Souri

dear religionoutofgovernment

thanks for your comment. As you said, every person looks from his own window and see things from a different angle. What we all want. is a free Iran with the happy Iranians, living under much more civilized rules. It is good to put our differences aside and listen to each other, trying to find a way to reach to that goal.

Cheers;

Thank You Souri

I am overwhelmed by raw emotions!

OK, I liked it a lot!

Rastakhiz was a good thing

SAVAK was a blessing

All that corruption and theft of public goods and oil money, well hey if you didn't steal any...

All that brotherhood and understanding between SAVAK and Hojatieh; isn't that just utopian.

Dust has settled for thirty three years, and you still can't understanding the dif between shinolla and shitte.

All we had to do was to put up with it for a few more years, when we would have crossed the Gates of the Great Civilization, Darvazeh Tamadon Bozorg.

VPK FYI:

Elizabeth Hix is the Iranian coordiantor for HRW.

Lahiji is the most prominent HR attorny in Iran.

Aksaryat get that nick-name from a split.

For someone so incredibly ignorant of some of the most basic facts and realities of Iran, you yet  allow yourself to insult and offend so repetitively, bordering on recividism.

How poetic, Faramarz. Siavash Kasraaee just did it for you :-)

Souri Jaan

Nice blog. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings about the revolution and RP. Of course, different people have different reasons for their hesitations toward RP but you are certainly correct. 

I would add that historically, due to lack of a transparent/civil society and the organs to protect the pillars of a civil society, we have had too much emphasis on personalities, dictators and threat of dictators. Once a civil society is created with all its safeguards, such as an independent judiciary that RP mention, we can start looking at RP not as a threat but as a progressive personality that can either be useful to our society or can be discarded when he is not. Although we don't have such a civil society yet, we have the basics of such a society in the political  intellectual maturity of our citizens. So I think the fears of a dictator are overblown at this time.

The last issue is that there are people, including many on IC, who will vehemently oppose anyone who has a plan not consistent with their ideology and platform. in fact, because ideologies and predetermined platforms are inherently undemocratic, they fear anyone including RP who speaks of a democratic society. This crowd usually runs out of logic and intellectual reserve very quickly and resorts to name calling, such as Shahollahi. 

VPK

Thanks for your comment. I believe you are a bit younger than us (Faramarz, Hooshang, myself and many others) so, I can't blame you for thinking that the revolution was a mistake. Although, I believe you must inform yourself about the past, the Pahlavis era and even the other Monarches.

I have also read your comment to me, in that other blog. My pleasure.

Well Said VPK

It takes courage to look in the mirror and say, "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"

Faramarz agreed

Reverse engineering actaully always helped in the lab in school

But that's another story.

All these apologist of IR and shah ALWAYS blame the people for all the problems; Iranian people are just too wild,

they have to be controlled

they didn't appreciate shah 

they need a strong man,

........................

In terms of the political forces what I had in mind were the forces that initially either politically supported khomini form the Left (Tudeh, Ranjbaran, and the Trotskyst fellow I can't recall his name right now, sounds like a religious one. Does anyone remember his name? He also ran as a presidential candidate), or the right forces during the early stages of IR.

Ofcourse you're absloutely correct pointing out Rajavi's treacherous cooperation with Saddam.Before that he went for a meeting with Khomini and Ayat Shaytan kicked him out. On a side note, when you have a political stage packed with characters like shah, khomini, rajavi,....just how much chances of a survival can any people have?

War proved to be one of IR's most effective weapons in combating the workers' and the democratic movement in Iran. As it was at the same time a combined US, Iraqi response to IR.

Now its time to meet the Guinness family, cheers

Merci Faramarz jon

I tend to believe that there are still people who hate him for the crimes of his father. Or they hate him just because he is a Pahlavi.

I like his personality too. But I  don't know if he is really honest in politics or not. But again, do we really know this of all other Political men in other countries?

For the time being, he seems to speak from his heart and he wants really the wellbeing of the Iranians.

The future will judge him.

Hooshang

Who said "the Iranian people are blamed for it all" ?

Again another maghlateh?

Bakhtiar and Ovaissi (and MKE, of course you don't name them because for now you are defending these poor victims) have empowered the mullah because they helped Saddam in the war? Do they really had in their mind to help the mullas, in your opinion? Really?

So this is the way you do analyze  the historical facts? By doing a "reverse Engineering"?

