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Wednesday
April 11, 2001

Perverse pleasure against Pahlavi

I found your April Fool's article, "Not without my mom", in extremely poor taste. I realize you have the right to publish anything you wish, and I would be the first one to agree that political humour is a necessity for free and healthy political dialogue and community, but there is also such a thing as editorial restraint and good judgement.

In the past you have taken almost perverse pleasure in publishing insulting articles dealing with Reza Pahlavi. Kobra Khanoum's "Our demands" was one of them. What, I ask, is achieved by this kind tirade other than losing the good will of people everywhere who have looked at the Iranian as a healthy place for the exchange of ideas.

In the late sixties in Iran we had a journal of political satire called Towfigh. Some of your readers might still recall this journal. It was wonderful and funny and healthy. In an atmosphere were laughter about politicians was actively discouraged and could be detrimental, Towfigh played an invaluable role.

Then Towfigh decided to print a cartoon depicting the late Prime Minister Hoveyda and his wife, with Hoveyda proclaiming to his wife: "short-e to chatr-e nejat-e man ast!" That was in extremely poor taste. The result was that Towfigh lost the good will of many of its supporters, especially Hoveyda himself, who, I was told, enjoyed the gentle bantering of Towfigh quite a bit, as he was a daily feature in its cartoons. Having lost the goodwill of many, when Towfigh was shut down, no one came to its rescue and a good thing was lost for a very bad reason.

Here, of course, The Iranian is immune from the threat of being shut down by the authorities. This is America, after all! But what can happen in these cases is the loss of goodwill of people who most sincerely wish the best for outlets such as The Iranian. When one loses ones friends in good times, who will stand by one when bad times come?

I am sure that the editorial board of The Iranian has the wisdom and fortitude to do better than that silly article. It is time they showed us that they do.

Professor Manoutchehr M. Eskandari-Qajar
Political Science and Middle Eastern History
Chair, Department of Political Science
Santa Barbara City College, California

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