Farah Diba Pahlavi

Interview with BBC

01-Aug-2010
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more from Ghormeh Sabzi
 
Boomerang

OnlyIran

by Boomerang on

writes, "I know that Shah is a good whipping boy, but facts are facts."

So very true!

The same thing is going on today in America -- everything is blamed on Bush, even though president BlameBush has passed laws and spent trillions that do nothing but steep the country further into debt and bankruptcy.

Blaming others is the coward's tool and trade.

 Iran is a prisoner of IRI


Agha_Irani

ghalam doon and Mola N

by Agha_Irani on

Mola N - I thought you're 'Vassalam, Nameh Tamom' - have you been ordered to post more comments?

Undoubtedly rulers in Iran have taken wealth for themselves - but again the biggest thieves in Iranian history have been the mullah kleptocracy of the last 31 years:

//iranian.com/Travelers/2003/July/Rich/

As I understood Reza Shah took land from the bacheh akhoonds and thats why they got so upset - they had to go work for a living rather than sit on their fat lazy asses. 

ghalam-d Iran was a one-party state under the Shah as it is a one-party state under the mullah dictatorship. The difference is that the mullahs, as you yourself state, are the most brutal rulers in modern Iranian history.  As I mentioned earlier, they have killed many many more Iranians than any previous Iranian ruler.  


ghalam-doon

OnlyIran: Fact checking

by ghalam-doon on

You say:

Shah tacitly, and through inaction, allowed all kinds of highly organized and well financed political opposition to be established and
operate under his rule.

And then you include a listing of opposition organizations who were mainly active outside the country. There are many many opposition groups today that are active inside and outside the country. Many of them are the same groups that you listed as having tacit approval of the shah. Many more groups have been voicing their opposition inside the country and their leaders have been handed jail sentences. Can we say all these group have tacit approval of I.R.? Otherwise they could not exist. How about monarchists, do they have tacit approval of I.R.? 

Long before my time and after the 1953 coup, the Shah declared the Tudeh party and the rest of communist parties illegal. At the time when the shah declared his great scheme of creating a one party system, we had 3 or 4 parties in the parliament. "Irane Novin" was the majority and "Mardom" was the minority party in the parliament. Both of these two parties were organized and run by the cronies of the Shah and were totally ineffective. All the opposition groups that you mentioned were underground. These are facts and I'm not making up anything here.

 


Onlyiran

Ghalam-doon, your comparison is totally wrong

by Onlyiran on

Shah tacitly, and through inaction, allowed all kinds of highly organized and well financed political opposition to be established and operate under his rule.  Some of the examples are "jebheye melli", MKO, Cherik-Fadayi, Toudeh, Peykaar, and of course, the Khomeini machine. Shah also allowed virtually all "high value" members of the opposition to remain active in Iran and abroad.  The only punishment that he handed out to people like Bazargan, Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Bandi Sadr, Rajavi, etc. was short vacation type jail sentences or exile to other cities within Iran.  Khomeini got the worst punishment of exile outside of Iran, where he was allowed to spread his message and organize even better that when he was in Iran.  The only people who really got a raw deal were a couple of low level communists like Golsorkhi.

Now compare that with the IRI, where they have decimated ALL organized opposition, executed thousands and have virtually stopped any well organized and well financed opposition for the past 31 years.  The venting off that people do in Iran, which you call opposition, is meaningless absent organization, financing and leadership, and it's actually a nice trick by the IRI--to allow this sort of harmless venting.

So, next time please think a little more before you make these illogical comparisons.  I know that Shah is a good whipping boy, but facts are facts. 


ghalam-doon

Off topic...

by ghalam-doon on

I know we were supposed to talk about Ms Diba and her interview, but I think the comparison between the current regime in Iran and the Shah's regime is meaningless.

There are people inside Iran who are against the brutality of this regime and voice their opposition on a daily basis. Did we have the same situation at the height of Shah's regime? Did anyone even dare to oppose him when he declared his grand scheme of creating a single party system?

There was no political dialogue. There was no opposition. We were supposed to follow like sheep. There was either my way or "take your passport" and highway.

There has been more than 30 years of political progress and political dialogue in Iran despite the brutality of the  regime. 
When Ahmadinejad talks about the single party of "velayet" or Khamenei issues a fatwa, no one takes them seriously. In my opinion that is progess, but unfortunately many of our exiled compatriots still dream of "good old days."


