Pioneers- Mr. Bahram Naseri
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Pioneers of the Iranian Community in Quebec – An Interview with Mr. Bahram Nasseri
By Dr. Reza Parsanejad – Parsa Foundation
As part of Montreal Persian Voices, a documentary initiative by the Parsa Foundation, this episode features Mr. Bahram Nasseri, one of the earliest Iranian immigrants to Quebec. His story captures the resilience and creativity that helped shape the foundations of the Iranian-Canadian community in Montreal.
From Tehran to Montreal – The Beginning of a Journey
Mr. Nasseri immigrated to Canada in the late 1970s, at the time of the Iranian Revolution. Encouraged by his family to leave Iran amid the unrest, he arrived in Montreal when, as he recalls, “the entire Iranian community barely counted a hundred people.”
He first attended French language courses but soon realized that “I couldn’t understand the Quebec accent, and they couldn’t understand my English either.” This challenge led him to spend some time in Germany, working at Mercedes-Benz, before returning to Canada determined to build a new life.
Building the First Iranian Institutions in Quebec
Upon his return, Mr. Nasseri joined efforts to create a cultural and educational center for Iranian families. Under the leadership of Dr. Javid, a professor at the Université de Montréal, the Iranian Association of Quebec was founded. Its weekend school, with just 19 children at the time, became the heart of the growing Iranian community.
“The school was not only for teaching Persian,” Nasseri recalls, “it was our second home – a place where families gathered and where our community began to take shape.”
The Association soon secured a government-donated building on Sainte-Catherine Street. It was there that Nasseri met Ms. Mahboubeh Sadriya, a collaboration that would later result in the publication of the first Persian-language newspaper in Canada.
From Payam Ashna to Bazaar: The Birth of Persian Journalism in Canada
Within the Iranian Association, Ms. Sadriya began editing a small publication called Payam Ashna, which Nasseri printed and distributed. Though short-lived, the experience sparked a vision for something greater.
In 1993, Nasseri, along with Mahboubeh Sadriya and his sister, Minoo Nasseri, founded MBM Publications (named after Mahboubeh, Bahram, and Minoo). Their first major project was the Iranian Yellow Pages of Quebec, a business directory connecting the emerging Iranian community across Eastern Canada.
“We realized the community was growing,” Nasseri explains. “People needed a way to find each other. The Yellow Pages was the first step toward building that network.”
Encouraged by the project’s success, they launched a full-fledged newspaper. At the suggestion of Mr. Mojtaba Sadriya, they named it Bazaar:
“He said, ‘Call it Bazaar – you can put anything in it.’ And that’s how Bazaar was born.”
Bazaar became the first Persian-language newspaper in Canada. Initially produced manually with typewriters and adhesive lettering before the advent of digital typography, it evolved into a professionally designed publication after Nasseri obtained one of the earliest Persian typesetting programs from a contact in New York.
Early Iranian Professionals and Cultural Growth
Mr. Nasseri remembers the names of some of the first Iranian physicians in Montreal — Dr. Maleki, Dr. Moein Darbari, Dr. Parvaneh Beheshti, Dr. Adl, Dr. Dehnad, Dr. Sharghi, and Dr. Makarian — professionals who strengthened the Iranian presence in Quebec’s medical community.
New Persian schools soon followed: the West Island School (founded by Ms. Rigoli and later led by Ms. Arezou Tabrizi), Dehkhoda School in East Montreal, and Ferdowsi School, affiliated with Iran’s government.
A Growing Community
During the 1980s, the Iranian population in Quebec grew from under one hundred to several hundred families. “By the mid-1980s,” Nasseri recalls, “we were no longer just trying to stay; we were trying to belong.”
Following the 1985 Quebec referendum, Iranian-Canadian attention shifted toward cultural and professional development rather than politics. Publications like Bazaar, along with community events such as Nowruz celebrations and cultural gatherings, played a defining role in shaping Iranian identity in Quebec.
A Legacy of Vision and Resilience
The efforts of Bahram Nasseri and his contemporaries laid the foundation for the thriving Iranian-Canadian community we know today. Their work not only created communication and cultural platforms but also preserved the Iranian identity within Quebec’s multicultural fabric.
As Dr. Reza Parsanejad, Director of the Parsa Foundation, notes:
“Pioneers like Mr. Nasseri serve as bridges between generations — they brought our language, culture, and values to a new land and built the first structures of belonging.”
This interview is part of the Pioneers series within the Montreal Persian Voices project, produced by the ParsA Foundation.
The full interview is available on the ParsA Foundation YouTube Channel.
