Pictory

To Anonymous9999999999: no more religious govt.

Please don't say that is not true Islam. That is one true Islamic government based on Sharia law. Arabs forced Islam onto a lot of countries not with kindness and compassion but at the point of the sword.

We've had it with religious governments (I mean those of us not on payroll or with a string attached) and I am pretty sure no real Iranian in their right mind wants another religious government after this horrible 30 year old experience so far, even if according to you it is based on true compassionate merciful Islam.

To Alborzi

U said "The thing is Khamenei and generally IRI have been very astute in knowing what is their popularity and have done what needs to be done for their survival. In other words they have acted normally according to their ideology. They have fought in a hopeless war and survived."

Very true! they have been very astute in knowing the extent of their popularity!!! that is why they have been ruthlessly and indiscrimiantely hanging, shooting, executing whoever opposed to them, building as many prisons as they possibly could and imprisoning as many people for their thoughts and beliefs as they possibly could.

They led Iran into a hopelss war and survived thanks to the partriotism/nationalism of all those selfless Iranian soliders who fought the war to defend the country!! They would have done so as well under the Shah if a foreign country had invaded Iran back then.

Khameneii and generally IRI did not contribute one single akhoond or their children to the cause of war!

U Said:

"They have taken Iran to brink of war and walked away."

They haven't walked away from building their nukes In fact they are stupid enough to think that nukes give them permanent lease on power and are very much encouraging the world for another war!

The fact that they have managed to survive for the last 30 years is not due to their astute intelligence, resilience or popularity (not by a long shot), but due to the EXTREME incomptence of those opposed to them to show Iranian people and the world a real alternative to that fiasco of a regime PERIOD

to Fair

i agree with you. revolution went wrong. Shah made the revolution easy and appealing. at the end of the day, most of the responsibility lies with people, then Shah. in regards to Khomeini; i don't know what to say. i don't want to bad mouth him, but at best he was self-diluted crazy SOB. in regards to shah, he was just a dumb ass, unfortunately. about the gov. right now. sad is the description. what they hell are they doing. who are they fooling. this is not islamic government. shia sect of islam is a distortion and a lie. believe in Imams is shameful. if any one is a muslim, they have one prophet and one book and what prophet taught and practices. what is all this none-sense about emams, and they don't stop there, now we're waiting for the 12th emam. are you kidding me. this is bullshit man. for god's sake, we're not even following the true islam.

Well...

Darius K.: I am impressed with your effort to clarify the events. Thank you!

If RP sued this guy for $7M then what happened to the $20B that IRI claimed he stole. Would anyone with $20B care about a mere $7M, which is far less than the commission of investing $20B.

I also heard that shah rejected reading this paper, but in the rush of the time, Nasr and Ghotbi convinced him that it was the right thing to do.

iranian 123: remember shah died a year or so later. Maybe it was the time for his regime to go, it would have gone anyway, but replacing him with IRI was nothing but a sign of incompetence of the iranians, left, right, literate and illiterate. He gave people a choice, Bakhtiar, and they refused. We need to judge him and the iranians fairly. The same iranians who had been screaming about lack of freedom of speech, corruption, and brutality of the shah for decades, the same iranians shut up and in fact participated in lynching of shah's generals without due process the first chance that they got. A year or so later, the same iranians, ransaked the first newspaper, and a year later hanged the first editor of a newspaper. The same iranians yielded to khomeini to commit atrocities hundreds of times larger than the shah from day 1. These iranians did NOT want a better regime, they wanted a more brutal chaotic regime in which they were the rulers and the looters.

One cannot have it both ways: shah was so bad and needs to go, yet we will be even worse from the day that we are in charge. Claim that Shah was a dictator and then complain that he was weak. These are hypocrisies and blaming others for the disaster that we, the iranians, brought upon us.

If we truly wanted a better regime than the shah's, WE, the iranians should have deserved it before we acted. That is, we should have lined up behind Bakhtiar, or at least should have been as bold as we were in staging the revolution in opposing khomeini in his killings, in his looting of iran, in enforcing hejab, and in so many other backward steps that he took. Do you really believe that those iranians who saw picture of Emam on the moon deserved any better than the shah? Those iranians had to be brought out of the stable of ignorance by force. But they wanted someone like khomeini to use their ignorance and keep them in their stable for years to come. That is what they wanted and that is what they got.

