No Matter What
Jan 18th, 2010 by pedestrian
Ebrahim Yazdi, on the left of Ayatollah Khomeini. Sadeq Ghotbzadeh on the right.
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In Persian, we have a saying “goosht-e ghorbooni” (sacrificed meat). It refers to people who are mistreated, killed, harassed, no matter what the situation (because in Iran, it is customary to kill sheep both at funerals and for weddings and births). That is, the expression refers to someone who is in dire conditions, no matter what.
I would call the Freedom Movement of Iran, and especially their most notable members, Ezatollah Sahabi and Ebrahim Yazdi as “goosht-e ghorbooni”.
They endured years of imprisonment under the Shah. They have been in and out of prison for the past 30 years as well. They have been harassed, tortured and confined but they have never left Iran. Both men held key positions in Bazargan’s temporary government right after the revolution, but ever since, they’ve been more accustomed to jail cells than any lucrative government position.
Not very smart politicians … but admirable activists.
Ebrahim Yazdi was arrested once more after the Ashura protests.
Here, his family appeals to international organizations for help with his release. He is 79, and very sick. Part of the appeal reads:
“Based on the reports of a Jaras reporter from Tehran, Yazdi, a member of the Iran Freedom Movement, has been spotted in prison attire and with a very dire physical appearance in the revolutionary court in Moalem street early last week. He had been brought there in order to extend his temporary arrest warrant.”
From the same piece:
Ebrahim Yazdi was arrested for the third time during the past year at his residence in Tehran at 3AM on the 28th of December 2009 (the day after the Ashura protests) by officials at the Intelligence Ministry.
Didn’t Khomeini kill Ghotb-Zadeh? Yazdi’s lucky to be still alive.
Yazdi will also be very lucky if he dies in the prison of these MURDERERS …
I never got to it, but his arrest peculiarly coincided with a second buzz about teh 18.5 billion stolen to Turkey. His party was the only one, which was not focusing primarily on election, rather trying to seek international cooperation on investigation about the truth behind that money hauling!
naj, I was going to add “at least he’s lucky to have his head” since Ghotbzadeh was hanged. So yes, he is lucky (if you can call it that!)
Really?! I wasn’t reading any news those days, so I didn’t know there was a second round of buzzing about the stolen billions!
I’ve yet to see a picture of all those gold . . .
I remember exactly , that till the execution/judiciary murder of Ghotbzadeh the Khomeini-regime seemed to German understanding somehow comprehensible, even sensible.
But when/after Ghotbzadeh – who to judge from his appearance and his statements on German TV-screens seemed to be a rational and reasonable man – was/had been murdered/eliminated by the state, one [I] did certainly know and was convinced that in Iran some really super-loony madmen were at work. Some religious Stalins showed their true face – the lasting impression.
Then I knew that we, i.e. my Iranian co-students (and I for example), had been completely wrong and we would deeply repent and be very much ashamed of our/their error – as indeed it turned out to be when we met occasionally: this knowledge expressing itself tacitly, restricted to an intense, mute glance.
Lola, you know, I’ve been thinking maybe this whole gold story is a cover up. Whilst they’ve rushed the $$ through another door … (shaking head) I really don’t know. Our poor, beautiful country is a chaos of ugly questions these days.
Publicola, from what I know of Ghotbzadeh, and that’s not very much, he was a shady character too (I’m NOT saying that to justify his killing) … I just mean, I’m not sure he was so rational or reasonable. And his words against Saddam and Iraq at that time weren’t exactly called for either.
That said, I don’t know too much about the man so I’ll take my own comment with a grain of salt.
You are very probably right – at that time I was young – inexperienced really in all kinds of worldly matters!
An aside:
Having just checked on wikipedia, Ghotbzadeh seems to have confessed to all possible kinds of things.
Who knows, what they had promised him, if he confessed ?
Who knows, which different kinds of tortures – chosen with consideration from a whole kaleidoscope of devilish methods at their disposal – he had been subjected to, before he decided to confess to – God knows – what ?
About 200 years ago in my region the local authorities sentenced to death and executed so-called female “witches”. These also – after some proper treatment – confessed to all kinds of things, like riding on a broomstick over their neighbour’s roof at 12 o’clock sharp midnight and afterwards having drunk and slept with Satan – and similar kinds of aspects of their alleged daily life.
I am very sure that this is not the “Islamic” “Republic” he signed up for.
We have another expression in Farsi that applies “Har ki Kharboozeh Mikhoreh…Bayad payeh Larzesh Ham Benshineh” …I just wonder…Can he still see His Imam’s Image on The Moon?? He gifted us with his Mass Murderer Imam…Let him pay for it!!
Dear Pedestrian,
If you want to learn about Ghotbzadeh, I highly recommend the book written by his lover, the Canadian Correspondent from the CBC, Carole Jerome. The book is called, “The Man in the Mirror.” While Ghotbzadeh’s philosophies and beliefs led him to actively and directly support Khomenei’s rise to power, he also attempted to stop the Islamic fundamentalist crazies from taking complete control in a failed coup attempt against Khomeini.
With regards to Ghotbzadeh and Yazdi, both of whom can be considered moderates and even liberals when compared to the regime’s current power brokers, it is sad that these men threw their lot and that of the Iranian nation, behind a man who ultimately took Iran into a 30 year era of Islamic Inquisition marked by an 8-year war with Iraq that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and Iraqis. They may have regretted this to some degree, or even completely. In any case, nobody deserves what the treatment these men received at the hands of the regime.
Dave Siavashi, Iran News Now
Dave, thanks for the recommendation. It will go on my amazon list!
In regards to these throwing their weight behind someone whose legacy is … well, THIS … this current day catastrophe … It is sad, but maybe inevitable. It seems half of Iran, from a myriad of political, social and religious factions, was under the impression that they could change the country for the better under his wing. That turned out to be a grave mistake of course – both for themselves, and for the country at large. But history is made up of all these big mistakes.
Arian, yes! we do have that expression too. But two things:
These men are part of only a handful of people who actually “payeh larzesh ham neshastan”. Everyone, avid, enthusiastic supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini, left Iran. They stayed, despite the harassment. I find that quite admirable.
And second, they were not alone in supporting K. Thousands of political leaders from all over the spectrum did this. Millions of people did too. We should all take responsibility for what we did … But should also have the courage to move on.
Having read the commentaries gathered here, I would like to add an off-topic comment:
Dear Pedestrian,
what I do admittedly admire [envy], is your calm, patience and – as a rule refreshingly witty – friendliness,
when responding to all these multifarious, highly diversely “coloured” views of your commentators [including mine, of course !] !
[I wish I had been able to be that calm, patient and wittily friendly when younger !]
In any case, let me assure you:
that definitely seems to me
to be a, if not THE, highly effective “arme secrète” (secret weapon) at your disposal in this multi-voiced, exceedingly complex discourse,
to – unintentionally – become/be/stay (somehow) victorious, i.e.successfully convincing !
Yours
Publicola
nice piece.
y’know, Sahabi has not been in the Freedom Movement for quite a while now
there’s a short explanation here (wasn’t on the eng version though):
http://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D8%B2%D8%AA%E2%80%8C%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87_%D8%B3%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%A8%DB%8C
aniranianperspective, fixed!
Thanks for that! I think what confused me is that Melli/Mazhabi and Nehzat Azadi almost seem one and the same with the letters they release together and speeches they give, etc.
yeah, one of those very confusing things