Boomerang

Sargord, aka QAJAR TROLL

by Boomerang on

From what you have written on the pages of this site over the last year or so, how your grandfather or great uncle tutored this Pahlavi king or that Pahlavi prince, and more importantly, from your sheer irrational (and self-serving) hatred of all things Pahlavi Dynasty, it sure sounds like you're a disgruntled and bitter Qajar -- maybe you're still stuck in the 1910s!

Maybe you're still bitter that the GREAT Reza Shah tossed your pathetic, treasonous dynasty into the trash bin of Iranian history? You and many other treasonous Qajars were quick to turn against the Pahlavis, even though the GREAT Reza Shah and his noble son DID MORE FOR IRAN THAN ANY OTHER TWO KINGS IN THE HISTORY OF IRAN, SAVE FOR DARIUS AND CYRUS THE GREAT!!!

How bitter you old useless Qajar trolls are to this very day! How gloriously pathetic! Your UBER hatred of the Pahlavis has made you bedfellows with an UBER EVIL terroristic regime! Indeed, how truly disgraceful!

Let's face it, your clan were the biggest traitors in the history of Iran, selling Iran piece by piece to the Russians and the British so that your treasonous family could go on European trips and waste Iran's treasure on decadent whims of fancy. Your family had no love, nor interest for Iran -- NONE and NONE!!! The only love your Qajar clan showed for Iran was financially motivated, as in its assets! In short, you're a SELF-SERVING parasite pretending to be  an objective observer of political events in Iran!

Indeed, how pathetic!

 

 Iran is a prisoner of IRI


Agha_Irani

asadabad

by Agha_Irani on

???? I have no idea what your comment intends to convey.

Pirouz - The Pahlavis may indeed be history but whatever they offered with all its shortcomings was, and still is, better than the IRI.

Now the point of most of these blogs and posts is what to do to have a future Iran without this brutal mullah dictatorship.  And that is one of the themes of the interview with Farah.  To you and the IRGC may be this is irrelevant but to most Iranians (including Iranians residing in Iran) a future without the islamist dictators is most relevant.

 


asadabad

Agha_Irani

by asadabad on

Yes! This barbaric cult of Islam must be abolished! The practices of these Islamists have destroyed Iran. 

Their backward hijabs have prevented our women from dressing like whores for too long!

Please tell everyone about your abandonment of Islam and more specifically your abandonment of THE AFTABEH--the evil invention of Islam.

:0)


oktaby

Yes Mozghol

by oktaby on

SP, When I for one think of modernity, sanity, 21st century, progress, passion, talent, reason, technology, innovation, sophistication and human rights, what comes to mind is a non-Iranian west residing west deriding weirdo like you.

OKtaby


Sargord Pirouz

Quite a lot of typical

by Sargord Pirouz on

Quite a lot of typical baggage being vented here by exiles on this thread.

Sad, how so many middle aged exiles are still stuck in the 60s and 70s.

It's over folks. It's history. The country has moved on. But some of you folks remain stuck in a "deep freeze". Again, it's really sad.


Onlyiran

To Palestinian "Mola": We will not be silenced

by Onlyiran on

by your feeble attempts at diverting attention from IR mafia's plundering of Iran's wealth and its crimes against humanity. We will be heard despite your pathetic attempts at bringing up half century old gossip about a former ruler whose crimes against the Iranian people   seem like child's play compared to what the mullahs that you support have done to our country.  

This is not the IRI.  You cannot divert attention and change the subject.  We will not be silenced.  We will be heard.

Now take a walk and go post something about Gaza. 


Mola Nasredeen

Pahlavis, not just dictators but also land thieves

by Mola Nasredeen on

This is how Reza Khan did it:  

“Despite some appearances of modern rule, Reza Shah was despotic and utterly ruthless. He built up his own wealth through a mixture of gifts, cheap acquisition and expropriation, mainly in land. By the time of Reza Shah’s abdication, more than two thousand villages passed to the control of the new monarch. Using a measure of 4.8 persons per household some 235,800 were in the direct service of His Imperial Majesty qua landlord. In fact immediately after the abdication there was a peasant revolt in his native Mazanderan province calling for restitution of property, some of which was subsequently restored.”

//iranian.com/main/blog/masoud-kazemzadeh/sources-pahlavi-family-loot

It's important to mention Reza Khan stole the land from the farmers of Mazanderan a northern province in Iran where he was born.


