MEMORIES

Nice pictures

It looks like the parents are Indian (Hindu) background. Abadan had healthy Hindu group that migrated during the English colonial rules of Persian Oil fields.

as for the children of revolution without a cause comment. A lot of us opposed the shah and bloody revolution and advicated a slower hand over power.

We were overruled by the Islamic gang and their guns.. so now, we only have pictures to talk about

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Enghelaab baazi

In the days of 1978-79 lots and lots of those kids were playing the game of revolution, I think!

Without having a true and serious agenda they were storming the streets to play a GAME!, the game of burning, destroying, hide and seek with authorities, the game of opposing "shah", which several month before was taboo, and with regim losing control more and more and day after day, in their views it was the excitement they needed in their age! also they didn't want to be labeled as "mommy's boy".... and people "with" agenda took advantage of those kid's emotions.

Can you imagine if those kids (now in their fourties) could remotely predict what would the outcome be?

By no mean here I'm comparing two regims, or the necessity of a revolution, that's totally out of this discussion, so people, please save your labels....:-)   

Majid Jan

Indeed, that is a very interesting question.  It’s also good to see that you actually understood the nature of my comment, as opposed to Souri below who, apparently without reading and / or understanding my comment, has left an irrelevant and nonsensical comment.  First, my point was obviously not to discuss the underlying causes of the 1979 revolution.  I posed a question (and not even an opinion) as to limited issues of why upper middle class children, some as young as 12, became fiery revolutionaries.  These were children who had lived privileged, happy lives and had not experienced social or economic hardships.  Moreover, they were too young to have either experienced or understood Shah’s “one man rule” or “dictatorship”.  So, the source of their revolutionary activities must have come from their surroundings, and I was (and still am) wondering what kind of role did their families’ action or inaction played in making these children into supporters of the revolution.  I really don’t know the answer.  You idea of blogging it is very good, and I will try to do it.  Also, Gol-dust below has suggested some resources, and I will look for them.

Second, I also agree with you that we should not foreclose all discussions of the causes of the 1979 revolution because we “must look to the future”.  That is really stupid and counterproductive.  You are absolutely right in saying that we must learn from our past to do better for our future.  In this particular case, we certainly must learn what would turn happy, content children into revolutionary forces with devastating results.  Plus, people still discuss the causes of the Bolshevik Revolution.  What shouldn’t we discuss the Iranian revolution that happened just thirty years ago?   

JJ tell us more about yourself

JJ, would you please tell us more about yourself? It is interesting to know since Iranian.com and JJ are almost synonymous? I know you became religious and I saw the pictures of you and your wife, but I want to know more. How did you get those believes and how did you abandon them? By the way, I am not teasing you. I just want to know. These photos show the life of a certain class of Iranians before revolution. For us, children of after revolution, it is interesting to know about era before 1979.

Thanks

Read books &/or articles by Dr. Mahmood delkhasteh to get answer

H e wrote his theses on this. It is very much unbias! You'll be surprised how much you can learn!

Anon. Observer

Very interesting questions and observations,

A big chunk of people who stormed the streets in 1978-79 were well below 30, and again, a good percentage of them from well rounded families !

WHAT happened and WHY?

It would be interesting if you start a blog or an article about this particular subject.

 I do know about "Past is past, let's focus on the future" concept, but if we do NOT learn from the mistakes of the past we ( or our youngs) are doomed to repeat them.    

OBSERVER JAN

IS A PERSIAN SAYING THAT GOES LIKE THIS:khar ke yunje ash ziyad shod shoroo mikoneh ...............
GOZASHTEHA GOZASHT LET'S MAKE A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR THE REST.
WHO KNOWS IF IT WASN'T OUT OF THAT CHANGE I WOULD NEVER VISITED ALL EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA,MEXICO AND ARGENTINA.

Is soraya (red hair) your sister too? Any British in the family?

Just curious was your mom from india? They all look pretty. it would be interesting to see how they look now!

nice..

loved your family trip pics JJ.

my most favorite: #27 -

thanks for sharing...hope you have more slides to share .. :)

Purrrrrrr...

JJ, As others have noticed, your sis Soraya was one hot babe! Please post some of her recent pictures.

Troneg

Very good observation. If only everybody could think a bit and analyze, before opening their mouth. I can't believe, 30 years after the revolution, we still hear such statement as AO just declared.

You said it: Out Dated !!

To Anonymous Observer: who can afford freedom

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with money. In 79, thanks to Oil price, it wasn't poorness who push people to ask changes. Everybody knows that rich Bazari funded Islamists and " Mostazafine" were richer than now.

You logic is out dated and looking politic with "communist" prisme.

People are not smart and looking for freedom because they are poor and they aren't unconscious because they are rich even if both could be possible. Life and people are more complex.

Very nice pictures

beautiful collection of beautiful memories!

thanks for sharing

Jahanshah

Slides from the mid-1970s? I thought it was just my father who did that!

Those are not just great photos of a "trip of a lifetime", but I think it's safe to say that they are memories of a lifetime too.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the photos

Agha mamnoon az aks ha!
I agree with the person who said some of these photos look like they could have been taken yesterday, especially the ones around Lake Geneva! Great pictures!

To Anonymous Observer

Dear I also know of some very well-to-do privileged people who had absolutely everything you could imagine before the revolution, but turned 180 degrees around and became hardcore anti-Shah revolutionaries.

