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An Iranian.com blogger wrote about this six months ago or so when the Namazee story first broke. Her complaint was that PAAIA – a multi-million dollar organization aimed at improving the image of our community – was suffering from a very serious problem. One of its founders – Hassan Namazee – had been arrested for bank fraud, bringing shame to our entire community. And yet, PAAIA, the organization claiming to safeguard our image, was almost completely silent.

Instead of taking the bull by the horn and doing some REAL image building for our community, the organization tried to avoid the issue altogether.

Clearly, they failed, because as the trial against Namazee began and he pleaded guilty, numerous news sources mentioned that he was a Board member of PAAIA/IAPAC.

While PAAIA is planning for a major event in New York Sunday April 25 to promote itself, bringing numerous Iranian Americans celebrities to its side, lawmakers in Washington have reportedly started to return donations they received from PAAIA/IAPAC.

What started out as a potential mishap by PAAIA is turning into a major disaster for our entire community: PAAIA’s name is brought into the media coverage regarding Namazee, Namazee turns out to be guilty, and lawmakers start treating PAAIA as a pariah – and throughout out this ordeal, PAAIA doesn’t have the guts to address the issue head on. Instead, they remain silent and let the shame fall on the entire Iranian-American community.

What a disgrace.

It is cowardly for PAAIA to only take on easy cases. If an Iranian-American wins a sporting event, PAAIA is all over it, but when a PAAIA board member pleads guilty to bank fraud, PAAIA is silent. This is not how you improve the image of the Iranian-American community.

This is what PAAIA must do immediately to save itself and ensure that the Iranian-American community doesn’t suffer any further shame due to their selfishness and the criminal actions of PAAIA’s founder Namazee.

1. Clarify clearly Namazee’s role as a founder of PAAIA and any involvement PAAIA might have had in his bank dealings.
2. Categorically condemn Namazee’s criminal acts
3. Reveal the names of the lawmakers who have returned PAAIA’s campaign donations. The community needs to know in order to do the proper damage control – some of these lawmakers may be instrumental to the community’s key issues.
4. Protect the Iranian-American community from the fall out of this by going out in the media commenting on this instead of hiding. Bloomberg just published a very lengthy piece about Namazee. Numerous Iranian-Americans are quoted – but not a single comment from PAAIA. Is this how you promote the image of Iranian Americans? PAAIA Chairman Hamid Biglari should be all over this, pressing the point that Nemazee’s case isn’t representative of the Iranian-American community.
5. Use the opportunity at the New York event on April 27 to apologize to the Iranian-American community for Nemazee’s conduct and for PAAIA’s silence. Our community is forgiving and will forgive those who show remorse.

The above five steps are necessary but may not be sufficient. The key thing is that PAAIA must make up its mind – does it exist to improve the image of Iranian Americans or does it exist to promote itself and its board members? If it really has the well-being of our community at heart, it must break the silence, accept responsibility and take the bull by the horns!