Darius Kadivar

ELS Jaan Yup Dean Martin & Sinatra did ;0)

by Darius Kadivar on

I remember they came and sang at the Stadium in Tehran and not just for Her Majesty but for all Tehranis and it was aired live nationwide.

We got to see it in Shiraz which proved that the Iranian TV was making huge progress by the mid 70's in terms of communication and networking by trying to help get such events reach out to all towns and not just for Priveledged Tehroonies. Probably they learned from the experience of the way the Persepolis celebrations were mishandled.

The Concert as you can imagine was  A HUGE HIT !

Cheers Buddy ;0)

  


Agha_Irani

Omid and Kaveh

by Agha_Irani on

Thanks for sharing info - I agree with you both.


default

Fooladi,

by Kaveh Parsa on

I was also 10 years old. My point was not the resposibility for the revolution it self, but for the existence of the regime today, as both of us and our generation & subsequent ones have become adults for quite a while, and we can not continue to blame the previous generations.

Thank you

 

 


fooladi

Kaveh, I was only 8 when islamic revolution happened

by fooladi on

So accept no responsibility! But I like and agree with your general statement that the entire Iranian nation must accept responsibility for the creation of islamist regime and learn a lesson from the mistakes past so they will not be repeated. In the mean time, in MHO we should all be united in our opposition to the islamist regime.

Thank you for your response.


Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime

On a happier note,, is it true that Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin

by Everybody Loves Somebody ... on

were invited to Iran to perform for the Queen Farah Pahlavi et al, circa 70's?


default

Fooladi

by Kaveh Parsa on

Both Jazani & Golesorkhi took up arms against the government (= communist Terrorists), hardly the act of a "freedom of speech" martyr!!! Both insisted that they would do so again if treated leniently. I am sure you also know that Masoud Rajavi did the same, and was sentenced to death, however his plea for leniency was granted, to enable him to take his full part in laying the foundations of the Islamic Republic.

No Sir, The people the People of Iran (every single one of us, including the shah) are "responsible for the islamic regime that we are suffering from today".


oktaby

Nicely put Kaveh,

by oktaby on

As for why the examples? what do you expect from payees of IRR?  islamic regime could not exist without fabrication and lies. Having succeeded in stealing power, they built a house of horrors on foundations of incompetence and stupidity 


یك روز ملا نصر الدین برای تعمیر بام خانه خود مجبور شد، مصالح ساختمانی را بر پشت الاغ بگذارد و به بالای پشت بام ببرد. الاغ هم به سختی از پله ها بالا رفت .ملا مصالح ساختمانی را از دوش الاغ برداشت و سپس الاغ را بطرف پایین هدایت كرد. ملا نمی دانست كه خر از پله بالا می رود، ولی به هیچ وجه از پله پایین نمی آید. هر كاری كرد الاغ از پله پایین نیآمد. ملا الاغ را رها كرد و به خانه آمد . كه استراحت كند. در همین موقع دید الاغ دارد روی پشت بام بالا و پایین می پرد  . وقتی كه دوباره به پشت بام رفت ، می خواست الاغ را آرام كند كه دید الاغ به هیچ وجه آرام نمی شود. برگشت .بعد از مدتی متوجه شد كه سقف اتاق خراب شده و پاهای الاغ از سقف چوبی آویزان شده، بالاخره الاغ از سقف به زمین افتاد و مرد.

بعد ملا گفت

لعنت بر من !!! كه نمی دانستم كه اگر خر به جایگاه رفیع و پُست مهمی  برسد هم آنجا را خراب می كند و هم خودش را می كُشد 

OKtaby 


fooladi

Kaveh:

by fooladi on

I guess Jazani and his comrades were also killed whilst escaping from Evin and not executed by Savak? Also Golesorkhi was executed because he wanted to abduct shah's son and kill him, nothing to do with his politics?