We cannot have it both ways, criticizing the shah, yet behaving far worse than he was when we got the freedom that we were asking for. But so we did, and thus shah was way too good, way too soft for the iranians that we saw cared about nothing but their personal gains. All those decades of screaming against the shah were nothing but deception and hypocrisy. All those hard-core revolutionaries either participated in IRI crimes or ran away and still scream their slogans against the shah from the comfort of their lovely homes in los Angeles and Landon and paris. Those iranians deserved no better than IRI; shah was way too good for them. Imagine where we would be had that awful regime of the shah somehow survived. We wouldn't be worse than gulf arab states, or s. korea, or turkey, or india, or Malaysia, or Singapore, or... which iranians within run away to with joy of getting away from iran that their parents asked for and created.

God bless this man. The

God bless this man. The Iranian people did in fact have an opportunity to achieve democracy in 1979. I guess, the madness was total! Nobody seemed to care except a few people like Shapour Bakhtiar! What a waste of precious moments in our history!

Kaveh, Dariush, and Anonymous Patriot

All of you- beautifully said, and I agree with every word.

Did the Shah advance the country and its standard of living and its stature in the world?  Yes.  Was the Shah a democratic ruler? No. Did he have problems? Yes. Sh*t happens, and life is not perfect. What matters is how you DEAL with it. Everyone who complains about something better have a better solution. The people, whether they were illiterate or had a PhD, complained BUT DID NOT HAVE A BETTER SOLUTION. In fact, they threw away the better solution, Dr. Bakhtiar, and RIDICULED him. Khomeini was very clear from early on what his vision for government was, and that there needs to be a leader to ensure adherence to Shia jurisprudence. of EVERYTHING. All the PhD's who supported the revolution either saw this and accepted it, or they didn't do their homework. I blame THEM the most for our predicament. While other PhD's in South Korea and China and Phillipines and Chile were looking for ways to modernize their country after the dictatorship, ours sent us back to the 7th century.  And they still don't want to take responsibility and would rather say the US or others took him out.  Well if foreign powers wanted him out, they certainly did not have to try hard. Face it, Shah did NOT have popular support at the time.  Nor did Bakhtiar and other progressive modern thinkers.

I am not a monarchist. But I thank the Shah for his contributions to our country, and I acknowledge that he made mistakes and was not perfect and was not democratic. But show me how many Iranians had something better to offer. Until then, stop beating this dead horse, and leave this dead man alone. How many deaths and destructions was he responsible for, and how many deaths and destructions is Khomeini responsible for? And look who is buried where and gets more visitors at their graves, and that tells you volumes.

-FAIR

to Kaveh Nouraee

I said i rather live under khomeini than people like you. America is not governed by people like you! I'm not sure anymore actualy maybe it is from what i've seen in the past 5 years.

but on a serious note, Khomeini was a SOB. let's make that clear. He destroyed Iran and Islam, both of them in one shot. Thank you Khomeini, go call your self the soul of God and then destroy my country and my religion. shame on you khomeini, i will never forgive you and i will hate you for the rest of my life.

secondly, i don't want Shah to be my leader or king. He is an idiot, look at him with his pothetic readying of that paper. i want to screw his brain cells. if he can't remember and present 2 sentences, then he can not be a king. if he wasn't a big idiot, we weren't having this conversation right now.

Mullah's did high jack the revolution, and YES in case you don't know, majority of poeple were for the revolution and not necessarly for an Islamic Dictatorship. YES majority of people wanted to get rid of the Shah. this is a fact. like gravity is a fact.

What Else Can You Expect?

Majority of people were for the revolution? Then the majority of people are idiots. Your father with his PhD couldn't see what was coming with that Indian thug? I was 13 years old and I could see what was going to happen.

