Letters

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Monday
May 28, 2001

Symbol of women's freedom

Hello Dear Mr. Peerooz, ["Must like your favorite singer?"]

A lady once told me that "The root of many of our problems comes from the lack of civil discourse." (When I say OUR problems, that includes you and me too). A basic part of any such discourse is to give reason and evidence, and not just excuses and alibis. We are on square one again. You have used baseless and false claims again. I would like to point them out for you.

1. You and people like you had the same behavior with other Iranians before. When Saeedi Sirjani went to the US people like you called him jasoos and just see his tragic end. You did the same thing for Akbar Ganji and Shamsolvaezin, Mehrangiz Kar,... Now you shed corcodile tears for them and talk about the injustices behind the walls of Iran's jails. There were some people abroad who said Daryoush Foruhar and his wife were agents of the regime then a few years later they were murdered. No need to mention Amir Entezam. Now it is Googoosh and Kimiaee's turn.

2. Googoosh has had at least six interviews with the Iranian mass media. (Two in Toronto, three in Stockholm, one in London, one in Paris). If you mean she does not like to talk to Royalist and Monafeghin, that's something else.

3. You must accept the fact that she is a symbol for the frustrated and deprived women in Iran, whether she likes it or not (just see the letter "I see a Googoosh in myself" written by a doctor in Iran). Whether it is to your benefit or not. At a time when a regime asks women to wear the chador otherwise there will be TOOSARI, her appearance on the stage is a symbol of the freedom of our women. I don't like to make a goddess of her, but she had the courage to stay at home at the time of crisis, and I believe her when she sings about the captive land and the winter time in our city.

4. You absolutely give no evidence about the claim that she has to pay some people inside the regime for coming abroad and you base your claim on unfounded rumours. Just give me one simple evidence.

5. The so-called imperialist journals like the Wahington Post and New York Times have had no interviews with Googoosh whatsoever. You can simply surf the net and see for yourself. The Washington Post had and article called (A Gush Over Googoosh) in Aug. 2000 and the New York Times had two articles about her concert in New York. No interviews at all.

Yes sir,

You are old-fashioned. In a sense that you still resort to the same mud slinging which was widespread at the time of Qajars and is now widely used in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Please please please think hard before you decide to accuse someone of something and at least give one simple and small piece of evidence. I think you are dissatisfied because someone else made large sums of money, that's all.

Ebrahim Majidi

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