OXFORD

The case for Dr Katouzian

Regardless of all the allegations made here, and proved to be untrue, Dr Katouzian must have been applauded for approving Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani's bid to receive an Oxford education.  That may be his only hope for salvation.

It's Most Unfortunate .....

that someone as distinguished as Dr. Katouzian, gets involved in such  a mess ..... !

Most Unfortunate Indeed :) !

you guys are correct....

after all it was the filthy brits that installed the mullahs.....

just like they said, khomeini had a 'made-in-england' stamp on his ass LOL 

Dear bfarahmand

Dear bfarahmand,

 The brit have a mentality of selling whatever they have for a right price. As long as that price is paid, they are willing to even work the devil himself. That's why this resourceless island has kept the world off its feet before and continue to survive. With a right price, you can even sleep with the queen in the same bed. Not sure if that's a good idea though!!

One of these assets is their pretigious university places, i.e., Oxford, Cambridge, etc. They even sell these positions for a right price. This has certainly been thease with Mehdi Hashemi.

I have actually met Mehdi Hashemi in Tehran Exhibition in year 2004 presenting Khatami when he was the head of Organization for optimization of fuel consumption. Like the majority of IRI senior managers, This lad could not even get couple of coherent Farsi sentences together, and was seriously "dash mashti" in his style and attitude. Uxbridge material? Certainly not in y oponion!

The problem is not why the brits are giving these IRI brats a chance that is the problem, it is thee hypocracy of these people. Enjoying the chances they deem unislamic for normal Iranian sons and daughters.

But isn't that the pillar of our beloved country these days?

Sad, very sad!

Thanks ariane

I enjoyed reading your section here and you are 100% correct. It is clear that British are the root of many problems that we currently have in Iran

I can understand the

I can understand the sensitivity this issue makes.

Rafsanjani families have a long history of association with UK. Almost all of this man's grandchildren are educated in British universities. One actually graduated on the same day that I did. The hypocrisy of this issue is disturbing. On one hand you have a founding member of IRI whose government have been trying to tell us that what we are suffering fom comes from the "the old imperialist wolf", while his immediate family are enjoying free education paid by the Iranian government there. On the other hand you have a beloved Iranian scholar supporting one of his son's bid for Oxford and inadvertantly supporting this hypocracy.

I think Dr. Katouzian has to review this situation. This is similar to a leading western academic getting a scholarship for a Nazi!

UK has traditionallly been a breeding ground for IRI exiles. I have witnessed this first hand. The yesterday anti imperialists are today living in posh British suburbs with the money they looted from Iran.

Giving them any credit or helping them in any way is supporting their hypocratic life.

Hooshyar Samii

Guilt by association is a very touchy thing ..... If in doubt, always give the person accused the benefit of the doubt ..... Always :) !

Inculpatory evidence

 What Oxford didn't know 

The university of Oxford's investigation team, giving them the benefit of the doubt, could not have had access or even bothered to gain access, to the incriminating evidence that might have easily changed the outcome of their investigation. Their remit was only confined to the rules governing the approval of a PhD proposal made by a doctoral candidate. They were not and they could not be interested to investigate other inculpatory connections that cannot be dismissed as simple coincidence. There are publicly available and official government documents that point towards existence of links between the main players of this sordid affair.

Iranian of the Day 26 February 2010  was one Mr Vahid Alaghband, CEO of the UK based Balli group and the Chairman of the UK based Iran Heritage Foundation. In 2010 Mr Alaghband was fined $17 million for selling three Boeing planes to the Islamic Republic of Iran in breach of the US ban. There are of course other links on the above page which refer to Mr Alaghband's other alleged offences.

Iranianlobby.com provides evidence of a strong connection between Mr Alaghband's Balli group and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's Mahan Group which were involved in the sale of the Boeing airplanes.

There is no surprise that Iran Heritage Foundation under the chairmanship of Mr Vahid Alaghband (Homa Katouzian is on its academic committee) is suspected to have strong links with the Islamic Republic in general and specificly with the Rafsenjani empire. Two years ago the Shah Abbas exhibition was organized by the IHF and opened by the Islamic Republic's ambassador in the UK.

