Muhammad Reza Pahlavi

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To be first in the Middle East is not enough. We must raise ourselves to the level of a great world power

Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, (Persian: محمدرضا شاه پهلوی, pronounced [mohæmmæd-rezɒː-ʃɒːh-e pæhlæviː]) (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the monarch of Iran from 1941 until he was deposed in 1979 by the Islamic Revolution.

Contents

[edit] Sourced

Rest in peace [Cyrus], for we are awake, and we will always stay awake

[edit] Speeches

[edit] 1963

  • Certain parties consider the paths traced by their doctrines as the only sure ways. Our strength resides in the fact that our revolution does not concern itself with the triumph of a class or of one ideology against another... We are creating a White Revolution : we have adopted no slogans; we adopt all which seems good for us... My final point is to guide Iran, in twenty years, to the level of civilization and progress which will be by then that of the most developed nations. We have today a delay which has diminished by half since ten years ago, but it is this second phase of our delay which will be the most difficult to overcome.
    • Explanation of the White Revolution, as quoted in Réponse à l'Histoire, page 96

[edit] 1968

  • Why should we put up with the present evils in our society? As opposed to the society we are visualizing, the present one can be described as a diseased one. The evils are there on all levels, international and national, and even within the smaller units such as towns and families. Of course, the disease did not appear like a bolt from the blue, either yesterday, or last year. It is the result of factors that have deep roots and long lives. These consist of privations, discriminations oppressions, bigotries, hatreds, and hostilities; poverty, ignorance, hunger, and illiteracy. Each and all of these have been left to us as ar evil heritage from the past. The fundamental difference between our situation today and that of our forefathers is that now knowledge has enabled us to realize that these evils are neither natural nor inevitable in the same way as we have found that cholera or the bubonic plague are not necessary calamities.
  • Once more, the spectre of Cold War is everywhere. Defence budgets, a decimal part of which could free humanity from hunger, disease, illiteracy, and poverty, instead of decreasing, have grown. The gap between 'the haves' and 'the have-nots' is daily widening. Many nations seem to be politically independent but cannot use their independence to deal with their problems or to prosper because foreign influence and interference is still strong. Fratricide and similar savagery in the world sting the human conscience. Racial discrimination a mark of shame on twentieth-century man, although intolerable to most humans can still be seen in various parts of the world. And the power-seeking policies of the strong are hampering the execution of United Nations' ideals.

[edit] 1971

  • O Cyrus, great King, King of Kings, Achaemenian King, King of the land of Iran. I, the Shahanshah of Iran, offer thee salutations from myself and from my nation. Rest in peace, for we are awake, and we will always stay awake.
    • Opening speech on 12th October 1971, when Iran marked the 2500th anniversary of Cyrus' founding of the Persian Empire

[edit] 1976

  • Taking Iran's history as witness, I declare that we, the Pahlavi Dynasty, nurse no love but that for Iran, and no zeal but that for the dignity of Iranians; recognise no duty but that of serving our state and our nation.
    As the commander of this monarchy, I make a covenant with Iran's history that this golden epic of modern Iran will be carried on to complete victory, and that no power on earth shall ever be able to stand against the bond of steel between the Shah and the nation. We shall never again be caught unawares. The nation and the Imperial Arrned Forces, which come from the ranks of the people and derive their power from our inexhaustible national resources, are alert day in and day out to protect their country. No foreigner or his agents will ever have the chance to penetrate the unshakable structure of our national sovereignty because Iran's destiny is now shaped by Iranians and for Iranians - and this shall always be the case.

[edit] 1977

  • I fully understand the particular attention you bring to the issue of nuclear energy and entirely comprehend the eventual dangers and the catastrophes which an irresponsible attitude could bring upon humanity. In this field, my will is for Iran to devote all its efforts towards peaceful use of atomic energy. We will continue to cooperate, in the interest of the human community, with all the nations of the world to reach this goal.
    • Message to the White House, as quoted in Réponse à l'Histoire, page 84

[edit] 1978

  • I heard the voice of your revolution... As Shah of Iran as well as an Iranian citizen, I cannot but approve your revolution... Let all of us work together to establish real democracy in Iran ... I make a commitment to be with you and your revolution against corruption and injustice in Iran.
    • Broadcast to the nation, November 5

