Roosters insure car safety in the Islamic Republic in Iran!

Last weekend I picked up an old friend at the airport on his way to visit his relatives in LA, who spent a couple of nights at my place. We naturally talked about Iran, our mutual friends, and the social and political situation in the country.

Out of all the stories he told me, one must be the crown of all the absurdities I have heard in a long time, which made me want to share it with everyone.

A few weeks ago, my friend had visited a government office in Tehran responsible for cars’ number plates. On entering the grounds, he was taken aback by noticing a wooden cage in a corner of the garden, filled with roosters! He could not understand what business they might have in such an organization, which dealt with traffic and car-related issues in the capital and had nothing to do with animal welfare nor agricultural affairs. Once his business was taken care of, he asks the clerk why there were roosters kept in the courtyard.

“Good you mentioned it!” says the clerk, suddenly realizing, “I nearly forgot to ask you! Would you like to purchase one?”

Looking puzzled, my friend asks the man why would anyone coming here for his vehicle, would want to buy a rooster!

“For protection!” the guys answer firmly.

“Protection?” asks my friends, sounding more confused.

“Yes!” The clerk is by now slightly irritated by my friend’s ignorance, “Mister! I am very busy: if you want to buy a rooster you pay me now and show the receipt to the guy at the gate and take your rooster with you on your way out. You cut his throat and rub his blood on the new number plates as well as on the front and the rear bumpers of your car.”

My friend said: "I took my dossier and walked out without saying a word. As I passed by the cage the poor birds were staring at me."

60 Years of Public Service

Twenty years after she married the Shah, Empress Farah went to exile amid political tensions and betrayals.  When she left Iran as a young and vibrant working Empress, wife and mother, on 16^th January 1979, her determination, stamina, courage and tenacity have been attributes added to her previous list of qualities: ‘a working Empress' (1)  graceful, beautiful and ‘the gentle/softer face of the monarchy’ (2). However, on her mission to fight for her people’s lost dignity and prosperity, no one in the world could have expected nor imagined her resilience considering the tragedies life has thrown at her.

If I had the opportunity to meet her, I would have liked to ask her on her 81^st birthday this October 14^th, whether Her Majesty considered her position a blessing or a curse?

Many around the world look at royalties and their seemingly lavish lifestyle and the glamour dazzles them. The Pahlavis, however, never had such lifestyle, even at the peak of the country’s wealth in the mid-70s. Looking at our few palaces, which mostly were built by the Qajars in the 19^th century and comparing them to those of constitutional monarchs of Europe or Japan, they appear totally insignificant. Iranian palaces of Niavaran and Sa’d Abad which some of them were built later, in comparison to likes of Buckingham Palace, were nothing than large houses even by Iranian standards of the time. Apart from the seeming glitter, which is mainly to promote and represent the country’s and its historic continuity, the truth of the job for all monarchs remain a thankless, lifetime responsibility with no retirement at sight.

At eighty-one year of age, Empress Farah is still a working Empress - as she was referred to by Newsweek in their 1976 interview. Although today, she does not have the office and the staff she once had in Tehran and perhaps has fewer visitors than when she headed twenty-six charitable, educational and cultural organisations while her office responded to fifty-thousand letters received annually (1) she nevertheless, keeps her days filled with appointments, audiences requested by Iranian and foreign personalities who wish to meet and discuss a wide range of topics, as well as letters, emails and telephone calls, which she often makes to those in Iran who wish to speak to her. The Empress, despite her age has also taken advantage of modern technology and remains in touch through email as well as mobile and internet with those who look up to her and Prince Reza as a torch lighting the path for a secular and democratic future in Iran.

During her twenty years as Iran’s Empress and consort to the Shah, she had laid down the foundations of numerous social and educational establishments throughout the country that generations ever since, are benefiting and keep sending her their blessings: from orphanages, hospitals and schools, to art centres and charity organisations that focused their efforts in the betterment of our nation.

Earlier this year Her Majesty granted an audience to a journalist friend of mine. I had asked my friend to ask one question on my behalf:

• Don’t you, Your Majesty, get tired of all you do, every day, for almost sixty years now?

