吓坏了，”阿米尔说。绿色的葡萄干和干燥的酸橙在附近创造了一个粉丝群。

The Mohyeddins did not want to come to Canada, they came because they had to. And they can never go back.

"We weren't in search of a winter wonderland," says Samira. "We came here to take part in those fundamental freedoms Canadians have. Things we were robbed of in our own home."

这个家庭创造了Banu作为他们国家过去的生活例子，而餐厅的无数方式不仅仅是一个可以吃饭的地方。“菜单是我们的小特洛伊木马，” Mohyeddin说。“人们总是惊讶，他们为我们喝酒，我们唱歌和跳舞而感到惊讶。我并不是说我们正在推动议程……但是我们正在推动议程。”