there is a fairly large persian community near me, which means decent persian grub.
Never exposed to Persian grub, so I really can't comment on it. Not that I wouldn't try it if offered to me. As for my HS classmate, since he was in the US in the mid 70's, it's quite possible that his family was either loyal to "The Shah," or fleeing from "The Shah." I don't know which, but I don't think his family was involved with either Ayatollah or loyal to either. Likewise, one of my college classmates was Iranian but a regular person (regular US clothing, etc).. Also, as it turns out my hair stylist in the PRNJ for almost 10-15 years was Iranian who became a US Citizen, subsequently. And very stylish US Clothing (no Hijabs or anything). But in her case, I strongly suspect her family was Iranian/Jewish.