Friday
February 23, 2001
No comparison
While I respect every person's right to their opinion, I find a disturbing
double-standard in the author's treatment of history ["The
general's widow"].
The author's casual and nonchalant mention of the execution of Dr. Hossein
Fatemi, the Foreign Minister of Prime Minister Mosaddegh's administration,
is bereft of objectivity, sincerity and any sense of integrity. This stands
out particularly in the context of what has happened to General Rahimi
and his family and a simple comparison of these two individuals and their
alleged crimes and track records.
Hossein Fatemi was a political activist (maybe even an extermist), yet
non-violent, a believer in Iran becoming a republic and at worst a loud
mouth. He was not in the military, did not have guns nor did he have direct
control of any military organization. He was a foreign minister.
His biggest crime, as alleged by his executioners, was attempting to
establish a republic in Iran and facilitating the downfall of the monarchy.
It took the CIA to stop him and his fellow nationalists. By all accounts
he was a traitor to the Shah, but not a traitor to the people nor a killer,
or embezzler of government funds.
Mehdi Rahimi was a career-military man, devoted to the Shah and his
regime. He even asked for the Shah's "permission" to get married.
He had direct access to arms, probably was personally armed and controlled
military units, bloated financial budgets and secret actitvities.
I do not know of his civil, financial or administrative record but at
a minimum he was an associate (if not a participant) of a large, wasteful,
dictatorial, bloated and corrupt bureaucracy.
He was the military commander of Tehran. You get to that position by
having pulled a few triggers or having ordered others to do so - against
unarmed civilians. Soft-hearted human-rights whimps need not apply.
It is utterly abject to treat General Rahimi's story with such emotion
and sensation while the by-orders-of-magnitude less guilty and less-deserving-of-execution
Dr. Fatemi receives an oh-so-sorry-it-happened mention sprinkled with the
"dasto-del-bAziyeh AryAmehri" to his widow. How convenient and
liberating.
I have every sympathy in the world toward Mrs. Rahimi. But I feel like
a true traitor to the Iranian people, and indeed to humanity, when I place
her pain and hurt above those of Mrs. Fatemi and thousands of political
prisoners and civilians murdered/tortured savagely by his Imperial Majesty,
Shahanshah Aryamehr and his generals.
Aref Erfani
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