Tabreek o tasleeyat
Reza Pahlavi, Iranian of the year
By Jahanshah Javid
May 20, 2002
The Iranian
Yes, I'm afraid so. Reza Pahlavi got more votes than anyone else. He's the 2001
Iranian of the year.
(Silence)
I can explain.
On May 11, an email was sent to more than 29,000 people on iranian.com's mailing
list saying, "VOTE for Iranian of the year. Pick one person -- anyone you think
should be honored for her/his efforts/achievements in the past year."
In the past, survey questions have brought in a couple of hundred responses in the
first few days. Not this time.
I waited, and waited and waited... four days went by. Nakheyr! Beh tokhmeshoon
neest! No one gave a damn. Well, almost no one. Only about 80 people voted --
including four for me, three for "no one", and two for the Saudi Arabian
of the Year, Osama Bin Laden.
So I sent out another email reminding everyone to vote. It didn't make a difference.
Only a few more responded.
Everyone's either asleep, indifferent or without a choice they can be happy with.
With the exception of monarchists. They are awake, they are not indifferent, and
they are perfectly happy with Reza Pahlavi.
So, beh man marboot neest. Taqseere khodetooneh... If you don't like the results,
too bad. You should have voted. And if you're happy, congratulations. Mobaarak
baasheh. Enshaalaa saale deegeh jobraan meekoneem... :-)
Here are the final and complete results for iranian.com's
2001 Iranian of the year survey:
Total votes received: 104
1- Reza Pahlavi, opposition politician (19
votes)
2- Mohammad Khatami, Iranian president, Iranian of the year in 1997,
1998 (12)
3- Mehrangiz Kar,
human rights activist (6)
4- Zia Atabai, president and CEO of National
Iranian Television (NITV), Los Angeles (5)
5- Siamak Pourzand, imprisoned journalist
(4)
5- Jahanshah Javid,
beekaar and very embarrassed (4)
6- Yadollah Sahabi,
opposition politician who died last month (3)
6- "No one" (3)
7- Hadi Khorsandi, satirist (2)
7- Akbar Ganji, imprisoned journalist, iranian.com's 2000
Iranian of the year last year (2)
7- Mehdi Karrubi,
head of parliament (2)
7 - Bagher Kalhor, skier
in 2002 Winter Olympics (2)
7- Osama
Bin Laden, Saudi Arabian terrorist (2)
All others who got one vote:
- Salar Abdoh (Author)
- Ali Afshari
(Student activist)
- Christiane
Amanpour (CNN reporter)
- Davar Ardalan
(NPR producer)
- Rudi Bakhtiar
(CNN news anchor)
- Ahmad Batebi
(Prisoner of concience)
- Bahram Beizaie
(Filmmaker)
- Ahmad Birashk
- Average Iranians
- Abe Eftekhari
- Ezatollah
Amir Entezam (Political prisoner)
- F. Fouladvand
- Googoosh (Pop icon)
- Iranian-Americans
- Iranians in Iran
- Shahram Homayoun (Pars TV, California)
- Kayhan Kalhor (Kamancheh
master musician)
- Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Fillmmaker)
- Manzar Maroufi (Persian Center, Berkeley,
California)
- Alireza Meybodi (Broadcast journalist, Los
Angeles)
- Tahmineh
Milani (Filmmaker)
- Mohammad
Mossadegh (Late Prime Minister)
- Newspaper editors in Iran
- Farah Diba Pahlavi (Former Empress)
- Ebrahim Salarizadeh
- Mohsen Sazgara (Journalist, political activist)
- Shahla Sherkat (Women's rights activist)
- Shojaedin Shafa (Iranologist)
- Ali Akbar Siasi (Pioneer in higher education)
- Dariush Shayegan (Intellectual)
- Behrooz Sooresrafil
- System of a Down (Armenian Rock band
in Los Angeles)
- Heshmatollah Tabarzadi
- Mo Vaziri
- Terrance
Ward, (American Author)
- Ebrahim Yazdi (Opposition politician)
- Ahmad Zaydabadi (Journalist)
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