One in particular who wore nothing but miniskirt and bikini, had a BMW of her own at 18, and had Googoosh's and David Cassidy's posters covering all her apartment's walls in a very affluent rich neighborhood of Tehran back then and even now, turned into one of those Zeynab's sisters, and even now after 30 years still trying to lead people in the path of Islam.

JJ

I understand.  But my thought is that the teenagers that I saw, who came from these upper middle class families (such as my extended family), who ranged between the ages of 12-18, could not possibly have had a deep and clear understanding of Shah’s dictatorship.  Aside from what they might have overheard, all they should have really experienced first hand was the life of luxury that they were experiencing.  It’s not like they were living in a mud hut in Minab Island.  I think that it was their families’ lack of interest, (for lack of a better word) in their children’s activities and association contributed to their involvement in political activities.  And please don’t get me wrong.  I am not passing judgment on them, and am not “blaming” them for anything.  It’s just an observation….something that I have always thought about.  And the reason that I think about it quite often is because of the personal losses that I suffered…losing cousins in those early purges who I adored .  I always wish that the parents had locked them in their rooms and not allowed them to get involved in politics.  Perhaps they could have been around now.

Anonymous Observer

My parents both worked for the oil company in Abadan and we lived in Beraim. We were privileged compared to non-oil company Abadanis. There was never any discussion of religion in our home. My father was an atheist and my mother had no particular religious beliefs, although she dabbled in Hinduism later her life. No one talked about revolution or said a word against the shah or the government. If anything, I grew up idolizing the shah.

So... my attraction to the anti-shah ideas in the late 1970s has nothing to do with my parents or our life style.

How did a teenager like me and millions of others turn against the shah? Political repression, a one-man dictatorship. Did anyone know that the revolution would turn the way it did? I didn't.

JJ- A Bit Off Topic

Actually perhaps not...I don't know if you want to answer this, but being from Abadan, and seeing and reading your previous posts about yourself, I notice (and correct me if I'm wrong) that you were an individual from a privileged family who became a revolutionary.  This is just fascinating to me becasue I have seen so many examples of the same happening to members of my extended family in Abadan during the first years of the revolution.  Young kids who lived very comfortable lives in Beraim and Bouvardeh, traveled the world, got government scholarships to best univeristies in the world, and yet became fervent revolutionaries, mostly leftists.  Sadly, a lot of them did not survive IRI's firing suqads in the purges of the 1980's.  Abadan seemed to be the epicenter of this transformation, although I'm sure the same was the case all around the country.

Did you, by any chance attend any of the "lectures" at the "Sanaat-e-Naft" college in the first year after the revolution?  If you did, you may have sat next to me in one of the classrooms :-).  Although, I have to say, I never did subscribe to the socialist ideology that was prevalent there.  I was merely a curios and very, very youg (actually, so young that I don't know why my parents even allowed to me to go that chaotic, dangerous scene without supervision.  If there was a child welfare system at that time in Iran, someone should have called them on my parents!!!!).

The other curious thing is that in my family's case, the parents actually encouraged these kids to follow their revolutionary activities.  These are the same people who were treated very nicely by Shah.  They never sat down with the kids and pointed out the luxurious lives they were living.  Whether they were right or wrong, I just find the parents' enabling of these kids even more curious considering their lifetsyles under the Shah.  And the strangest thing is to this day, they really do not have a coherent response to why they did encouraged their children to become revolutionaries.  Did your parents object to your revolutionary ideology or did they discourage you?  I'm just curious. 

Nostalgia

You took me all the way to the year I was born. Absolutely beautiful. The pictures show how empty the streets were at the time and how we can feel the "explosion of pupulation" nowaday. Thanks for sharing. I wish my parents had documented their trips to Europe then so that I wouldn't envy you.

thanks again.

Reza

Thanks!

Dear Mr.Javid,

Thank you for sharing!Nice familly :)

Best collection of out-of-focus pictures

Best collection of out of focus pictures I have seen in a long time. My favorite however is number 17, your dad on a chair near that alley. In that photo the background and set up is classic.

Very nice family photos. Thanks for sharing. Your dad was a good man to take his family to all such places. My dad used to take us to Pas-ghaleh as the longest trip, LOL

great photos

JJ you look so much like your mom
and your brother who is not in these photos looks like your dad.
you were one chubby boy! I love to look at old photos but it makes one sad too.

FA

JJ

#42

No Ari Jan, I didn't take any pictures. My mother probably bent her knees to make my sister seem taller :o)

JJ, #42?

beautiful memories

Thanks for sharing! We enjoy the photos as they remind us of the good life we once had in our own country.

You have a beautiful family. Please cherish these photos...and your family.

Many of my family photos were confiscated by revolutionay thugs as they were going through our belongings at the airport. The thugs were drunk on the powertrip and wanted to do as much damage as possible to our souls as we were leaving the country.

Thanks for sharing . . .

Thanks Jahanshah jaan;

Over time, I have seen some of your family pictures.We came to know each other in 1996 when I stood against Turi Ryder (talk show host) for attacking Iranians.  You included the letter of apology from the Radio Station. That is how iranian.com started. 

Many things have changed, and in the beginning no one was anonymous and some old timers are not posting.

My good wishes for your success.

JJ

Your sister Soraya was One Hot Babe .. :) - Really