It also happens that Mohammad Ali Homa Katouzian's is the IHF Fellow at the Centre for Middle East Studies at St. Anthony's Collge Oxford and the post is funded by IHF. 

Now is it a mere coincidence that Mahdi Hashemi Rafsenjani's admisson to Oxford is approved by an academic whose position at Oxford is sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation with strong links to the Rafsenjani family's conglomerate?

اصل مسئله

Father and son

We should not mixed him with his father. In many instances father and son have opposing opinions when it comes to politics and many other things in life. The question is "did he contribute to his country in a positive way"

Every one has a price

with all do respect to Mr katouzian,

Idon't know him and never advocating for such thing happened,but I know one thing in the past 32 years of evil islamic rulers of Iran so many academic scholar sold their soul to these evils and that's why some Iranian writing such article about it.

every one have a price (I mean oxford university)and a reason for it  probebly Mr katouzin's boss asked him to approve  mehdi hashemi's doctoral research.

the criminal hashemi's son & Co should be arrested and put in jail rather than being accepted and admitted to oxford university .Iranian people knows the credential  direction  of western & eastern governoment is toward the,$$$$$$$$$$,$$$$$$$$$$,$$$$$$$$$

let alone the oxford university.

we often seen so called western free world issued residency visa for  many of these criminal and their sons and reletives  because of  their large bank account, but for those who have been robbed and humiliated by these criminals and scaping from their motherland to other countries ,they will get few years in assylem seeker detention center if they are lucky to get there.

as united nations has no credential for most of the real people around the world(except dictatorial regim like Iran and so on) so how cares about oxford university's credential,and as all of you know 

 MR BEAN IS AN OXFORD GRADUATE TOO.

Speculation, politics and plain spite

Thank you. I couldn't agree more. I would only add that as a great historian, I'm sure Dr. Katouzian would agree that any association, knowingly or unknowingly, with a member of a family that has played a powerful part in a ruthless dictatorship is going to look bad. I said LOOK bad because in this super-charged political atmosphere, especially after the sham elections, people are more conspiratorial than usual and facts get ignored. The fact is that Dr Katouzian is widely respected and beloved and an Oxford investigation has found nothing improper. The rest is speculation, politics and plain spite.

Qui se ressemble s'assemble ...

Notice the same beard ;0))  

"Qui se ressemble s'assemble". aka "Birds of a feather flock together"

Dunno why Quotes come to my mind so quickly lately ? ...

;0) 

Khebedin

Ditto and well said.  Unfortunately I find the overwhelming majority of those who comment here regularly, belong to the Iranians who are either absolutley ignorant or have their own extremely narrow and biased agendas. 

I detest Rafsanjani and his sons who have cheated Iranian banks out of billions of dolalrs but I also know Prof. Katouzian as an academic  with utmost quality of scholarship.  Glad this essay is printed here to hopefully put those idiotic accusers to shame.

Like Shakespeare Once Said "The World is a Stage"

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages." - William Shakespeare - All the world's a stage (from As You Like It  Act II Scene VII)

And Why Not ? Harvard Helped Polish Gaddafi's image (CNN Video)

VIDEO: Gadhafi paid millions to U.S. firms to polish his global image     Advertising companies Making Millions in uplifting the Libyan tyrant's image. Sending academics from Harvard and other respected universities to write positive reviews on the regime.

I Would Like To Respectfully .....

ask Jahanshah and other Editors at Iranian.com to take note of this article, and in the future, scrutinize more closely some of the works that are submitted for publication - Especially, if they are deemed incendiary, and accusatory ..... !

Last week, an article was published regarding "Anti-semitic" tendencies of our great Sadeq Hedayat - From the numerous comments left by our fellow Iranians, some with great detail, it was quite obvious that the article lacked any considerable and substantial scholarly foundation -

I appreciate it -

R D

Dear Mr Shahidi Thank you

Dear Mr Shahidi

Thank you for your article and clarification of the situation. You are absolutely correct.  Some Iranians regrettably, show that they are far from being independent and critical thinkers, and continue to assess everything through the narrow perspective of personal and immediate interests. This perhaps is the main reason of being where we are and still referred to as a3rd world nation or developing.  When I watched the video, I too was surprised of Oxford’s possible  flexibility, bt your explanation has clarified the circumstances for me. Thank you