Iran's Empress friendship and admiration for the liberal intelligentsia ranging from writer Gore Vidal, choreographer Maurice Béjart or novelist Paulo Coelho is a well known fact that has often dismayed the monarchist constituency over the years.
Be it by naivity or flattery Iran's exiled Royals never seem to have understood that the "friendship" these "intellectuals" may have had for the Empress as "patron of the Arts" did not extend to her husband the late Shah of Iran.
Once again recent events have brought into light the true nature and opinions of these so called "friends".
Shahbanou Geramy and Reza Joon With Friends like these who needs enemies ?
This begs the question who is to blame ... these pseudo "friends" or your own naivity and political amateurism over the years in befriending and socializing with them in Paris, London or NY Galleries, naively thinking that they had the slightest interest in seeing you restored on the throne ?
How many times did monarchists like me and others try to admonish you through various articles and blogs on your misteps in giving so much credit to leftwing filmmakers, writers and so called "eminent" Persians whom you honored knowing full well that they would betray you. Whether Firouz Naderi ( who whome Your Majesty confered the Cyrus the Great Cylinder award, to Shirin Ebadi who you congratulated for her Nobel Peace Prize ( when she was the one who should have thanked you and your dynasty ) to Golshiften Farahani who called Reza Shah a "dictator" ... and I could go on and on ...
None of these personalities are to blame ... You have yourselves to blame for being so NIAVE !
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
Darius KADIVAR
6th January 2018
Naturally Paulo Coelo's Tweet did not escape the attention of the Islamic Republic publication Tehran Times Below:
In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Pahlavi called on the Trump administration to encourage U.S. technology companies to provide communication services to Iranians to protest the Islamic Republic.
“Shut up. SAVAK is dead, and the Iranian people will rally to support their country if you ever ask for another coup d'etat like the one orchestrated by CIA in 1953,” Coelho tweeted on Thursday.
Peaceful protests against recent price hikes and the overall economic conditions started on December 28 but turned violent in a few towns or cities.
The turmoil marked rioters leading fire engines in one city into the crowd of people, killing two bystanders, and attacking a police station elsewhere.
Over a dozen people were killed in the turmoil, including police. According to officials, some of the fatalities came even as security forces did not fire a single bullet. They said some rioters used shotguns and pistols to attack police and fire at the crowd of protesters.
ahlavi, who has lived in exile since his father was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said he wants to see Iranians “determine their own fate out of their own free will.”
He lauded U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet for speaking in support of the protests.
“We need more than lip service. We need to see concrete actions,” Pahlavi said. “This has to be immediate ... As we speak, the regime is attempting yet again to try to shut down whatever it is, whether it’s Instagram or Telegram.”
Meanwhile, Iranian people on Friday took to the streets in major cities across the country for a third consecutive day to reiterate support for the Islamic Republic and to condemn the rioters.
Demonstrators rallied in the capital Tehran and the cities of Tabriz, Sari and Kerman to denounce violence by those who infiltrated peaceful protests to turn them into scenes of confrontation and attack on public property.
MH/PA
NAIVE not NIAVE ...
Sorry I guess my emotions or anger is to blame for my own spelling mistakes ...
I hate to generalize, but majority of these foreign writers and pseudo intellectuals are leftists or with a heavy leaning to left. Bottom line they don’t care about monarchy and they don’t know anything about Iran except what they read in NY times or New Yorker magazine and what they learned from time to time listening to likes of NPR.
Now why RP or Shahabanou are befriending these people no one knows. Perhaps it’s an old habit, or nostalgia for generation and time that are gone or pretense of sophistication and intellectualism who knows.
Perhaps it’s time for us to lower our expectations.
This is what I would call, “merchant mentality.” It is as popular among individuals selling their intellectual properties as it is among merchants who sell their products in the market. When it come to money matters, I see no difference between the two. Categorizing people as being on the “left” or “right” only blemishes the real issues.