Letters

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Friday
June 1, 2001

Gold digger

My sympathy and support goes to Ebrahim Golestan ["Hormat"], yet another forgotten and ignored Iranian artist in exile while the likes of Rose Issa ["Poisonous"], who have joined the gold rush by insisting on being an admirer of the Islamic Republic and its art. ["London calling"]

Ms Issa is talking rubbish as she has been corrupted by too much money, too much high quality hospitality inside Iran, and too much cushiness in the most expensive hotels and guest houses in Tehran and other beautiful cities of Iran. In other words she is talking from baad-e-shekam when she says such nonsense about c Ebrahim Golestan's comments.

The fact of the matter is that when she deals with the Islamic Republic of Iran, she is not thinking about the welfare of Persian arts or Persian artists! She is merely pretending to do so in order to get the Islamic Republic to foot all her bills. Right now she is earning a fortune plus all expenses, from the Islamic Republic, by pretending that she is ever so busy promoting Iranian arts, while the truth is that she does not give a damn about Iranian arts. All she cares about is earning a luxurious life by giving lip service to arts and artists from Inside Iran: she is leaning that way, towards inside Iran, simply because that is the side where her bread is buttered most generously.

Rose Issa is a business woman; her only interest in life is to earn good money so that she can live good life: whoever is prepared to give Rose Issa what she wants, she will work for them. For she is neither an artist, nor does she appreciate or understand art. All she wants is money.

Ebrahim Golestan too must be willing to depart with large sums of his money so that Rose Issa shows willingness to promote him. For she too is like the rest of us, is a lover of money, and for the present the Islamic Republic of Iran is the only side which is foolish enough and rich enough to buy her misreprestations of her true greedy self: How is the IR to know that she is not what she says she is?

She is not an authority in Persian art, but she pretends to be, particularly when she is covering for Sheila Whitaker, who is yet another Western woman who is dependent on the Islamic Republic for her life-style which is one of the most exclusive and expensive ones.

Both Sheila Whitaker and Rose Issa are fakes: they know naught about Iranian cinema and arts, but the Islamic Republic is prepared to buy their nonsense about themselves as authorities in cinema and Persian arts as well as literature and pay them astronomical sums for hospitality and salaries and grants to organise a festival at the Barbican in London ["London calling"], while at the same time they are robbing us Iranians in London to buy expensive tickets to get in, and while they pay not a penny as fees to Iranian speakers they bring over here from Iran and elsewhere.

Rana Bahar

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