The moment that SOB set his filthy feet back in Tehran, Iran was finished. Done. End of story. Mollahs didn't hijack the revolution. They orchestrated and manipulated it to get the results you see today, because that was their intent from the beginning. That degenerate NEVER had any intention of anything other than replacing a semi-dictatorial monarchy with an absolute dictatorship using a theocratic republic form of government as its front, replacing a crown of gold and jewels with a cloth turban filled with dandruff and head lice. Where Shah's weaknesses had alienated many Iranians, leaving them feeling screwed, your precious mollahs simply f-ed over all of Iran.

Yes, Shah read a prepared statement. So what? He probably wanted to be sure that his message was conveyed clearly. When one person is trying to address 40 million or so people who are either pissed off or scared, displaying a lack of confidence was not an option.

The revolution was wrong? ARE YOU SERIOUS? Or just ignorant? Instead of being where it should be economically and globally, Iran is looking up to China, India, North Korea.

If you would honestly rather live under the oppression of that Indian, e-mail me your address. I'll pick you up and take you to the airport myself so you can get the hell out of here and go back to where you would RATHER live.

What is the difference

Ah thats the eternal question. The thing is Khamenei and generally IRI have been very astute in knowing what is their popularity and have done what needs to be done for their survival. In other words they have acted normally according to their ideology. They have fought in a hopeless war and survived. Have taken Iran to brink of war and walked away.
Contrast that with the idiot coward, first he believed his own lies, then he did not even calculate his survival and was refugee from one place to another and left his best friends to be executed, he was at best a Moran, but probably a delusional Moran, but he is gone and dead, the people who worship him are just laughable.
BTW a good belly laugh is good for you, It stimulates your brain cells, so be happy, you are not Shahi.

no shame!!!!

these individuals who are still ranting about how he was a cruel dictator and worse than the mullahs must be smoking some good stuff!
anyone with half a brain can see that he did not want to spill any blood- why didn't he shoot down khomeini's plane, or why didn't he unleash hell on the palestinian terrorist goons who burned down cinema rex or shot our people in jaleh square????
with all his issues, he was a true gentleman and patriot- he did make mistakes, but he was no butcher like these dogs that have raped iran for the past 30 years.....
let him rest in peace- history will show that he was an angel compared to these monsters!

Anonymous9999999999: Its Called "Character Assassination"

I agree with you on the fact that the Shah's Speach at the time was a clumsy move. It is a well kacknowledged fact that by the end of his reign, the Shah was not able to control the upheavels in the country. But he was by many people who knew him and by accounts written by different ministers of his government, that the man he was by 1979 was a very different one than that of the White Revolution or of the Oil Boom of the early 70's who had reached the Top of the Hill's of Power and decision making in the country.

He was actually very astute and visionary in his views like here during the OPEC Conference

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Hb1S2vD8E

and often took advantage of the naivity or eagerness to please of the Western Government Officials like when he promised to buy two Concorde Planes but finally refused on grounds that it was too expensive and not a good investment ( which was very true and proved so since Concorde was a true failure in commercial terms):

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbEvg-3uQuw&feature=related

In addition he suffered all his life from being compared to his own Father: Reza Shah "the Great" who reigned with an Iron Fist on a poor country.

But the fact is that the documentary and people questioned in this documentary are not at all reliable as sources to draw an accurate picture of the Shah or his psychology or even the exact events and decisions made by him or his government.

Ansary as I mentioned is a nobody. Neither is he connected to the Royal Family to his personal admission except through indirect ties. The Shah nor I believe his family would be sharing such private thoughts particularly to a Financial Advisor regardless of how trustworthy he is or is not. Cause Money is always a source of envy or greed and besides this man was too young at the time of the events to have been a close confident of the Monarch.

The IRI has been regularly attempting at a character assassination of the Shah and his family through very dubious methods and sources without ever delivering any form of proof in their allegations.