[edit] Interviews

A king, when he doesn’t have to account to anyone for what he says and does, is inevitably very much alone. But I’m not entirely alone because I’m accompanied by a force that others can’t see.
  • I don’t deny I’m lonely. Deeply so. A king, when he doesn’t have to account to anyone for what he says and does, is inevitably very much alone. But I’m not entirely alone because I’m accompanied by a force that others can’t see. My mystical force. And the I get messages. Religious messages. I’m very, very religious. I believe in God, and I’ve always said that if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Oh, I feel so sorry for those poor souls who don’t have God. You can’t live without God. I’ve lived with God ever since the age of five. That is, since God gave me those visions...
  • My visions were miracles that saved the country. My reign has saved the country and it’s saved it because God was besides me. I mean, it’s not fair for me to take all the credit for myself for the great things that I’ve done for Iran. Mind you, I could. But I don’t want to, because I know that there was someone else behind me. It was God...
  • When you think I’ve been wounded by a good five bullets, one in the face, one in the shoulder, one in the head, two in the body, and that the last one stuck in the barrel because the trigger jammed... You have to believe in miracles. I’ve had so many air disasters, and yet I’ve always come out unscathed – thanks to a miracle while by God and the prophets...
  • Nobody can influence me, nobody. Still less a woman. Women are important in a man's life only if they're beautiful and charming and keep their femininity and....
  • This business of feminism, for instance. What do these feminists want? What do you want? You say equality. Oh! I don't want to seem rude, but ...you're equal in the eyes of the law but not, excuse my saying so, in ability.
  • You've never produced a Michleangelo or a Bach. You've never even produced a great chef. And if you talk to me about opportunity, all I can say is, are you joking? Have you ever lacked the opportunity, to give history a great chef? You've produced nothing great, nothing! ...
  • All I can say is that women, when they govern, are much harsher than men. Much crueler. Much more bloodthirsty. I'm citing facts, not opinions. You're heartless when you have power. Think of Catherine de Medicis, Catherine of Russia, Elizabeth I of England. Not to mention Lucrezia Borgia, with her poisons and intrigues. You're schemers, you're evil. All of you.
    • Fallaci, Oriana (1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune, December 30, 1973
  • My father kicked out the former king here because he had no contact with his people.
    • Crisis in Iran. History Channel (circa 1978-79).
    • Members of the Qajar dyansty carried out state-sanctioned stonings, etc.
  • I even sometimes wonder if this multi-party system is good for those who have it elsewhere.
    • The Fall of the Shah, BBC World News (2009)
  • You think that Mr Khomeini, [an] uneducated person ... could have planned all this? Masterminded all this, set up all the organization? I know that one man alone could not have done it ... I know that a tremendous amount of money was spent ... I know that top experts in propaganda were used to show us like tyrants and monsters, and the other side as democratic liberal revolutionaries who want to save the country.

[edit] Mission for my Country (1961)