Considering I follow many interviews with politicians as well as royalties from around the globe; never before had I heard a response so heartfelt and earnest from any one of them. I was stunned with her dedication and was humbled by her sincerity.

• "Tired of what? No! Never! It’s my responsibility. I love our people. I cannot stop. I must do all I can for them, to regain once again, our rightful place among the world community of nations." Her Imperial Majesty had replied.

I got my answer! Someone with such a clear vision of her historic role would never consider her position and responsibility - bestowed on her by history, as a curse. She has suffered like many Iranian mothers and wives since the coming of this republic. Those who have lost their children or their husband or live in exile away from home and friends understand her suffering in silence. Yet she remains compassionate and keeps her spirit high. Like many of us whose future was destroyed and derailed by the Islamic revolution of 1979; hers and her children’s future – what they were destined for, too were taken away from them. Nevertheless, despite all the tragedies she has endured over the past four decades, she has remained a strong believer in the triumph of light over darkness.

The nineteen months after Their Imperial Majesties’ departure marked one of the darkest periods in the life of Iran’s Empress. Her children, the extended Imperial family and friends were scattered around the world, some of their friends but most regrettably their allies had turned their back on their strongest and the staunchest partner in the Middle East while the Shah’s deteriorating health made life at times not worth living.

The wandering months leading to the late Shah’s death in Cairo on 27^th July 1980, gave a new definition to the word 'betrayal' in international relations and diplomacy. The behaviour of the free world leaders towards the Shah, particularly that of the United States brought shame upon them who had sought his friendship and support. The U.S. set a new standard for the meaning of treachery and for the lack of decency in the world of realpolitik.

The years following the Shah’s death provided a calmer life for the Iranian Imperial family. The restrictions to stay at their own properties in the U.K. or Switzerland was never lifted by the so-called former friendly governments, but a more relaxed attitude was taken towards them by the host countries. The assassination of their greatest friend and supporter, President Sadat of Egypt on 6^th October 1981 was a major blow to the stability, the Iranian Imperial family had enjoyed since their settlement in Egypt.

Although the threat of assassination and murder by the agents of the Islamic Republic has never disappeared, the political tension between Iran and the rest of the world regarding the Pahlavis at least seems to have had less of an implication on the Imperial family. One should not forget that at some point during the hostage crisis, the United States played with the idea of handing its oldest ally to the murderous mullahs in Tehran - for exchange for the American diplomats. Had it not been for President Sadat’s direct action by calling Carter and making it very clear that he wanted the Shah in Egypt and alive, it is likely that the Americans would have arrested and handed the Shah to the criminal Islamic republic authorities in Tehran. The death of the Shah removed the bargaining chip that Americans were prepared to sacrifice after 34 years of closest Cold War friendship and collaboration.

This could have been the moment when the Empress and Crown Prince Reza washed their hands from any campaign for Iran and instead chosen a peaceful, comfortable and for sure a safer life in exile – like other royal families who lost their country. Had they made such a decision as to not sacrifice their lives for the very nation that had demanded their death only months earlier, and forced them into exile after 57 years of service, they would have without a doubt led a happier and a safer life, and perhaps Her Majesty would have not lost her two youngest children. Instead, the Empress has worked tirelessly for the past six decades and Prince Reza for all his adult life in order to voice Iranians’ plea for dignity and freedom. Even today at the age of 81, the Empress has proven to be a tower of strength for all her compatriots who have not given up the fight for a free and a prosperous Iran.

Empress Farah Pahlavi is a symbol of dignity, compassion and hope for tens of millions of Iranians around the world.

Happy birthday, Your Majesty!

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 1. TIME, November 1974

 2. Cooper, A. S. The Fall of Heaven - The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. 2016

Jaleh Square

Following the success of their first terrorist act at Abadan’s Cinema Rex on 17^th August 1978, Khomeini’s gang realized a change of tactics was necessary if they were to topple Iran’s Imperial government. Jaleh Square or what came to be known as the Black Friday was their next evil terrorist plot.