It is also interesting that Ansary turned against Reza Pahlavi in the early 90's when he was actually gaining some attention in the Iranian Diaspora:

Take a Look at the Way he was seen by his fervent Supporters in LA back in 1991 when he appeared as a threat to the Islamic Republic which had lost its charismatic leader Khomeiny by then and there was a vacuum of Power in the Iranian Leadership ( soon to be occupied by Khatami and the reformist movement) ;

//iranian.com/main/blog/darius-kadivar/pictory-reza-pahlavi-and-wife-first-public-appearance-exiled-iranians-1990s

The Bad reputation given to the Pahlavis by this recurrent Character Assassination ( And At times Physical Assassination of former Ministers, activists  or politicians like Shapour Bakhtiar, Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Oveissy etc ...)  was to a large degree efficient in maiming any attempt by the Shah's Son in trying to rally Iranians against the Regime. As a matter of fact the IRI's methods paid greatly on the long run since for Reza Pahlavi it has become much more difficult today than ever before to  rally as many people around him in Public both for security reasons and because many people have lost faith in possibilities of a Royal Restoration since.

Khatami's Reform Movement and Charm Offensive towards the US and the Iranian Diaspora (  through its lobbies in the US), Sept 11th, the War on Terror, the Nuclear Issue have all  contributed to dividing Iranians on what would be best to do in regard to the Iranian Regime. Which makes the role of the Opposition very inefficient to date.

On the otherhand the Fact is that the Shah by 1977 was a less dominant figure in Iran's internal politics which he had more or less relinquished its following to the Prime Minister and most of the blames were initially targeting the government of Hoveyda ( Actually very unjustly for he was the Shah's PM for 13 years). Instead the Shah focused most of his Time and energy on his International Relations and priviledged relationship with the US who had been a Staunch ally for more that 38 years...

 But with Changing Times and the rapproachment of Blocs between the Soviet Union and the United States in finding common ground on the nuclear issue through the successive SALT I & II aggreements, Iran's geo political position as a Buffer Zone against the Soviet Union became less a subject of concern for the Americans. The Shah's regime's Human Rights record became a subject of discourse between the Americans and their Iranian Ally of 38 years. How true the allegations reported by Amnesty International at the Time were is less the issue than the fact that Iran and its Oil were no more an obstacle to the West's Economic growth.

So you have an Ageing and Old Monarch who knows he is dying trying in vain to find answers to a social situation that surpassed him and which he thought could be solved through one or two reforms. His mistake in this speach was not much that he made it but that he started making excuses and giving the demonstrators reasons to think that THEY were Right and the fault was that of the government and his ministers.

The Country could have indeed taken a much different course if he had made NO excuses but would have gradually taken into account the discontent and offer a carrot and stick approach towards the People. A little like Jaruselski in Poland a year later. The opposition and the Revolutionaries were also to make a major mistake by not accepting the Shah's Olive Branch.

Were Iranians more aware of the Constitution and with a more political awareness and experience the Revolution of 1979 could have been similar to the Revolt of Mai 68 in France.

The Shah by giving his TV Speach hoped to achieve what De Gaulle had done in France and rally people in his favor in the streets. Instead the opposite took place because unlike the Shah, De Gaulle Made NO EXCUSES for the situation and called the Revolution a "Chianlit" literally a shithole revolt.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJxcMjbdBko

De Gaulle was an astute politician and Stateman.

Richard Nixon  who knew both said of the Shah in a book entitled LEADERS published in 1982 that the Shah was a Great Stateman but lousy Politician and De Gaulle Probably a Lousy Statesman but a Great Politician.

In Either case the Shah's Fate was already doomed because of his cancer. But I agree that the Shah is greatly responsible for his lack of judgment  and adequate response to the events of 1979 that led to the Popular Revolution we all witnessed.

On the otherhand the Islamic Revolutionaries did not offer any better alternative to what they considered wrongly as an anti Iranian and totalitarian regime and government. On the contrary they created a new totalitarian Dynasty with Khomeiny as King not to say Prophet. Only it was a turbaned Dynasty instead.

The major difference is that the Shah was deeply Patriotic and despite his shortcomings as well as that of his successive governments, they were much more liberal and concerned by the economic growth and well being of their compatriots. But the lack of political maturity due to internal instability throughout his reign ( during which he was also threatened to be assassinated physically several times and escaped death) made him suspicious of the intellegenstia and local politicians.