The truth seems to be that, no matter where you find them, the so-called proletarian dictatorships are actually controlled by a small elite who ordinarily lose little sleep in worrying about the rights of the common man
It is woman's peculiar gifts, as well as man's, which make nonesense of any literal-minded notion of 'equality' of the sexes
  • ... contrary to what many believed, my father was kind and tenderhearted, especially towards his family. His forbidding sternness seemed to melt into love, kindness, and easy familiarity when he was with us. Especially with me, his acknowledged successor to the throne, he would play lightheartedly. When we were alone together, he would sing me little songs; I don't remember his ever doing this in front of others, but when only the two of us were there, he would often sing to me.
    • Page 45
  • I remember that on one occasion Mossadegh swooned in the midst of a speech to our Parliament. When a hastily summoned doctor started to loosen his clothes, Mossadegh instantly revived enough to clap his hand over his wallet. The old hypocrite had not been unconscious at all ; he was merely pretending in the hope of impressing his audience. I think this incident, observed by many, illustrates one of Mossadegh's cardinal characteristics- namely, his insincerity.
    • Page 109
  • In examining any dictatorship, there are two good tests. Firstly, what is the relation between the rulers and the proletariat or common people? Are the rulers members of the proletariat, as they would have you believe? Do they even identify their interests with those of ordinary citizens? The truth seems to be that, no matter where you find them, the so-called proletarian dictatorships are actually controlled by a small elite who ordinarily lose little sleep in worrying about the rights of the common man. Secondly, have the proletariat any effective say in what the rulers do? In the proletarian dictatorships I am familiar with, ordinary people enjoy little or no control over their Government or over their own lives and futures.
    • Page 162
  • I personally object to the veil on aesthetic as well as other grounds; but I must admit that, for instance in the suburbs of American cities, I have often seen women attired more sloppily than our Persian women normally are.
    • Page 232
  • Many Westerners forget that when the Prophet spoke of four wives as the maximum allowable number, he had in mind a reduction to four as compared to the number then often prevailing; moreover, Mohammed specified that a man should acquire more than one wife only if he could treat them all with equal justice - obviously a difficult feat for even the most diligent man to achieve. In effect, then, the Prophet curtailed the number of wives.
    • Page 233
  • It is woman's peculiar gifts, as well as man's, which make nonesense of any literal-minded notion of 'equality' of the sexes. Nobody could do greater harm to woman's real progress than to confuse 'equality' on the one hand with 'equality of oppurtunity' on the other. The Moslem religion and all the other great world faiths teach the complementary relationship of man and woman. They all reject the idea of their being 'equal' in the sens of identical or synonymous. Observation and common sense teach the same truths.
    • Page 235
  • I am continually amused by the Communist argument that the United States tries to prevent the less-developed countries from industrializing in order to keep them subservient to herself. In our extended dealings with the American aid authorities, we have never found this to be the case; on the contrary, they have helped us with a wide variety of industrial projects, including those that compete directly with American industries. The Americans have enough sense to prefer strong and prosperous friends, and they realize that their most lucrative international trade is with other highly industrialized countries, not with weak and backward ones.
    • Page 301

[edit] Réponse à l'Histoire (1979)

  • The oil empire remains one of the most inhuman in the world: moral and elementary social principles are scorned by it.
    • Page 72-73
  • Here therefore is one of my principle "crimes" : having wanted to move Iran from the Oil Age to the Atomic Age before it was too late. Should I blush at it? The peaceful use of nuclear energy does not pose us any radiation or contamination problems, as one finds in our country vast stretches of desert.
    • Page 84
  • I have been accused of having undertaken these projects, those on nuclear power stations and others, "for personal ambition". Was it not clear that I would have probably been dead before the completion of most of these projects? Why then talk of personal ambition? It rather involved providing for the needs of Iran. My "personal" ambitions are known to all men of good faith : preserve national unity, give the people of Iran all the fortune possible and prepare a better tomorrow for the young generations.
    • Page 85
  • All ideological differences aside, I can't help but have a sincere admiration of Mr Brezhnev.
    • Page 183
  • Yugoslavia is, along with Iran, the only nation which, under difficult circumstances... stood up to Joseph Stalin. It was not easy to unify the ethnic groups, to modernize a nation like Yugoslavia, and one must recognise that marshal Tito has fulfilled an extraordinary task. God willing, his successors will show themselves to be just as capable.
    • Page 190
  • To the Romanian president, I would like to salute his intransigent patriotism and ferocious will for independence. A veritable amity links me to him.
    • Page 190
  • I have... always strived, as was my dual duty as a believer and a sovereign, to follow the precepts of Islam's holy book, precepts which are those of balance, justice and moderation.
    • Page 216
  • I am convinced that a majority of religious people today deplore the ordeals inflicted on our people. I'm not just talking about the martyrs, but of the lost, terrified and impoverished families, of the 4 million unemployed people created by the economic chaos in a country which, a year earlier, offered work to a million foreigners. Those who have chosen to serve God cannot see scorned the most sacred principles of our religion without a deep sadness.
    • Page 217-218

[edit] Contemporary witnesses

[edit] The Imperial Shah (1975)

