BOURGHANI

Ardeshir Keyvan,

You didn't get my poitn did you? What the heck liberalism has to do with alcohol, you tell me?

Annoyingmouse

What about before the war or after? What does a war have to do with alcohol? However alcohol or hijab is an example of not existence of any freedom in Islamic Iran. When your Imam says JANG NAMAT AST LAKAN BARAYA MA and continues a war that could be finished in less than two years and in the mean time of course the priority is just keeling people in the name of the critical situation due to the war and in fact saving the regime and Hezbollahies or ex- Hezbollahies were applauding him.( applaud in Islamic regime= SALAVAT!)

Oh man! I am not going to continue. This is just a waste of time.

Have a nice day!

God Bless His Soul

He was one of the architects of the golden age of journalism in post revolutionary Iran. May he rest in peace.

Yes he does OWE me something as an Iranian

Iran is my country too! What was his qualification to be the working as a top manager of IRIB? do you think any one could get that position without loyalty to the system? You are bunch of fascists, and "zalil-shode" because some guy "apparently" gave Iranian press slightly more freedom than his predecessor. He does owe me an explanation how he got that job, because no one without loyalty to the system could have obtained that job. He owes me an explanation about his background, what kind of islamist was he? Sure, may be NY had reformed him, but that does not excuse the support he gave to the system. You can criticize my view, but don't ask me to be silence because I don't live in Iran. I know more about this guy than you know about me, so you jack asses have no idea what my accomplishments are, and what I have and have not done. That is none of your business. He is not my hero, he is only hero to his friends like JJ who got a job from him, and to bunch of islamist who think that Islamic revolution was a good thing. What was his role during the early days of the revolution to get that job in NY anyway?

My hero are the people of Iran who live in the utmost difficulty, my hero is Manuchehr Mohammadian and his brother, and students like him who are in IR prison. Get your perspective straight assholes....

Yeah Setiz, no one is a hero

Yeah Setiz, no one is a hero but you.

Hey Setiz

What I am hearing from you: Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah....
Sorry did I miss something?

Mr, Ardeshir Keyvan

You have lost your priority list sir! In the time of war and possible foreign aggression talking about alcohol consumption and hijab is the last thing you want to think about. Sir, get your priorities right first. Again, at the time you were worried about your alcohol consumption, young kids were defending our country in the hot deserts sometimes drinking their own urine to survive. Get your priorities right sir!

Jesus or Jessu maybe Jeesho?

You know what I have problem with? It's your tone of words coming from an authoritative direction and tells us how we should think. Telling us "I do have a huge problem with people making a big deal about post-mortem, making hereos (by the way, heroes) out of those who don't deserve it, and labeling them as something they never were". How do you know he does not deserve it? While based on your own confession you have no idea what liberalism is. Just to let you know there is no black and white definition about liberalism as someone's liberal might be somebody else's conservative. But there is a clear definition about what you do that is, when you have no idea about the subject but still dare to barge in and open you big mouth, is called hypocrisy and that makes you a poster child of a hyper hypocritical hypercritic. Now go and research that.

Facts about Khatami and his gang...

Khatemi was a modern junior devil but still a devil. Ask those who were rotting in IRI prisons when he was in charge of the country and in a position to object, to strongly object rather, but he participated in the oppression of iranians in the name of islam and constitution of islamic republic, with his stupid smile and laughter at the people of iran who voted for him in the hope of a change. That does NOT clear Khatami of IRI crimes, let it be due to his cowardness or religious fanaticism or self-interest or self-preservation.

The people around him should equally take responsibility for the crimes against iranian people, even though each may have only incrementally contributed to the crime. IRI could not survive without those people each ignoring their own minuscule support for the system and his ignorance in favor of his personal interest and swearing to the constitution of IRI, the constitution of murder and oppression. Participating in crime is still a crime no matter how small as "zarreh zarreh jam gardad, vaangahi daryaa shevad" is the story of survival of IRI that so many people like this person have been contributing to for the past 30 years. He is no hero. Heroes are those innocent who are rotting in IRI prisons, or have lost their precious lives as a result of the atrocities of IRI. Heroes of iran are likes of that law student from kurdestan, or that medical doctor from hamadan who were recently murdered in IRI prisons. He is no hero at all.

With all due respect I

With all due respect I really don't know if I should laugh or cry. People say you fled the country or you have done nothing for your country but at least he did something.
This is exactly the problem: there are a lot of highly qualified Iranian people in Iran and out of Iran (I don't involve myself as one of those for humble sake) who are willing to do something but they are not allowed because of a simple reason: They are not KHODY!
What kind freedom of speech was existing in that GOLDEN ERA? Could anyone criticize Khamenei or Khomeini? Could anybody talk about massacre in Evin? even could anybody talk about social values freely, like mandatory hijab or consuming alcohol...