The fanatic clergies understood that the Shah would not order the security forces to fire on demonstrators. Therefore, to demoralize the police and the army, women and children were placed at the front of the marching demonstrators. In the past months, occasional violence had erupted during demonstrations with some casualties, and the Islamist agitators had only sufficed to destroy public properties, burning down hotels and cinemas, vandalizing liquor stores and restaurants, ransacking charity organizations or whatever they considered as a Western influence. Nevertheless, the Shah’s policy of refraining from live ammunition had kept casualties relatively low.

For almost two decades, the opposition to the monarchy had portrayed the Shah – particularly on the international scene, as a blood-sucking dictator. When the government, however, launched its liberalization program in 1976 and declared its intention to hold a free election for the summer of 1979, demonstrations and riots against the Shah suddenly began. According to Andrew Scott Cooper, the Shah did not mind the disturbances and he even considered them as a way for the Iranian society to "let off steam".[i]

Iranian opposition to the Shah; however, were by no means feeding on democratic ideologies. Although the free world kept bashing the Iranian government for its treatment of the opposition, these opponents were simply none other than terrorists who bombed public places, vandalized public properties, attacked Iran's representative offices in democratic countries and assassinated and kidnapped the officials. Hard-line Communists and Islamic fanatics - what the Shah referred to as the Red and the Back reactionaries, together with the militia groups whose ethos were anything but democratic saw the Shah’s liberalization policies as a threat to their dogmatic aspirations. These groups who struggled for power could only ensure their stay in power by enforcing cruel and dictatorial force; Islamists who finally triumphed proved their point.

The so-called Iranian National Front, whose party's essence was founded on a constitutional monarchy and had been opposing the Shah’s autocratic ways of governing, refused to collaborate with the government in building that democratic future for the country. Khomeini’s gang on the other hand, had no interest in Western ideologies or in building a democratic Iran. He had made it very clear in his writings and sermons, the type of government his Velayat Faqih would be. Just like Hitler, Khomeini too, in his book and speeches had spelled out his intentions and the form of government he wished for Iran.

In their next act - to discredit the Shah’s liberalization policies, which ultimately would have disarmed the oppositions and unmasked their true undemocratic identities, the religious and spiritual class of Iranian society mastered their second major evil act. What a better way to tarnish the government’s attempt in driving the country towards democracy than making it appear as an authoritarian regime who has no fear of shedding the blood of its own citizens.

Khomeini’s men, some of whom had trained by Palestinian terrorists in their camps in Lebanon and Libya, went in action for their next blood bath. The mullahs had realized that the Shah would not save his throne at the cost of his subjects’ lives. Hence, the revolutionaries planned to portray exactly the opposite and build on people’s emotions that were still very high and in mourning and shock, since Abadan’s Cinema Rex.

Cooper writes “… the Coalition of Islamic Societies had decided to mass their followers in Jaleh Square on Friday morning [8^th September 1978] and stage a march to the Majlis. Once there they planned to force their way in, seize the prime minister and members of parliament, and declare an Islamic republic.”[ii] Later in the day, the government announced martial law in twelve major cities. Cooper continues, “Jaleh Square was a misleading name for the modest traffic circle that joined Farahabad Road with Jaleh Road, a narrow carriageway that passed the American Community School in a westerly direction toward the Majlis. Overlooking the roundabout, which could be entered from several sides, were low-slung flat-roofed buildings containing apartments and small businesses. On Friday morning several thousand people converged on a space too congested to accommodate everyone. They ignored warnings from the police and army officers to disperse and listened to a fiery speech by Ayatollah Nouri, who led them in chants for Khomeini and an Islamic republic and against the Pahlavi Dynasty and the monarchy. The mostly male crowd was comprised of Khomeini supporters, students, and leftists, but also a contingent of PLO-trained Mujahedin guerrillas, who regularly used big crowds as a cover to stage provocations and take control of the streets. A second, less visible armed group was at the scene. They were battle-hardened veterans of seven clandestine militias that reported directly to Khomeini’s agents in Najaf and Qom. Their presence exposed the fallacy of Khomeini’s public claim that he supported a nonviolent approach to street protests. The Khomeini movement followed its usual practice of placing women, children, and young people at the head of the demonstration to intimidate the security forces and provide cover for their gunmen.”[iii]

Cooper’s book is a chilling account of coming together of underground terrorist organizations that had no respect for democracy, human rights, or for any sort of social or political freedom. All they were after was power, which ultimately placed one of the richest countries in the world at their disposal and ever since has created havoc in the Middle East and beyond.