No sir: Shah pahalvi is very much responsible for the islamic regime we are suffering from today. If he had limited his power and allowed democracy to grow in Iran instead of suppressing any secular  voice accusing them of being "communist terrorists", whilst giving the islamists freedom of building more masjids and husseinyeh, we would not be having an islamic regime today.


default

The reasons why the Islamic Republic of Iran was born...

by Kaveh Parsa on

.....was in large part to the lies, which still continue today!!!

when his suicide was announced on 7 January 1968, few people believed the official story........There are many reasons to believe, however, that Taḵhti did indeed commit suicide. He had married a woman far above his social station, and by late 1967 was facing serious marital problems. A shy and introvert person, he is said by those who knew him to have often suffered from depression. The death of Mosaddeq in 1967 was also known to have affected him. Moreover, recently published SAVAK documents about him do not include any indication of SAVAK involvement in his death

Behrangi drowned in the Aras river and his death was blamed on the Pahlavi regime. According to Persian BBC News, Hamzeh Farahati who accompanied him at the time of the death narrates that the incident was just a common drowning and revolutionaries' allegations of governmental involvement originated from their need to fabricate a martyr.

Mossadegh was then tried, imprisoned for three years and kept "under house arrest at his estate" until he died in March 1967.

ps...btw, there must be 100's of 1000's!!!! of others martyrs that Hazrat Shotor could have have mentioned, so it begs the question as to why he mentions half baked rumors regarding Takhti & Behrangi (long since disproved) & throws in Mossadegh for good measure who until today every body agreed had died of natural causes at the ripe age of 85 years old!!!! but hey don't let something like the truth stop you.


Omid Parsi

Corruption is an attribute of a people, not only their regime

by Omid Parsi on

Farah Pahlavi is an admirable and enlightened woman who speaks with simple sincerity what she understands to be the truth, having spent most of her adult life in the Royal Court in Iran... Obviously the view is different from the top, but she is totally right about the fact that the Shah's regime developed Iran, economically and culturally, beyond a point of no return and gave Iranians much of their identity and a taste of living in a prosperous and modern nation.

As for the late Shah's dictatorship, I utterly doubt that masses of utterly ignorant and illiterate self-flagellating shiites could have asked for better in the context of the Cold War. The Talebanesque rule of the IRI, at once an affront to the notions of Republic and Iran, is the solid 30-year old proof of that.

Regarding the rampant corruption during the Shah's regime, it should be evident that corruption and skewed distibution of wealth is part and parcel of any society on breakneck natural-resource-fuelled development and wealth generation. As such, corruption is as much an attribute of the people as of the ruling regime. Again the explosion of corruption under the sanctimonious IRI is a solid proof.

 


Marjaneh

Mola Nasredeen, sniff sniff

by Marjaneh on

'Didn't mean to. It's my new sig.;)

Lovely to read you caring....

„Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrán detener la primavera."- Pablo Neruda



Agha_Irani

Mola N

by Agha_Irani on

You propagate the lies of the islamist regime by trying to make the pahalvi regime look worse that it actually was and by trying to say that Iran now has something better.

Regarding debating - you said in your first post that the economy was worse under the Shah - I pointed out that was a lie. You pointed out the Shah was a dictator and I agreed with you but I mentioned that the bloodiest dictators have been the mullahs. You said the islamist regime did not appear from anywhere and I pointed out how the people were tricked by the islamists.

You have not answered any of my points but instead you carried on with your ideological monologue when the flaws to it were exposed.  And in your last comment you finally showed your true colours - an apologist for this barbaric regime.  

I pray that the people of Iran are freed from this dictatorship and do not have to suffer another 50 years of this backward barbarism.

Roozet khosh  


Mola Nasredeen

And some don't have the knowledge or capacity to continue

by Mola Nasredeen on

debating, this is how the last last commentator concludes his comment (to me): 

"As long as you and your IRGC paymasters post your propaganda I think there should be someone there to expose it for what it is - a pack of lies."

Was there any positive propaganda in favor of the Islamic Republic of Iran in my comments? Copy and paste it here. The fact is a large number of so called "opposition" (who comments here on iranian dotcom) do not have the knowledge, wisdom or the capacity of making any changes inside Iran and that's why they get lost in the past memories of the "good old days".

Name calling and threatening others who don't think like them is their real contribution (to the complex situation that Iranians face today). As if their hatred, anger, arrogance and ignorance will replace a real solution for the hole that Iranians have found themselves.

As Shamloo puts it well "As inan maddad as cheh khaham.." Well it is what it is and that's another reason why I believe Islamic republic of Iran will survive for another fifty years (more or less).

Vassalam, Nameh Tamom 


afshinazad

FIRST LADY

by afshinazad on

Some could blame and complain about shabanu farah or the shah for what ever reason is possible and these are the people either can not accept that why they couldn't reach to power, like mko or the commies or any others or the IRI people and all these people are still have a hate and they are not true Iranian to care about they countries national interest nor the peoples freedom.shame on all of us even we can't create united front and yet we want freedom?