Perfection is the Enemy of Good and I suppose the Shah was too perfectionist and aimed too high and he did not realize that economic growth should always be accompanied by political freedom. He thought that by giving Religious and social freedoms ( to women and men) it could compensate for a time the lack of genuine democratic freedom. As long as people had food and comfort he thought that he was not forced to encourage them into critical and political thinking. But that was also the case of ALL the Regimes in the Region. Except that they had poverty we had at least progress, Peace and security in a troubled region infested by Terrorism ( PLO, Baader Meinhof, Red Brigades) and War ( Arab Israeli Conflict).

The Lesson is that social and economic Progress should be accompanied by political freedom which alas he confused with Political participation instead by creating the Unique Party System the Rastakhiz ( which as actually an Anti Constitutional Move) for which he and the country at large paid dearly.

My humble Opinion,

DK  

Kaveh Nouraee

you're such a food. who are you calling "Arab-parast gangsters". the people that did the revolution? my father had a phd and he was for the revolution. majority of iranians were for the revoltuion. the revolution was going to happen because of this fool, Shah, that had to read 2 sentences from a peice of paper, he had no skills. i'm no agaist him in a sense that i hate him, he's was just simply put stupid. just because Mullah's high jacked our revolution, doesn't mean the revoltuion was wrong. and in all honesty, i rather live under the oppression of Khomenie rather than lost and confused people like you.

to Dose of reality

I agree with you 100%. if you are known as a dictator atleast take advantage of that in implementing your ideas in the society, just like the IR fools. But will all the shah's short comings, you have to give Shah credit to do so much to improve iran's infrastrcture.

Sad

I only wish that Mohammad Reza Shah had rounded up and executed all of these Arab-parast gangsters, especially the Indian.

To Alborzi

The things you said applies exactly to the current ruler of Iran, the Supreme leader, the almighty Seyyid Ali Khameneii, the furehr of all the muslims of the world.

What is his family background? who was his father? is he an aristo? is he a blue blood? is he a saint? he certainly considers himself the God's sole representative on Earth.

He's quite a coward too! he always ducks when he sees too much united opposition. He was afraid to show his face at the Univeristy a couple of weeks ago! remember!

The only difference between the two is that Seyyid Ali does never hesitate to KILL to stay in power.

The Shah was not even a good dictator!

The problem with the late Shah was that he was neither a good democrat nor a good dictator.

Mullahs are great dictators. They're cruel and bloodthirsty and never hesitate to kill in order to enforce their wills upon people and strengthen their hold on power.

Coward idiot

He really started believing his SSSS does not stink.
From changing the calendar to his 2500 year celebration. The guy was delusional, he might have died from cancer but believe me not having seen him, he was just delusional.
He forgot that his daddy was just a gomashteh, its not that somebody becomes powerful, but when they believe the story themselves thats really delusion.
He also was coward, he left his servants in jail to be executed the next day. And the thing is the people who believe his SSSS did not stink. Those guys are laughable.

to Darius KADIVAR

the original wasn't that different from the practice one. the point is a Shah should not read from a paper at this stage in his country's history. it wasn't a long speak, it was few simple sentences, and it just sounds so distant and artificial. maybe it is because he's sick, only God know. but if he wasn't sick, and that is how he speaks to his people, then he is very incompitant. no doubt he was a good man, no doubt he wanted good for iran and loved iran, but he wasn't fit. it is simple, he wasn't smart enough to be king. he didn't have that in him. now you can love him or hate him. i don't konw how anyone can hate him.

the real problem is us iranians. it wasn't shah and it is not IR. we have to take responsiblity. Iranians have big flaws. the major one bing they still haven't understood Islam. If we were true muslims we wouldn't be in this hell. Islamic republic is not Islamic at all. this is not islam. in islam you can not oppress people, insult them, take away their god give freedoms. There is no such thing as an Islamic Gov. If a gov. allows people to practice what ever they like, then that is Islamic Gov. The message of Islam is so powerful that it can bent any heart, but when something is forced down to people throat then it will backfire. it doesn't work that way. you can not inforce Islamic acts. people have to follow or not follow out of their own free will. The only motivation for acting in Islamic manner is faith in God and his messanger, love of god and/or fear of God. nothing else.

