Shahrokh Ahkami
— Persian Heritage, #103, Winter 2021 —
Once again, I offer best wishes to those that celebrate the Christmas and New Year holiday season. My wish is that the new year is filled with joy and happiness for all and especially for Iranians throughout the world. It is time to put this past year behind us; one that was filled with grief, loss, sadness and anxiety caused by the Covid-19 virus that brought the world to its knees. The Corona virus impacted our financial, physical and mental health. There continues to be an increase in suicides and addiction. This has resulted in families being torn apart. For Iranians in Iran the suffering is enhanced by the lack of access to vaccines, medicines, medical and hospital care. These conditions are overwhelming an already fragile and broken health system. These conditions have and continue to result in making the lives of Iranians more difficult. These conditions have caused the death of thousands of innocent Iranian people at a higher percent in comparison to the highest populated countries of the world such as the US, Russia and China.
In the US, despite easy access to vaccines, over sixty million Americans are not vaccinated. This inevitably will result in the needless loss of additional lives; deaths that could be easily avoided.
We just discussed the incompetence of Iran’s government officials. I have tried not write about this in my editorials. I have tried to avoid the sadness and daily problems that Iran’s people are confronting. BUT, I can no longer close my eyes and cover my ears to these devastating situations. I can no longer ignore these situations and problems that plague the people of the country of my birth.
I become agitated when I listen to acquaintances, who go through their normal routine of life, enjoy their travels, their poetry and their gatherings with friends, without any thought to the hardships and suffering that their fellow country men and women in Iran deal with on a daily basis in Iran. Truly my blood boils and I am shocked to my bones.
How can we ignore the voices of the people of the Province of Khuzestan, deprived of drinking water in the heat of the summer; their thirst for a drop of water was visible on their faces. These people are demanding and protesting for this simple right of access to water; their demands and protests have led to their incarceration. How is it possible that this is happening? How is it possible that this happened during the presidency of Mr. Khatami? He sold Iran’s precious water to Kuwait. NOW the Karoon River is dried up and the Province of Khuzestan , that for many years was one of the largest agricultural and producing centers of sugar cane, finds itself in this terrible situation.
Many using the water shortage as an excuse, are removing the palm trees by their roots and selling them to the Emirates; and then when objections are made, the Emirates return six hundred trees. There was a time when Iran was the second largest producer of dates, after Iraq. Unfortunately, many (trees/land) in Khuzestan were burned down by Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war. Now, this regime is harvesting these date trees by their roots and exporting them back to Arab nations. Iran’s exports of pistachios, saffron and rugs are heading towards zero, yet in Afghanistan saffron is sold under the name of “Iranian” saffron for $160 to $300 an ounce. Iran’s oil exports are down to zero. Recently, the government announced that private companies (that are probably owned by members of their family) will be allowed to sell oil, with the condition that money from the sales is returned to Iran. If you remember this was experienced at another time when billions of dollars from oil sales, with the excuse of sanctions, never came back to Iran.
Isn’t it interesting that we are now witnessing a drought and a lack of water in Isfahan, after the Khuzestan disaster? It is also interesting that during the eight-year war, Isfahan lost more than twenty thousand souls (and in one day 370 martyrs). Today the people of Isfahan are being referred to as agitators, anti-revolutionary and being thrown into prison for voicing their concerns against the injustice that this regime has brought them. The peaceful and kind people of Isfahan, in response to the regimes conduct, had a sit down in the dried out Zayandeh Roud River in lieu of demonstrating in the streets. They knew public demonstrations would be confronted with violence by the authorities. They knew that they would be accused of setting fires and destroying businesses. Certainly, they went in a smarter direction. Sadly in the end the “will” of the people did not succeed. The authorities overwhelmed the crowds, and Khamenei in his speech indirectly stated that, if you hit hard, we will hit harder.
At the same time this was happening in Isfahan and in Khuzestan and while my mind was occupied with all the protests and sufferings, a friend of mine sent me a video of a speech by Ayatollah Khomeini from years ago (the date unknown). In this speech the Ayatollah said that we assume that the Shah did a lot of construction to modernize Iran. We assume that the Shah loved Iran and worked hard for Iran. But, if the people of Iran, regardless of his actions, don’t want him and voice this through demonstrations and demands, then he should respectfully resign and leave. Let the people choose their own destiny and government.
