Based in the heart of Manhattan's Upper West Side, Dr. Bashi™ is the realization of an Iranian-born Swedish academic/mother's dream to diversify children's literature (check out #PIsForPalestine) and to promote multilingualism through a playful, gender and race conscious pedagogy (check out our Arabic and Persian blocks)!

Having reflected and written extensively on children's literature and representations of race, gender, religion, class and ethnicity in mass-media, yours truly established Dr. Bashi™ in 2013 in collaboration with the prolific designer and master calligrapher Kourosh Beigpour to publish diverse books and offer a unique brand of sustainably-made and gender/race conscious educational materials, with a focus on Persian and Arabic.

Theodore Geisel's nom de plume "Dr. Seuss" inspired me to name my company Dr. Bashi™. While my alter ego, the great American children's author and illustrator "Dr. Seuss" didn't actually hold a Ph.D. or M.D. and still used "doctor" in his title, I reckoned that as one of the many millions women of Muslim background (which some folks like to victimize and launch illegal wars in the name of supposedly "saving" us), I could level the playing field by using my actual Ph.D. title ; ) Additionally, with the ever-increasing commercialization of the U.S. academic (study for profit), the reduction in the number of new academic posts in my area of study (Middle East; gender etc), and the chance of landing a tenure track position fading one Palestine Exception at a time, I thought "I can't let my hard earned Ph.D. from Columbia go to waste" plus "why shouldn't I flaunt my smartz?" And wait, my Iranian last-name, for which I was bullied for for years at school in Sweden, means bridge Japanese. So see? Bridge = good Iranian, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim women = smartz

Between August 2014 and November 2017, Dr. Bashi™ offered free Persian Bilingual Storytime every week for children and their families in New York's independent bookstore "Book Culture on Broadway." In November 2014, we launched the "Distinguished Persian Guest Storytellers' Series," inviting prominent Persian-speakers to read their favorite children's stories (in Persian): on.fb.me/1th3pp6. I had to stop doing my beloved Persian storytime at "Book Culture" in late November, 2017 after the bookstore came under heavy attack by Israel Advocates for selling my P is for Palestine children's book and I began to receive death-threats 🙀

Dr. Bashi™ is obviously the 'bestest' publisher of non-apologetic social justice diverse children's books in the entire universe (wait till you see what's coming after our critically-acclaimed P is for Palestine!) and we're also recognized as the first makers of children's educational Persian alphabet wood blocks, made ethically in the United States--and comprehensive educational Arabic alphabet wood blocks for children.

This Flickr account is managed by me, myself, and I--for my personal Flickr account visit: www.flickr.com/photos/golbargbashi/ :)