FYI/Profile of Shah Before illness by David Frost (1975/6)

David Frost (who interviewed the Shah on several occasions before the Revolution and later in Exile with one last interview in Panama shortly before the Shah's death in Cairo) draws a very different picture of the late Shah from what many used to give in the Western Press at the Time.

David Frost is the subject of a movie Nixon/Frost by Ron Howard which is also running for the upcoming Oscars in Hollywood next year.

Here is an Excerpt of a documentary by Frost on the Shah of Iran at the Height of Power and not the ill man he was to become a few years later: 

Brits want to Own Iran

Well maybe the Shah was an obstacle to the Brits who wanted to drive Iranian domestic businesses to bankruptcy so that they could open their own business in Iran.

//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howabou...

Leave him alone and get on with your lives!

baba he's been dead for almost 30 years. He's nothing but a fisful of dust now.

Whatever he was, good or bad, you guys got rid of him and replaced him with mullahs. You wanted democracy and political freedom, you got both social and political repression and dictatorship instead and you accepted it all and still living and putting up with all that because the repression is labelled ISLAMIC.

Maybe the Shah should have worn a turban and a robe and called himself Ayatollah, then probably his son would be ruling in Iran now.

Why don't u guys get over him? let him rest in peace.

FYI/Ansari was condemned for Fraud by Virginia Supreme Court

The commentator in this documentary who calls the Shah "Weak" and claims to know the Shah and his family intimately is actually the former financial advisor to Reza Pahlavi who was fired on grounds of Fraud in the 1990's and condemned by the Supreme Court of Virginia. His name is Ahmad Ali Massoud Ansari who betrayed the confidence of Reza Pahlavi in a business deal and was pursued and condemned by the Virginia Supreme Court in the 1990's  to pay the Pahlavi family compensatory damages that amounted to $7,277,425.56 plus an additional $2 000,000 in punitive damages. The Pahlavi's won their case legally and this turned this gentleman Ansari to become hateful of the pahlavis. He later wrote a defametory book in an attempt to discredit both Reza Pahlavi and his family for his own illegal behavior towards the former Royal Family as Financial advisor.

Ansary made 4 Appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States hoping to reverse the Judgment and lost every time.

Here is an excerpt of the Courts decision to reject the Mr. Ansari's 4th Appeal in 1997 :  

//bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/113/113.F3d.17.96-1519.html

Two Observations on this Documentary Produced by IRI...

1) This is Not the original Footage Aired on TV ...it is what you call a "screen test"  where he repeats his text before the original broadcast to see if everything is OK and that the reader is ready. Which explains the hesitation in the allocution.

Here is part of the original version:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl5SGn05Kcs

2)The Man in question who comments on this documentary is well known: He is Reza Pahlavi's former financial advisor, Ahmad Ali Massoud Ansari who betrayed the confidence of Reza Pahlavi in a business deal and was pursued and condemned by the Virginia Supreme Court in the 1990's  to pay the Pahlavi family compensatory damages that amounted to $7,277,425.56 plus an additional $2 000,000 in punitive damages. The Pahlavi's won their case legally and this turned this gentleman Ansari to become hateful of the pahlavis. This explains why he wrote a defametory book in an attempt to discredit both Reza Pahlavi and his family for his own illegal behavior towards the former Royal Family as Financial advisor.

Here he speaks on the Islamic State TV and this is part of a documentary on the Shah and the Revolution produced by the Islamic Republic. So the conclusions against the Pahlavi should not surprise any informed viewer.

Complete Documentary below Produced by the Islamic Republic:

//video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-635622305341160045&hl=en

and His son is making the SAME mistake

From my Open Letter to Reza Pahlavi :

"The message that your father eventually heard, was actually being
voiced for a very long time, at least for 26 years since Dr. Mossadegh,
but it was heard too late. I only hope that you learn from that mistake
and that you hear it sooner than later. 30 years have already passed.

