Book review by Caesar Warrington
On the plane from Paris to Tehran the Ayatollah Khomeini was asked how it felt to be returning to Iran after over fourteen years of exile. "Nothing" was his curt reply. Such an example of Khomeini's cold indifference is one of the anecdotes the author of THE OTHER SIDE Of The STORY mentions, emphasizing the alien disposition of the clerical leadership that has been in control of Iran for close to thirty years. Using their own words "Kasvravi" shows the mullah class to be almost devoid of loyalty to the Iranian nation and culture. For him, the title of "sayyed" (a descendent of Muhammad) isn't simply an honorific for these people; it is a title affirming that the blood running in their veins is the same as that of the 7th century Muslim Bedouins who conquered the Sassanid Persian Empire. The author documents the Islamic Republic's efforts, on the one hand, to subvert Iran's unique identity via Islamization, while it attempts to literally wreck the history and legacy of Persia, with the other. For instance, soon after the revolution Sadegh Khalkhali, a Khomeini crony nicknamed "the Hanging Judge," had sent bulldozers to level the ruins of Persepolis. If not for the proud people living nearby who stood in the path of those bulldozers and eventually chased them away, the famed colonnades and halls of the Achaemenid kings would have went the way of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Buddhas (destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban). This semi-literate thug was devoted to Arabic culture and claimed he longed to destroy Ferdowsi's tomb. Like the early Bolsheviks who considered Russia a base from which to spread class warfare and world revolution, the leaders of the Islamic Republic look at Iran merely as the first of many countries destined to fall under the Shi'a caliphate they plan to create. In consideration of the words and deeds of Khomeini and his regime, "Kasvravi" contrasts their disdain for pre-Islamic Iran with the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's passionate desire to see the values and prestige of those days reborn. According to this author (and a growing number of others as well), the last Pahlavi shah has been much maligned and misunderstood. For this he especially blames the naïve and misguided Iranian Left, the BBC, and Jimmy Carter. Of the last two mentioned, he exposes the former as a manipulative agent of British economic interests, while the latter he displays (not surprisingly) as foolish and inept. Rather than the media and popular history's exaggerated image of the bloodthirsty despot, "Kasvravi" presents the late Shah as a man who truly cared for his country and its people. He devotes many pages outlining the various plans and projects of the Shah's "White Revolution," detailing the advances made under the monarchy in education, industry, land reform and -Yes!-- even basic civil rights. In closing let me note that it should be obvious to anyone familiar with modern Iranian history that the author here is using a pen name that gives homage to one of 20th century Iran's most prolific writers and thinkers: Ahmad Kasravi Tabrizi; nowadays he writes under the pseudonym "Iran Zamin." If you plan to purchase this book please keep in mind that it is self-published and could use editing. Beyond that, THE OTHER SIDE Of The STORY is a fascinating and enlightening book, written with much love and respect by a man who is a devoted son to what he calls the "divine pure motherland of Iran."
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