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Alefba

Farshchian

Sehaty Foreign Exchange

    Letters

Thursday
March 15, 2001

Monarchy no answer

I am a young Iranian-American. My family left Iran when I was very young, in the midst of a war that seemed like it was never going to end, and came to the U.S. for a better life.

My memories of Iran are not ver clear. My knowledge of Iran is incomplete. But I do know this: a return to monarchy is not the answer for Iran. I think it is unfortunate that so many Iranians regard the Shah's regime with such nostalgic affection.

Iran doesn't need a secular dictatorship to take the place of the current theocratic dictatroship. Iran also doesn't need a constitutional monarchy filled with symbolic figureheads and royal families that do nothing but attend charity dinners.

We need a democratic environment that will allow all viewpoints to be expressed -- be they secular, Islamicist, or socialist.

On a separate note, I have to question the following sentence from the article "My Friend": "After almost twenty-two years nobody has come forward with a shred of documented evidence that Reza, his father or mother, have any substantial wealth."

I unfortunately have not had the privelege of knowing any members of Iran's exiled nobility, being the commoner that I am. But I highly doubt that the royal family didn't flee with at least a modest fortune in their pockets. Otherwise, I think His Highness Reza Pahlavi would be a bit more concerned with paying his bills and saving up for his childrens' college education than reviving the noble and glorious realm of the shahs.

Sina Yousefi

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