I respectfully ask you to free yourself of your royal title and any
potential claims to it and to come together with all Iranians in a
NATIONAL RECONCILIATION (Hambastgi va Ashteye Melli) towards a future
free and democratic secular Iran."

Anonymous patriot

I agree with you to some extent,but it was time for The Shah to go.He outlasted his useful life for USA ,becoming too unpopular and rebellious.Instead of taking the oil money in US dollar he wanted the oil money to be given to Iran in a basket of currencies.He started making fun of British by making movies like papa jan Napoleon and they were no nos.His other problem was he never amounted Iranians to anything.No matter what he did for Iran he had no popular support and you saw the end of his unpopular regime.Like you said he may have been the best person that Iran could have had,but when it is time to go it is time to go.

Generation who lost iran and ran away still has a big mouth.

Those arrogant iranians who despised shah were so stupid that given the chance turned down bakhtiar government and marched after a mulla amd made him their master of everything, from their bedroom habits to their ways of dressing.

Whatever shah was or was not, he certainly was better and smarter than those 98% who put their destiny into the hands of psychopath mulla. Did any of them bother read khomeini's book to see he was a mentally sick fanatic obsessed with hatred of the shah and fond of sharia laws of 1400 years ago of arabia. Shah was way too soft and way too good for those 98% of the people. Had he been as brutal as khomeini was, who killed in a single day more people than shah executed in his entire regime (according to both Baghi and Ganji), he would have survived. His generals told him that they could put the revolution down but some 10,000 people would be killed, and shah said NO!

Shah was good and bad, as is ANY other ruler of ANY country. But he was certainly more progressive than mullas and those 98% who closed their eyes and voted for islamic republic. They deserved what they got, the islamic republic.

Shah was good and bad, but it is a hard bitter fact that his period was the best period in recent history of Iran, certainly since 1798 A.D. when Ghajar took over.

Shah was good and bad, but it is a hard bitter fact that those arrogant iranians who did nothing for iran but criticizing him could not bring to power a regime even half-as-decent as shah's regime, either before pahlavis or after pahlavis. Those incapable people who staged the devolution and then ran away, yet kept their big mouth of arrogance and incompetence, and showed that they deserved not only no better than the shah, but they did not even deserve the shah when they put their destiny into the hands of an pan-arab from 1400 years ago to loot the country like a herd of sheep following the herd dog.

Shah was good and bad, but youth inside iran dream of his period now, a period likes of which may never come in our life time. It may take another 30 years before we see a leader as good as (and as bad as, whichever you pick) the shah who brought peace and progress to iran, to iranians who did not deserve him and bit his hands the moment that they got the chance and got the education that he provided and got the elevated standard of living that he brought to iran, the same iran that at the turn of the century traded opium and human and animal feces to survive. Those iranians deserved no better and SHOWed that they deserved no better when 32 million of them voted for either Ayatollah Rafsanjani or Pasdar Ahmadi nejad in the last election. Those iranian deserve Ahmadinejad and his mentality, they did not even deserve the shah, let alone anything better than the shah.

Keep repeating the same old claims that shah's people were bahai's. The days that people believed such lies are long gone except for those who are still living in 1979. However, the right answer to that claim is: "so what?" What have moslims done for us that bahais have not. Moslims brought us 30 years of disaster (or should I say 1400 years of backwardness). Iran belongs to iranians, not moslims or bahai's or whatever. Keep lying if that makes you happy and never mind that that is what took us where we are, that even the hard core IRI supporters and propagandists cannot tolerate living "in" iran. These are the same traitors who lost iran to arab culture, who betrayed iran and sold her to the lowest bidder in 1979. The same people who are now denying iranian's past history by calling iranian miniters as bahais and iranian ancient kings as jews and insignificant, and as in 1979, they are the same traitors who beat their chests for islam and islamic republic; they are permanent hostages of their fanaticism with what is nothing but an anti-iranian regime and destroyers of iran.

Dear IRI Intel Service...AKA Anon Extrodinaire!

Dear IRI Intel Service...AKA Anon Extrodinaire! 

