Yesterday, in her blog, Azadeh Azad repeatedly accused my good friend Shae’r of misdeeds. Since I was at the center of the entire story, I feel obligated to set the records straight.
I recommend everyone to read her blog, together with all the comments left by various people in support of Shae’r. This is the link to her blog:
http://iranian.com/main/blog/azadeh-azad/serendipitous-unmasking-imposter (*)
The following is the full account of what happened. Every single point in this blog that I am writing could be independently verified. I posted this article in her blog in order to set the records straight. I am reposting it for others to read, and make their own judments.
This is the full acoount:
Last week on April 21st, I left a respectful comment for Azadeh in her article titled: Persian Dirt Under The Carpet. This is the link to her article:
http://iranian.com/main/2008/persian-dirt-under-carpet-0
I noticed that my comment was ‘Deleted’. I left my comment a second time, and again it was deleted. This is a copy of my comment:
‘Dear Azadeh,
As you can see, there are quite a few people who take exception to the manner in which you portray Iranian men.
We all hope that your future work would be more balanced.
Be good …..’
I asked Shae’r, who is a good friend of mine, and was a moderator for the site, to look into this. He asked me to re-post my comment a third time, and after seeing it deleted again, he said that it was Azadeh Azad herself who was deleting my comment.
As you can see, there is absolutely nothing vulgar or offensive about this comment. The only thing that I was doing was bringing to her attention the fact that many people disagreed with her point of view on Iranian men. That included many Iranian women.
After she deleted my comment for a third time, I noticed that she started deleting all other comments that were left by everyone else. If you go to her article, Persian Dirt Under The Carpet, which I provided the link above, there are absolutely no comments left by anyone else. All deleted by Azadeh Azad herself. A great majority of those comments were also critical of her article. And finally, I noticed that she ‘switched-off’ the setting for leaving comments on her article.
I reported this entire incident to Mr. Javid, and this is his e-mail response back to me:
‘Thanks Jamshid. Deleting your comment was the wrong thing to do. I will look into it and write to the editor who was responsible for
this.
j’
At no time, did I leave a disrespectful comment for her. When she switched off the setting on her comments, I sent her an e-mail indicating that she was acting very ‘insecure’, and that she needed to act ‘more mature’ and ‘grown up’. Her e-mail address is posted on her blog page. I have kept a copy of my e-mail to her, and I would gladly post the entire e-mail, if requested.
I also forwarded an e-mail to Nazanin Canadaei to inform her of what was going on. I follow her articles and enjoy her work. In a number of comments by her in the past, she had expressed her displeasure on how her comments were similarly being deleted ‘unfairly’.
What all of this boils down to is this: In my humble opinion, Azadeh did not like the criticism that she was receiving on her article. Furthermore, she was trying to manipulate the messages that were left for her article: Keeping those that she liked, and deleting those that she didn’t.
Just to make sure you fully understand her way of looking at things, Shae’r indicated to me that Azadeh, herself, was generating a couple of positive comments for her article with ‘unregistered’ names while all of this was going on. Remember, she was deleting my comment, which was neither vulgar nor offensive, and at the same time generating her own positive comments under ‘unregistered’ names, and then ‘approving’ them as a moderator.
I would be glad to answer any and all questions that you may have on this issue. I truly believe that Azadeh’s approach was completely ‘self-serving’ and ‘deceptive’. Rather than taking ‘full responsibility’ for her actions, she tried to shift the blame on to others.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I would gladly address any other concerns that you may have.
Sincerely,
Jamshid R …….
(*) – This blog is no longer available. Last night, I was copied on an unpleasant e-mail from Azadeh Azad which was addressed to a lady who remains name-less for her protection. Essentially, the e-mail indicated that Azadeh had violated her trust by publishing some of this lady’s private e-mails, without her permission, in her blog. Consequently, she took her blog down because of that violation. Again, as a show of respect to this lady, we shall not reveal her name. (Updated on April 28, 2008)