“According to witnesses, the troops ordered the demonstrators to abandon the demonstration several times, then fired overhead and shot tear gas into the crowd.” reported Washington Post’s William Branigan. Cooper writes, “At Jaleh Square, there were people among the crowd who used guns,” admitted Ali Hossein, one of close contacts with Khomeini’s inner circle, “One probability is that both sides shot into each other.” [iv]

While the nation was still perplexed by the charcoaled images shown on television and newspapers from young and old, men, women, and children who perished in Cinema Rex tragedy a few weeks earlier, Jaleh Square was a perfect opportunity to strike a government that was already on the defensive.

Palestinian terrorists brought into the country through illegal channels were used to start the shootings in order to create havoc among demonstrators, which would consequently believe they were being shot at by the army. Manouchehr Ganji in his book states on behalf of a former revolutionary who had since defected to the West: "The window of my apartment opened on the Jaleh Square. I was contacted by a group of 'Islamic Marxists' who sent two armed Palestinians to my apartment. From the window of my apartment, they opened fire not only on the soldiers but also on the crowd. Other Palestinian sharpshooters had been stationed on the rooftops of other buildings or behind other windows and were doing the same."[v]

“Estimate of casualties for that Friday ranges from fewer than 100 to many thousands. The post-revolutionary Martyr Foundation could identify only 79 dead, while the coroner's office counted 82 and Tehran's main cemetery, Beheshte-e Zahra, registered only 40."[vi]

‘The real number,’ Cooper writes, ‘they insisted, was at least two thousand and most likely three thousand killed. Blared a headline in Britain’s Guardian, “3,000 DEATHS IN IRAN SAY SHAH’S OPPONENETS.” which makes one wonder how inaccurately and on purpose, Western media flamed the anti-Shah propaganda. Cooper continues, ‘The newspaper’s correspondent dismissed the government death toll as “a gross underestimate” and repeated unproven allegations that the registry at Tehran’s Beheshtzahra Cemetery showed three thousand bodies buried in a “mass grave.” In fact, a drive to the cemetery’ Cooper writes, ‘would have revealed there was no burial site and that the registry showed just forty new bodies.’

Lies and misinformation against Pahlavi Iran was not only pouring into world media through baseless news bulletins and articles; from Human Rights organizations to Western communist groups all had joined anti-Iran’s Imperial government bandwagon, together with Islamic fanatics who based the foundation and reasons for their revolt on fabricated stories.

‘Many years later, the Islamic Republic’s Martyr’s Foundation confirmed a death toll of eighty-eight to sixty-four in the square and twenty-four in surrounding streets - or two higher than the original estimate provided by the Shah’s government. By then, of course, the damage had been done, and the Shah was given the moniker “Butcher of Jaleh Square.”[vii]

The responsibility of what has since been introduced throughout the world as Islamic terrorism, is partly on the shoulders of Western journalists and media for their non-investigative attitude towards their profession and for spreading years of fabricated stories based on well-orchestrated rumors and lies.

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[i] Cooper A.S. (2016) The Fall of Heaven – The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. P.38

[ii] Cooper A.S. (2016) The Fall of Heaven – The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. p.398

[iii] Cooper A.S. (2016) The Fall of Heaven – The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. p.399

[iv] Cooper A.S. (2016) The Fall of Heaven – The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. P.401

[v] Gangi M. (2002) Defying the Iranian Revolution: From a Minister to the Shah to a Leader of Resistance. p.14

[vi] Kurzman C. (2004) Unthinkable Revolution. p.75

[vii] Cooper A.S. (2016) The Fall of Heaven – The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. P.403