Are you not tired of the same old same old ?

You are begining  or have actually believed in your own lies...

Baba...eveything that Hoveyda did to the Bahais was to show and prove that he was not a Bahai..including kicking them out of Government jobs!

Please refer to the last 132.5 articles and posts

and the 100 reasons why Hoveyda was NOT a Bahai...just because hs father once was ..

Not to mention that his brother Fereydun  Hoveyda in his book mentions that he had not heard of the word until he was 16... 

Dear IRI, Intel Service Reps AKA Anon (choose any #)

Pleeeese come up with something new..

You are losng your reputation as good liers!

how disappointing...

I have an idea..when the time comes for Ahmadinejad, why dont we call him a Bahai?

Thanks for the entertainment..

and merry christmas !

faryarm 

Faryam,please also let people know that....................

Faryam,please also let people know that over half of The Shah ministers were Bahais and they were partly resposible for what The Shah did to people and for him to stay on power.One of the famous one was Amir Abbas Hovaida who got his reward for being a yes sir man for The Shah by being thrown in jail to quite people and finally executed by current regime.

Che karha

Shah was a weak character entrenched in corruption, greedy and spineless people. This is why we are here now.
Iranians need to grow up and lead our life. Do not leave it to dirty politicians otherwise they will corrupt.
Oh!, you can not do it from 14000miles away. Get in the pit, roll up your sleeves and do something constructive. It is easy to talk and destroy.

Hope for future...O Land of Tehran !

 I would like to offer a ray of hope despite the customary conflict between the various quarreling groups.

In the 1870s, Baha'u'llah,  an exile from His birthplace a prisoner in a Turkish prison cell  wrote the following;

He foretold of a time when the land of His birth, Tehran would become the "source of joy " and "bless"  the throne of Iran with "with one who will rule with justice",

He also in no uncertain language prophesies a time when "the state of affairs within thee be changed, and the reins of power fall into the hands of the people."

This is perhaps why Iranian Bahais have stayed out of any partisan and divisive politics and remained steadfast in their beliefs, unshaken by the relentless attempts to eliminate them throughout the last 160 years.

In their most Holy Book,  Kitab  Aqdas written when Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh was at the height of his power, Bahá’u’lláh blesses the city of Ṭihrán,  His own birthplace, and says of it:—

Let nothing grieve thee, O Land of Tá (Ṭihrán), 

for God hath chosen thee to be the source of the joy of all mankind. He shall, if it be His will, bless thy throne with one who will rule with justice, who will gather together the flock of God which the wolves have scattered. Such a ruler will, with joy and gladness, turn his face towards, and extend his favors unto, the people of Bahá. He indeed is accounted in the sight of God as a jewel among men. Upon him rest forever the glory of God, and the glory of all that dwell in the kingdom of His Revelation.

Rejoice with great joy, for God hath made thee “the Day Spring of His light,” inasmuch as within thee was born the Manifestation of His Glory. Be thou glad for this name that hath been conferred upon thee—a name through which the Day Star of Grace hath shed its splendor, through which both earth and heaven have been illumined.

Ere long will the state of affairs within thee be changed, and the reins of power fall into the hands of the people. Verily, thy Lord is the All-Knowing. His authority embraceth all things. Rest thou assured in the gracious favor of thy Lord. The eye of His loving-kindness shall everlastingly be directed towards thee. The day is approaching when thy agitation will have been transmuted into peace and quiet calm. Thus hath it been decreed in the wondrous Book.—

Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 110–111.

It is reasonable to assume that to date we have not had "the state of affairs " ..."changed, and the reins of power fall into the hands of the people." and 

as yet:

we have  not come across "with one who will rule with justice".

I am certain that in time such hope will be realized, perhaps not in our lifetime.

A brief study of similar statements and prophecies in letters addressed to

 Napoleon III, the Sultan of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany  regarding their fate, will confirm one's belief in the eventuality of this promise of Baha'u'llah about the eventual Glory of the place of His birth, "Tihran", Iran. //reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/PB/pb-6.html

Yours Hopefully

Faryarm