My people have every kind of freedom, except the freedom to betray.
  • I am not bloodthirsty. I am working for my country and the coming generations. I can't waste my time on a few young idiots. I don't believe the tortures attributed to the SAVAK are as common as people say, but I can't run everything. Besides, we have ways of using psychological pressure that are much more effective than torture... My people have every kind of freedom, except the freedom to betray.
    • Page 259
  • If I take a liking to someone, I need only the smallest shred of doubt to make me break it off. I am alone, but I don't feel alone... because God is up there. I know people sometimes make fun of me because I am religious, but I feel this profoundly. God is my only friend.
    • Page 273
  • There was a sharp break in my life after 1953. I came to realize that I couldn't have the same relationships with my friends. Friendship involves the exchange of confidence between two people, but a king can take no one into his confidence. I have even had to put some distance between myself and my old friend Hossein Fardoust whom I trust implicitly. I even observe certain distances with members of my family. I had to tell my mother- who is a very dictatorial woman- that it would be better if she didn't ask me for favours for I might have to refuse her.
    • Page 273-274
  • What do they think I should feed over fifty heads of state? Bread and radishes?
    • Page 284
    • The celebration's banquet included quail eggs stuffed with caviar, lobster mousse with Sauce Nantua, flaming lambs with arak, a traditional dish of peacock stuffed with foie gras, paltters of cheese, a salad of figs and raspberries, champagne sherbert, a 70 lb cake and 25,000 bottles of wine.
  • You Westerners simply don't understand the philosophy behind my power. The Iranians think of their sovereign as a father. What you call 'my celebration' was to them the celebration of Iran's father. The monarchy is the cement of our unity. In celebrating our twenty-five hundreth anniversary, all I was doing was celebrating the anniversary of my country, of which I am the father. Now, if to you, a father is inevitably a dictator, that is your problem, not mine.
    • Page 284

[edit] The Shah and I (1991)

The great powers claim that whatever they possess is theirs by right, but whatever we, the smaller countries possess is negotiable
What's happened recently in Pakistan, India and Kuwait only goes to show that it's futile to imitate Western democracy. They've ended up exactly where they started.
Pride comes before a fall- although in his case it's more conceit than pride
  • Madness and intelligence often go together.
    • Page 42
  • We may be delighted to see Israel putting the Arabs in their place, but we have repeatedly condemned their occupation of Arab territory.
    • Page 65
  • For all its apparent tolerance, the USA maintains a peculiar balance between the forces of capitalism and democracy. To achieve this I feel sure the country is guided by some hidden force; an organization working in secrecy, powerful enough to dispose of the Kennedys and of anyone else who gets in its way.
    • Page 169
  • If [the British] have the fucking audacity to advise me ever again, I shall fuck them so rigid that they'll think twice before crossing my path in future.
    • Page 173-4
  • I have learned by experience that a tragic end awaits anyone who dares cross swords with me; Nasser is no more, John and Robert Kennedy died at the hands of assassins, their brother Edward has been disgraced, Krushchev was toppled, the list is endless.
    • Page 202
  • Thank God we in Iran have neither the desire nor the need to suffer from democracy.
    • Page 233
  • We were wrong to believe that the British are our friends. You are obsessed solely with yout own selfish interests and treat us as a people beyond the pale. But your attitude is a matter of profound disinterest. Your democratic system has already erupted into chaos. We shall soon overtake you and in a decade you will be struggling in our wake. Perhaps then you will remember how you treated us.
    • Page 236
  • He [the King of Morocco] spends half his time asleep and the rest of it buried between the legs of the fairer sex.
    • Page 237
  • Better that he take risks than that he ends up a shrinking violet like Ahmad Shah Qajar.
    • Page 241
    • In colloquial Persian, Ahmad Shah Qajar is a byword for ineptitude.
  • Nixon is a strong leader with a good grasp of the world's problems. He knows that the only way to argue with the communists is from a position of strength.
    • Page 254
  • The great powers claim that whatever they possess is theirs by right, but whatever we, the smaller countries possess is negotiable.
    • Page 262
  • Nixon has the audacity to tell me to do nothing in the interest of my country until he dictactes where that interest lies. At the same time he threatens me that failure to follow his so-called advice will be to jeopardize the special relations between our two countries. I say to hell with such special relations.
    • Page 278
  • Nixon would like to consign us to to the level of the most backward countries in the whole Middle East. Why lower us to the standard of the Saudis rather than raising the Saudis to meet us?
    • Page 281
  • Muslim brothers be damned; they're our greatest enemies. You know yourself that I'm a Muslim, even a fanatical Muslim. But that does nothing to alter my opinion of the Arabs.
    • Page 330
  • To be first in the Middle East is not enough. We must raise ourselves to the level of a great world power.
    • Page 360
  • Pride comes before a fall- although in [Henry Kissinger's] case it's more conceit than pride.
    • Page 391
  • ... the Jewish press in the USA is solely responsible for our poor publicity.
    • Page 427
  • It would serve the Americans right if we emptied the prisons and let the subversives take power. They'd soon show Washington just how much they appreciate good old American values.
    • Page 465
  • Who on earth do the Americans suppose their allies are amongst the Arab world? Even Saudi Arabia they seem to regard as nothing more than a resevoir of oil and money.
    • Page 474
  • The Times and the Guardian accuse us of operating a police-state. The BBC Persian programme has made similair allegations, saying that countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia should be denied access to Western military technology. What are the bloody fools on about? Do they seriously regard Iraq, or Algeria, or Libya as liberal regimes?
    • Page 490
  • What's happened recently in Pakistan, India and Kuwait only goes to show that it's futile to imitate Western democracy. They've ended up exactly where they started.
    • Page 506
  • Soviet propaganda is remarkably effective and the Americans are even more remarkably stupid.
    • Page 508
  • ... the Saudis have never shown any respect for human rights, either now or in the past. Even a petty burglar faces having one of his hands chopped off. The liberal press in America prefers to ignore all this, although they don't hesitate to blacken the reputation of Iran.
    • Page 535
  • How can you hope to build up a nation by fragmenting its politics into opposing camps? Whatever one group builds, the other will endeavour to destroy.
    • Page 552

