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Friday
April 27, 2001

Reza Shah was no Mossadegh

Now they are comparing Mossadegh to the Shah ["Reza Shah's achievements"]! It's like comparing a Gandhi-like nationalist to a Marcus-like puppet dictator! Reza Shah was Ataturk's "Mini Me" - a bad diminutive imitation of Ataturk who admired Hitler and Mussolini and was virtually illiterate. He was, by all accounts, a thug with a voracious hunger for other people's land.

He forced the unveiling of women. Civil servants' wives had to show up unveiled to pick up their husbands paychecks! Everybody's grandmother can remember that.

So my forcing a phony modernization that was really mimicking the West, he contributed to the crises of identity that led to the Islamic Revolution. Women's dress is still a big issue in our society not only because of Sharia laws preoccupation with it but because it was politicized the minute Reza Shah made unveiling mandatory. Much of what happened after the Iranian Revolution is a reaction to these impulsive decisions of Reza Shah. Any student of history with a modicum of objectivity can see that.

I remember my late father, who was a Senator at the time, telling me how intimidating Reza Shah was and that during his meetings with members of parliament he acted like a school master and they feared him like children. Plus, his penchant for taking over other people's property made him a thief by any standards.

Some may think the North-South railroad was worth having this kind of bully in power, but many of us don't. Of course when you have a rubber stamping parliament and an obedient army you can make a lot of changes. But changes forced from above rarely last and Reza Shah was too illiterate to know this.

If Khatami had the army, things would be different now. But this revival and idealizing of Reza Shah after the revolution is only the result of the monarchists not being able to put his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, on a pedestal. No matter how you look at the history of his reign you cannot find much that is heroic.

A reading of William Shawcross' book will amply show of how this little trembling son of Reza Shah (someone should rite a psycho history of the man) awaited instructions from the ambassadors of Britain and the U.S. to the very last minute before his flight from his home country. He was as much of a puppet, if not more, as any other third world dictator propped up by the Americans at the outset of the Cold War.

So please do not compare that incompetent wimp of a leader to Mossadegh who had nothing in mind but the nation's autonomy from foreign powers. The present regime is a bad one. But that does not mean that we can rewrite the history of the past to turn the Pahlavis into the heroes they never where.

And remember, comparing any Pahlavi to Mossadegh is like comparing my soccer playing son to Pele. It just doesn't cut it. As much as you may personally love them, it's just futile and puerile for you to raise them to the level of one of history's great men: Mossadegh.

Setareh Sabety

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