Regime like IRI created by british masters and factory of akhonds and american only for one reason, SHAH was a problem to them and soivet were in next door and first comes american and british national interest and as always religion has been Iranian worst enemy and as long as Iranian are slave to religion there would be no development nor the freedom, thats why some one like khomenie was saved and deposited for future agenda and which he served his masters and Benamak va nashnas Iranian choose the stone age Era and dictatorship instead social freedom and advancement.   


Agha_Irani

ghalam doon and Mola N

by Agha_Irani on

Read carefully (as both of you appear rather dull):

ghalam-doon: I did not say the Shah was a good leader.  On the contrary my first sentence in my original post (10.07 Aug 1st) said:

'It is true that the Shah was a dictator ' - can you read? where do I say the Shah was a benevolent ruler??????

Regarding your 'namak-nashnass' comment.  As far as I can see all the people I know who protested against the Shah back in 79 now say it was a mistake as we did not know  what would come after.  Khomeini used and manipulated the majority of the people who had no desire to have an islamist regime to impose exactly such a regime on them.  His modus operandi: first lets pretend to unite to overthrow the Shah, then I will get rid of the democrats, nationalists, communists, MKO to establish the backward islamist regime.  That is how the islamists operate - deception, manipulation, lies and all of course in the name of religion - don't forget its all about taqqiyah.  Some of the people were duped and certainly many were 'namak-nashnass'.

As far as the same islamist regime being still in power today - NO - the people certainly don't want this.  Thats why they protested in the streets last year.  And as usual the islamists used their trade mark violence, rape, murder to subdue the will of the Iranian people for the sake of the backward islamist ideology.

Mola N: I refer you to the same comment above - I never said the Shah was a great ruler - he was in fact a dictator and many people unjustly lost their lives at his hands. WHERE IS THE SELECTIVE MEMORY THAT YOU TALK ABOUT?

But the islamist regime in Tehran has for the past 31 years consistently killed more Iranians than the Shah ever did.  The greatest loss of Iranian lives has been during the islamist rule.  Again this is a fact - at least 40,000 were executed between 79-84.  At least another 5,000 in 88 (these are conservative estimates) and who knows how many more since.  Lets also not forget that khomeini could have ended the war with Iraq in 82 - but to cement his islamist rule he chose to continue it and hundreds of thousands more needlessly lost their lives.

Regarding your final comment about exposing the regime: being backward and barbaric may not be new to the islamic jihadists but I think it is extremely important to continue to highlight it everyday so that at least some innocent lives (such as that of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani) may be saved.  As long as you and your IRGC paymasters post your propaganda I think there should be someone there to expose it for what it is - a pack of lies. 

 


pastor bill rennick

MN, Agha Irani hit the nail right smack in the center...

by pastor bill rennick on

The reason IRR is here is because the late Shah (actually General Pakravan) didn't put a bullet right smack in Khomeini's forehead and threw his body in front of the dogs in 1963 as well as leveling (through carpet bombing) of the Hozeyeh Elmiyeh Qom afterward! That's why!

 


Mola Nasredeen

The reasons why the Islamic Republic of Iran was born...

by Mola Nasredeen on

It did not appear from nowhere, it was an effect created by a cause. Lets not have a selctive memory when it comes to the past. Don't forget the Mosaddeghs, Takhties, Behrangies and hundreds of others who lost their lives for the freedom of speech and thought in Iran. Let's not forget the shanty towns that were growing all over Tehran in the middle of the most expensive real states. 

I am not talking about the Islamic Republic of Iran here, what more is there to say or "expose" about IRI that has not been said on a daily basis by the world media. What else can anyone add to this parade of this member of "Axis of Evil"? Rather tell me something that is new! Lets not cling to your selective memory remembering the "good old days".

Marjaneh: Please don't get Pablo Neruda involved in the price of meat in Iran. He has nothing to do with the Ms Diba or Iran for that matter.


ghalam-doon

Agha Irani

by ghalam-doon on

One question. We had such a great system of government and the shah was such a wonderful and benevolent ruler. Then why did people revolt against such a ruler? Why they were dancing in the streets when he 'raft'?

Are 'we' a nation of 'namak-nashnaas'?