[edit] Other

You approach the Mullahs as if they are normal people. They are not. You see them in your own image; you should not.
  • Ashraf, keep this gun with you, and if troops enter Tehran and try to take us, fire a few shots and then take your own life. I'll do the same.
  • Let me tell you quite bluntly that this king business has given me personally nothing but headaches.
    • The New York Times, April 14, 1962
  • Let the dog bark; the moon shall beam on.
    • Gholam R. Afkhami (2009) The life and times of the Shah, University of California Press, page 261
    • The 'dog' was a reference to Khomeini
  • You approach the Mullahs as if they are normal people. They are not. You see them in your own image; you should not.
    • Gholam R. Afkhami (2009) The life and times of the Shah, page 591
  • My main mistake was to have made an ancient people advance by forced marches toward independence, health, culture, affluence, comfort.
    • Recalled on his death 27 Jul 1980
  • Growing terrorism, permissive societies, democracy collapsing through lack of law and order. If things continue on their present track, the disintegration of Western societies will occur much sooner than you think under the hammer blows of fascism and communism. Freedom is not something that does not have a breaking point, and your enemies would like you to reach that point.
    • Jimmy Carter(1995) Keeping faith: memoirs of a president, University of Arkansas Press, page 444
  • I must enforce the Iranian laws, which are designed to combat communism. This is a very real and dangerous problem for Iran- and, indeed, for the other countries in my area and in the Western world. It may be that when this serious menace is removed, the laws can be changed, but that will not be soon. In any case, the complaints and recent disturbances originate among the very troublemakers against whom the laws have been designed to protect our country. They are really just a tiny minority, and have no support among the vast majority of Iranian people.
    • Jimmy Carter (1995) Keeping faith: memoirs of a president, University of Arkansas Press, page 445

