Mastaneh’s life passion is bridging cultural gaps. She has done this through several micro and macro social work projects, including the Iranian Peer Counseling help line, parenting classes at local synagogues, and domestic violence community education. Her journey in bridging cultural gaps and helping people in need has branched from her work in domestic violence to aiding in LGBTQ issues within Iranian households. Since Iranians are fairly traditional in culture, LGBTQ issues are not regarded highly. In Iran, gays and lesbians are forced to have gender reassignment operations, and face tremendous amounts of trauma and life hardship by the time they eventually make it to the United States, where Mastaneh and her social services team of therapists must now help them cope with the rest of the life which they are struggling to look forward to. Out of experience with such hardships, Mastaneh acknowledges the significance in beginning to bridge the cultural gap between Orthodox Judaism and the LGBTQ movement.

While the Orthodox community at large might be difficult to negotiate with, as they are a very insular community to begin with, the Iranian Jewish Orthodox community has been the most resistant to new ideas. Mastaneh has done partnership collaboration with JQ (Jewish Queers) and looks forward to seeing them thrive in their Iranian community as they move closer towards reaching out to the Orthodox Iranian community as well. While Mastaneh has extensive experience with both micro and macro social projects, she has concluded that individuals can only go so far without the support of their wider community. This is what holds such significance in bridging the cultural gap between the Orthodox Iranian community and the LGBTQ community, as they have and will continue to inevitably overlap in members.

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