Letter about Nowruz, by Dr. Masood Khatamee

January 27, 2006

Dear Community of Iranians,

It has been noted that the word Nowruz, has been written in various spellings. Due to the importance of this ethnic historical event we should all be uniformly writing it in the spelling "Nowruz" for the following reasons:

1. Encyclopedia Iranica writes it as "Nowruz"

2. The Library of US Congress writes it as "Nowruz"

3. Every proclamation from two Presidents, nine Governors and Mayors, for the past six years have referred to this celebration in their acknowledgement letters with the spelling "Nowruz"

We all may have our personal opinion and some people may think it should be Noerooz or Norooz, etc., but because of the importance of this issue, we should follow the lead of Encyclopedia Iranica and become uniform in the spelling of this important event. We should do this in hopes that this will give us and our future generations a symbol of unification.

Sincerely yours,

Masood A. Khatamee, M.D.
Professor, NYU School of Medicine
Executive Director, Fertility Research Foundation