[edit] Quotes about the Shah

There is only one thing I can say about the Shah- he knows how to draw a crowd~ Jimmy Carter
Reza Shah perpetrated many injustices on the people, such as usurping their lands, but compared to his son he deserved gratitude.~ Hussein Fardust
  • The Shah is riding a tiger from which he cannot safely dismount.
    • Martin F. Herz, "A view from Tehran- A Diplomatist Looks at the Shah's Regime in June 1964"
  • You may say, and keep repeating that this marriage will never take place. I shall not change my mind. I will never marry a man I am not in love with. I don't love the Shah of Iran; I will not marry him.
  • It seems that amassing a fortune is not the Shah's chief aim in life. What appears to motivate him most, the thing to which he devotes all his energies, has much vaster implications: He wants to become a part of history, to engrave his name for all time not only on the history of his country of his country but on that of the entire world. With his mysticism, he might even hope to fill the spiritual void in the Western countries which, in his view, are floundering in materialism.
    • Gérard de Villiers (1975) The Imperial Shah: An Informal Biography, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, page 286
  • Rather than respond to the spiritual and material needs of his people, a course which would have immortalized him as a great reformer, [the Shah] chose to pursue a personal, fleeting glory. A system which might have been capable of rescuing Iran from backwardness and misery was allowed to collapse. The Shah could not bear the idea of democratic participation in the political decision-making process, nor could he tolerate the prospect that someone else might gain a degree of popularity. Herein lay his tragedy. He saw any successful or respected personality as a potential opponent.
    • Alinaghi Alikhani's introduction to Asadollah Alam's (1991), The Shah and I, I. B. Tauris, page 9
  • The Shah (of Iran) was - despite the travesties of retroactive myth - a dedicated reformer.
  • By no stretch of the imagination - as people who knew him closely, personally, or professionally would testify - was Mohammad Reza Shah a dictator in either the historical or contemporary sense of the word. He was not ruthless, mean-spirited, bloody, or tyrannical. A twentieth century man in the street would identify a dictator with Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Duvalier, Doe, Ceausescu. Mohammad Reza Shah resembled none of them. He may have been an autocrat in the genre of Tito and Franco, but he was not a dictator.
    • Jahangir Amuzegar (1991) The dynamics of the Iranian revolution: the Pahlavis' triumph and tragedy, SUNY Press, pages 214-215
  • Your Empire was founded by Cyrus, Xerxes extended it and Darius preserved it. Your present ruler seems to me to possess something of the qualities of all three of these mighty kings.
    • Michael Stewart, as quoted in Alam, Asadollah (1991), The Shah and I, I. B. Tauris, page 71
  • Mohammad Reza was the centre of power. He differed from his father in behaviour and understanding of power. To me, Mohammad Reza was more [despotic] than his father. Reza Shah perpetrated many injustices on the people, such as usurping their lands, but compared to his son he deserved gratitude.
    • Hussein Fardust (1999) The rise and fall of the Pahlavi dynasty: memoirs of former general Hussein Fardust, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., page 51
  • The shah thought he was a good and pious Christian; as if repairing holy places and saying prayers before going to sleep (according to his honest claim) [are] an indication of closeness to God and to the infallible imams. In reality he did not understand, nor did he live according to, religion and Shi'ism. On the contrary, his actions and behaviour and opposition to Islam and Shi'ism [were] a sign of his deeply [ingrained] hostility toward religion.
    • Sayyed Mohammad Baqer Najafi, 1976, as quoted in Kamran Scot Aghaie's (2004), The martyrs of Karbala: Shi'i symbols and rituals in modern Iran, University of Washington Press, page 64
  • I watched president Carter on TV toasting the Shah on New Year's Eve, and thought it was one of the silliest things I'd ever seen, especially when the Shah lifted his champagne glass. And I thought "We're in a muslim country, he's celebrating an American holiday, by toasting with alcohol. Isnt this dumb? Doesnt he know anything about his own country? The people in his own country?"
    • Former English teacher in Iran, Michael Metrinko, The Fall of the Shah (2009), BBC World News documentary
  • The people will not rest until the Pahlavi rule has been swept away and all traces of tyranny have disappeared. As long as the Shah's satanic power prevails, not a single true representative of the people can possibly be elected.
    • Ruhollah Khomeini's response to Shah Pahlavi's announcement of elections (August 1978); quoted in "The Shah's Divided Land" (18 September 1978) Time
  • There is only one thing I can say about the Shah- he knows how to draw a crowd.
    • Jimmy Carter, as quoted in Steven F. Hayward's (2004) The real Jimmy Carter, Regnery Publishing, page 126
  • The bloodsucker of the century has died.
    • Tehran Radio on his death
  • The Shah's rule was a mixture of failures and successes; neither all one nor all the other. Some of the vaunted economic and developmental achievements were impressive- others were shallow and superficial. But in the end the important failures were primarily political- the Shah had no programme for restoring representative government and his only solution for dissent was repression.If he had succeeded in making the monarchy truly popular, perhaps he could have sustained that for a time- but instead the monarchy became more remote and disconnected from the attitudes and concerns of ordinary Iranians.
    • Michael Axworthy (2008) Iran: Empire of the Mind, Penguin Books, page 257
  • Was the collaboration of some slaves any different than the silence of some Iranians who stood by and did nothing as Savak thugs murdered and tortured opponents of the Shah? How could we judge other men until we had stood in their shoes?

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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