In Iran under the Islamic regime I have not seen any freedom and please don't patronize me, because I've grown up in Islamic regime reign, I've been in school there and unlike a lot of you guys in military service, I know something.
There is not any liberal person or liberalism in this regime. If some of them changes and really wants to do something for his country and people should get out of the system not being in a top position and making a fortune out of it.
This Gentleman who died or the other self claimed reformist are well known and rich because of the Islamic Republic and Khomeini and keeping the regime is their priority.

His Window

Jahanshah:

Thank you for sharing your sadness in the loss of your friend. Your picture with him and your piece speak volumes of that friendship. Please accept my condolences.

Ahmad Bourghani was not my friend, nor colleague. He wasn’t my kin and blood. His loss, however, has left me bereft and sad; a bereavement and sadness on a par with the loss of a family member.

Over the past thirty years, only a few people have been able to touch the political and social landscape of Iran as profoundly as Ahmad Bourghani did. His presence and his actions in support of freedom of thought and expression immediately after Mohammad Khatami’s election created hope and resolve in Iranian people, giving them knowledge, information, hope, and an immeasurable sense of confidence and ability to change their lives, albeit for a very brief period of time, and within the many limitations and boundaries defined for them.

I lived in Iran when Khatami was elected President, and Bourghani became Mohajerani’s appointed Deputy in Ministry of Guidance. I believe that whatever “reforms” meant then and whatever they mean now, was only briefly experienced in Iran during the time Ahmad Bourghani was left in charge of publishing, press, and media, where for the first time in close to 20 years, people started hearing from each other about different opinions, briefly abandoning the long-standing pattern of hearing only what the government wanted them to read and hear. He fought and struggled day and night with those whose interests and ideologies were simply not served or which were threatened by the propagation of so many opposing and differing tribunes, too many and too diverse to control on a daily basis, many times defying and exceeding the education and knowledge levels of those whose job it was to censor them! In the end, his boss and his boss’s boss couldn’t resist the pressure and caved in, letting one of the only true “reformists” of Iran to leave office, ending an era with that decision, though nobody really understood this fully at the time.

No one before and no one since Ahmad Bourghani was able to give that brief breathing space to people of Iran. His time in the Ministry of Guidance was probably one of the most poignant and significant times of recent Iranian history. It showed that Iranians appreciate and crave freedom; that given a chance, Iranians will vigorously participate in social and cultural dialogues about their destiny; that they aren’t lost; that they aren’t indifferent; that they aren’t illiterate and unwilling to learn; that they have hopes; all of which may sit underneath the appearance of compliance, apathy, and silence, but oh, when given a chance, will emerge with intelligence, exuberance and energy and the will to know, to learn, to grow, to express, to discuss, to hear, and to improve.

Ahmad Bourghani’s biggest service to Iran, and now his legacy, was that he opened a very small window to show us the beginnings of an Iran that could be and will be one day.

TO: "Ardeshir Keyvan" and "Jesus"

Mr Borghani and people like him do not owe you anything!

It is not his fault if you were arrested by the Basijis for whatever reason.

He tried his best to reform the system from within and as a religious person he even had to fight YOUR battle as "secular liberals" for you had fled the scene. If anything you should be grateful to him.

He tried to his best to create an environment where YOU could speak up, even though he did not agree with your views. Something that you and people like you would NEVER do for the likes for Borghani! Heck, you can't even tolerate him be called a "liberal" for God's sake!!

Sharm ham khoob chiziyeh!!

Bunch of angry nut jobs..

Apparently, people are so hypnotized by personalities, they can not take even the slightest of criticism of a tribute to somebody. Remember I am not criticizing the person, but the way the tribute was written.
-I did not claim to be the "liberal".
-I did not claim exclusivity on the term "liberal"
-I never said the guy was like everyone else in the IR.
-I never said I have done more than he has.
-I never said he has made no contribution to the progess of Iranian politics, although that is questionable.

I do have a huge problem with people making a big deal about post-mortem, making hereos out of those who don't deserve it, and labeling them as something they never were. In my eyes, he is not a liberal. A true liberal can not work within a system such as IR. An IR reformist is not a liberal person. He was involved in the government as late as the last majlis. He was loyal to the system, and had made an oath to it. You can call him whatever you like, but he was not a LIBERAL. For those of you islamist who like to twist facts, look up the meaning of the word LIBERAL. You can jump up and down like a monkey, and make a lot of noise, but that is all it is, bunch of noise.