It is unbelievable that the present rulers do not seem to respect the words of Ayatollah Khomeini, the father and founder of the Islamic Republic. I wonder why they respond with brutality and bullets against the peaceful demonstrators? And I wonder why they do not respect the will and demands of the people?
It is interesting that recently Mr. Khamenei condemned and ridiculed the Western nations about human rights violations, “In France the police blind protestors and then they condemn our behavior towards our protestors.” It is shameful when he compares violent acts by authorities and does not distinguish the harshness of the behaviors of the police and the Basiji.
While I was researching and gathering information for this editorial, I came across an article about natural gas being imported into Iran by Turkmenistan. It is upsetting that Iran with the second largest gas reserves, now is required to import gas. This transaction or agreement was completed by Dr. Ayatollah Raisi (who has no more than a sixth-grade education and three years of religious training.) Even worse is the news that Dr. Mohammad Ghalibaf (the head of Parliament, a general, a pilot and PhD of nuclear medicine) along with the newly elected mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani (former Basiji, medical doctor and nuclear medicine specialist!!) were selected to the Board of Governors of the University of Tehran. It is important to note that to be on the Board of Governors you must be a highly regarded educator, scholar and or intellectual. A few examples are Professor Mahmoud Hessabi (who worked with Einstein at Princeton,) Ali Asghar Hekmat, Dr. Parviz Khanlari, MohammadAli Foroughi, Dr. Mahmoud Afshar, Dr. Sadigh and so many affluent individuals who were past recipients of this honor. One therefore must be suspicious how Ghalibaf, who was in the eight-year war and from age twenty became a Pasdar, a pilot and a doctor accomplished all of this in such a short period of time. And after the war he became the mayor of Tehran and ran as a presidential candidate in a few.
Someone mentioned on Facebook that the best way to destroy a country is to destroy the power of education and knowledge, to the point of ignorance. This was said by Dr. Ari Babak-Nia. The regret I have for Iranians is that because of the lowering of education and knowledge in Iran there will be a hastened destruction and collapse of the country. The mullahs are trying to infest the minds of the people using hallucination, superstition and illusion. An example of this was done by the head mullah in Mashad, Alamolhoda. He stated to the people in response to their demonstrations over the Isfahan drought, that their problems would not be solved by demonstrating in front of God. These demonstrations, he said, would not bring God’s help for rain and water. To get His help, you must do a rain prayer. Again, I ask how can people believe this and put their trust into this type of leadership?
The result and outcome of all this ignorance is leaving Iran a country with a “brain drain.” Intellectuals leave to find prosperity in other places. These intellectuals have become the heads of companies, others holding high level government positions as Dr. Massoud Ghareh Khani the new head of the Norwegian Parliament. These are the brains who have fled their birthland, taking refuge in foreign countries and now hold highly regarded positions. Most of the Diaspora, like the late Professor Maryam Mirzakhani ( who in 2014 became the first Iranian to be honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics and the only woman to date) and other leaders in Nassau and Silicon Valley are graduates of Iran’s universities.
I have now ended what I believe to be a dreadful and sad editorial. But I close with continued good wishes to all my fellow country men and women around the world. I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season. I wish for you all a healthy and fruitful coming year with no Covid and less financial grievances. Finally, I wish for the Iranian people the right to choose their religious practice, the right to speak freely and the right to be free.
I saw in Voice of America a report that Google Doodle honored Professor Lotfi Zadeh. He was a computer scientist and developed the “innovative mathematical framework” known as “fuzzy logic.” Voice of America reported this on the anniversary of “Fuzzy Logic’s “creation and placed a picture of Professor Lotfi Zadeh with mathematical symbols and numbers, he used in his scientific achievements.
I am wishing for a day that instead of a brain drain in Iran, that all these brilliant people would return to rebuild a new mighty free Iran, modeling after the more developed countries in the world. I wish for all the people of Iran a new opportunity to be found in the land of their ancestry. I wish for all the intellectuals, the good leaders and many of our young fabulous people to have the opportunity to help build a healthy new Iran. Hoping for this day to come.