From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHRAN, JAN. 24—There was a strong rumour here last week that the Shah is not really dead. Many people swore that they had never seen a photograph of his dead body and pointed out that only his wife and son were shown in pictures of the funeral, along with “co-conspirators” like Anwar Sadat.…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHERAN, JAN. 21—It was clear that the on-off hostage crisis, which finally came to an end a scant half hour before Ronald Reagan’s swearing in as America’s 40th president on Tuesday, had begun to boomerang badly for the Iranians towards the end. Today, only two bored Pasdaran (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) stood guard outside the…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHERAN, JAN. 22—“The economy can’t get any worse”, say businessmen in Teheran. But the isolation the Iranians brought upon themselves, most people agree, could have been easily averted. The release of the US hostages may reopen the gates to the West and one country that can lose out as a result is India. Hardliners…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHRAN, Jan. 23 — Iranian military plans were always offensive vis-à-vis Iraq. It was not surprising, therefore, that the Iranian Air Force’s first raids on Iraq after the war broke out in late September focused on economically important targets. The Iraqis, too, have concentrated their attacks on Iranian economic centres — a situation…
With a step forward from Monarchy to a Republic, Iran has taken two steps backwards: restricting freedom, curbing women’s rights and executions after summary trials. “Who would believe that I should work 10 hours a day for 37 years to help my country only to see it go back to the point where I began?”…
Iran is ruled by many Shahs today, each wearing Islam’s robes that cloak the terror they replaced The most intense patriotism usually flourishes in the rear lines,” wrote Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago about Russia at war with Nazi Germany. Not so in post-revolution Islamic Iran. Four months after “Allah’s victorious forces” locked horns…