Ardeshir Keyvan

You can write whatever you want, the reality is that you and I are escapees from our country, living here in a free country and just opening our mouth and talk...


Sorry, I have to go, no more time for this...

No way

Liberal!

IS A person in cultural minisitry of IRI who must have:ETEGHADE VA ELTEZAM AMALI VA AGHIDATY BEH VELAYAT FAGHIH in order to be approved by the system considered liberal?
Please don't banalise liberalism. When people like me who were not political at all were beaten up by BASIJIES where were he? When Khomeini was sending teenagers on the mine fields he was a propaganda machine for the regime.

To All

Ohh please ...Stop playing with the words people.

It is very easy to sit here in a most democratic country and act or write as a liberal...But...and BUT the real liberal, or liberalism is the ones who are serving the PEOPLE of IRAN and our COUNTRY under pressure of Mullahs...

Civil servants

I reject the notion that we have to dismiss all elements of the Iranian government wholesale.  These people are after all are Iranian, and live in Iran, and as such have an undeniable right to earn a living there.  To think that since they work for the Iranian government then they are not worthy of our praise make as much sense as the US dismissing all members of Iraq's military and Baath party after the occupation.  You can't throw out the baby with the bath water.  While I didn't know Mr. Borghani personally, that is not to say that he didn't live his life to the best of his ability in the service of his people.  There are certainly elements of the current regime that would deserve nothing less than a firing squad, there are many other hard working individuals that have done their very best for the sake of Iran and its people.  And to think of them in any less noble terms than any other patriot in my opinion is simply an afront to the meaning of patriotism.  Suffice it to say that while we live in free societies where we have the inalienable right to free-expression, that right should be tempered with what we have sacrificed and invested in the implementation of that very freedom.  Those of us who have chosen to leave Iran to have a better life for ourselves sort of look like hypocrites to those still living there when we opine regarding matters we have disengaged from by moving away.  Surely there are those of us who are political refugees, but lets face it, most of us are here not because we enjoy the freedom to say what we want when we want to, but beause of pure economics.  There's more money to be had over here.  As such, when we talk about democracy back home, our arguments are hollow, though well-intentioned.   As I said earlier, I did not know Mr. Bourghani, but from the praise and eulogies he's received since his passing, in my mind he's nothing short a patriot.  May god give his family patience, and rest his soul in peace.

Dissimulation of the truth

As a former member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly the recently deceased Borghani must have taken the oath of office. The oath includes belief and practical allegiance to the absolute rule of the theological guide; as such he either took the oat in vain or if he had employed the Shiite principle of dissimulation of the truth for the greater good, his “moderation” in either case becomes highly suspect. The real moderates long ago distanced themselves from this regime.

Give us a break Jessu! Ahmad

Give us a break Jessu!

Ahmad Borghani and people like him are real heroes. They stayed in Iran at its darkest moments, they defended their land with courage and paid the price (Ahmad's brother was killed); They fought for freedom when even mentioning was a crime; They endured all sorts of pressure for their people, they went to jail, they paid huge fines, they saw their families live in fear...

And you dare being "insulted" to be associated with him?! What have YOU done that made YOU a "true liberal" and a "real freedom fighter" but not Ahmad Borghani who has spent his life fighting (as opposed to just talking)? What else could he have done to deserve that honorific title? (Maybe come to LA and nag from 10,000 miles away like you?)

How dare you belittle thees brave men's lives? Who the hell are you to slander these great men who sought change from within instead of running away?

Shame on you.

Thank you Jahanshah for the tribute to this wonderful man.

I hope he rests in peace.

I hope he rests in peace. History will someday pay great people like him the glorious tribute they deserve.

And to Jessu; Do you have the freaking exclusivity on "liberalism" or something?!! Do you get to decide you likes freedom and who doesn't?!! And you call yourself a "liberla?!!

When will you people finally free yourselves of your dogmatic mentality?!!

Cut the crap Jeesu!

What do you know beside some big names that ends in another "ism". "anyone working for the system in such a high position can not be considered liberal". Who the heck are you to say that? Now please define what the heck liberalism is so we can learn.

Great tribute but...

JJ,

Let's not throw terms around like Liberal so easily. Anyone who works in the IR government, anyone working for the system in such a high position can not be considered liberal! Yes, he might have been more moderate than some of other IR inner circles, but definitely not a liberal. This notion of equating liberals to IR reformists is an insult to true liberals, and freedom lovers.