Souri Jon

The hostility towards Reza Pahlavi is completely misplaced. We Iranians talk about democracy, turning the leaf and moving forward, but at the same time we are still stuck in the past and the bitter memories of the past, but the unfortunate thing is that Reza Pahlavi is not a part of that past.

He was a young man when the ’79 revolution took place. He really had nothing to do with the “sins of his father.” He could have become a gigolo and cruise the hotspots of Paris, London or Monaco and marry a virgin like Princess Diana at the age 40, but instead, the guy is doing what he can to shine lights on the crimes of the Regime. He also married a fine woman and is raising a beautiful family. Like most Iranian men in the US, his hobbies are to BBQ for his family in his backyard and watch American football on the big screen TV.

I have to say that I really do not understand the bitter feelings that some have towards him. But then again, I know our people, so in a way, I do.

Ali jon

Thanks for having read this text and also for your comment.

If only you knew how many arteshi counted among our big family! You will be impressed :)

They were all, the very kind souls of course. But in general, they had lots of privilege which the "ordinary people" were deprived of.

One and the most hateful thing among others, was that rule of having a domestic (gomaashteh) which was so oppressive and inhuman, in my eye.

Cheers;

Dear Dr Saadat Noury

Thanks for your beautiful input. Very meaningful poems.

Wish you the bests.

خشم و نفرت ایرانیان از رضا پهلوی??

I don't know anyone who hates RP. If there are, they could not a huge number.

There are those who are just not fans of him.

And then, there are those- like me- who is watching him, with an open mind, with no particular like, or dislike for him (with, more recently, listening closely to what he has to say, and I gotta admit: I am starting to like the guy)

Yours,

Ali P.

P.S."Zolmeh arteshee haa" Souri jaan? Deevaaree kootaah tar az deevaareh arteshee haa paydaa nakardee? ;-)

Thank you for your clarifications

Outside of "Iranian.com" RP is as relevant to Iranian politics as Ghajar princes of the past.

The last part of my observations remains a bitter historical fact.

Many forces from the Left: Stalinists, Maoist, Trotskyist were in support of IR (we don't need to name them since we all know who they were).

From the Right spectrum: Bakhtiar, Ovaissi, et al.. by helping Saddam in his attack on Iran immensly helped mullahs to cement their power.

Of course all these "little inconvenient details" gets forgotten, and we're left with Iranian people being blamed for it all. Cheers

Hooshang

I apologize if I didn't express my opinion clearly.

What has confused you is that I have started by saying : Fear of admitting a mistake!

But if you read the entire text (which I assume you did) you will notice that I am talking from their point of view (not mine).

I said "the revolutionists of the past" who hate RP blindly, think that if now they listen to him and give him the opportunity to prove himself, they will have insulted themselves and their past ideology/deeds.

And I have followed by saying that "in my opinion" they are wrong! Because the Revolution was not a mistake but an inevitable reaction to that oppressive situation.

In addition, I said also, that we have rose above that situation and now the people of Iran are in another stage of political knowledge and situation which bring us to a new road with a new Pahlavi, in a new context.

I discard the very last part of your comment, because it is a complete malicious sarcasm.

Dear Souri Babnoo

 ١
ما ، نسل ضربه دیده ز پرگار_نفرت ا یم
ما ، ازبرای_نسل_ بشردرس_عبرت ا یم

با شد د یا رو کلبه ی ما ، پر شود زمهر
ما ، د وستدا ر_ حربه ی عشق و مسرت ا یم
//saadatnoury.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post_31.html
٢
سخن ایران
منگر مرا چنین که شدم کوچک و نزار
بنگر مرا به عهد _ شکوه و بزرگی ام

منگر مرا به چهره ی غمگین و سوگوار
بنگر مرا ، به دوره ی شاد و سترگی ام...
//saadatnoury.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post_22.html

So which one is it? Was the revolt against tyranny right,or not?

With all due respect for writer and deep appreciation of the immense complexity of the topic of 1979 Revolution against monarchy in Iran, this short piece reads as if it wants to have it both ways.

It starts by saying, yes we made a mistake, but towards the end it concludes that the insurrection against shah was inevitable.

The historical fact of the matter remains that the oppression, single-party system, and the corruption of shah made a revolt against the system in Iran INEVITABLE.

At the same time due to a total lack of democratic culture and a thorough lack of any substantial political dialogue in that society, the odds were overwhelmingly stacked against a democratic outcome.

Not to mention that many forces from the right and the left did thier best to directly and indirectly augment mullahs position within Iran.