From: Maryam Tabibzadeh
To: B M
Sent: Monday, January 8, 2007 11:36:36 PM
Subject: RE: Ben Madadi, Force-feeding Persian

Dear Ben, Thanks for the reply, below please see my comments.  The bold parts belongs to Mr. Madadi

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Correct me if I am wrong but did my article anger you? I regret that. Indeed it was not my intention to anger anyone because I was not angry when I wrote it.
No, I am sad since we do not see the fact that the people of my country, those that I am proud of their achievements and am happy to see them any where in the world, think that they are not belong to the country that their ancestor live for centuries. Also it saddens me when my people do not see that small and integrated region will not get any where, and only we can do some thing if we are united.

I respect your opinion. The US is a democratic country, so comparing it to Iran in this regard, to my humble opinion, is not very helpful.
 That is where you are wrong. Couple of decades ago I asked my Japanese professor how can Iran be like Japan and have economical progress? He looked at me and said "you can not compare Iran to Japan. Japan has one language, one race and one religion. Only United sate can be compare to Iran with so much climate differences, many languages and so many religions" Of course he was wrong in that respect though,. India probably has more Language than Iran but they were colonized by British and the schools were teaching in  English so they choose English and each group has their own languages.

The US does not even have an official language. People can send their children to any school they wish, and the US is the United States of America, which is a federation in which every relatively independent state is free and all the citizens of each state have the right to choose their own leaders but at the same time they are united under the US constitution.

But show me one school which thought a different language than English. You too can send your children to any school you wish in Iran. Armenian had their own schools, Jewish had their own schools before revolution and I believe even now. There were also French schools and English schools that people used to send their children. Why the other minority did not have one? Who prevent them to do so?
Of course if I want the federal money and free education I send my child to the public school in which they learn to be secular and so on. But If I am willing to pay I can send my child to the school of my choice and it was true in Iran of Pahlavi era. In Iran if I was living in a neighborhood with school, my kids would go there but here in the US In some states you do not have that choice either. They go where the law says they go.

 The federation in the united states: Most laws are common between states here. Except the taxes and some small
Laws which are tailored to the states of course, but even those have to obey under federal laws.


If you are angered by me being bothered to not having my own distinct language, history and culture crushed at the expense of Persian, for the sake of whole Iran, then I am also saddened that you my fellow Iranian have not accepted assimilation to the great US values of freedom and respect, which have not been forced upon you.

No, if there is any anger is to say that you could not have your language and your history. I think nobody can take that from one and the survival of your language all over Iran is the reminder that if you want, you can keep them alive as you have done it over centuries.

You make also good points in your letter, especially regarding the limited resources that the Pahlavi regime had. For a matter of fact Azerbaijan has had its own literature and very many books (though definitely fewer than Persian because Persian language has been considered the language of writing even by many of Iran's Turkic rulers because they ruled over a country with a population that was mostly Persian, or related to Persians). The limited resources were not the reason, but there was and is a well-documented policy of assimilation in order to create a Persian Iran.

No, my dear friend, I did not say there was limited books and resources. I said there were limited teachers and building and so on. Again there need to be a language to communicate . Persian Language was chosen since at least 50% of the population could talk that language and the other half were expose to it. My point is not that you should not want to talk your language, my anger is that you deny the fact that there was no problem talking that language otherwise it was dead by now.

Please my dear fellow Iranian, I am an Iranian myself and being an Azerbaijani does not make me any less Iranian, but respect me being an Azerbaijani, don't expect me to be or become Persian, as I have no desire to make anybody anything but what he/she is, and wishes to be. And you have no reason to get angry, because the article has a social significance and it does not pretend otherwise, as (expectedly) accused of separatism (which is an insult).

You put your finger were the wound is my dear. My point and many Iranian is that by saying "the minorities are oppressed, we are paving the road to separatism. I do not expect any one to be any thing they do not want to be.
My dear Iranian I have know Iranian who deny they are Iranian and refuse to talk a word of Persian for the assimilation in to American culture. That is their choice. That is why we are here not in Iran. That is why you changed your name to Ben and the reason we are writing in English. We do it out of necessities. We need to be assimilated in to this society. I am sure the Tabrizi merchant who goes to Tehran and open a shop and sells rugs to the so call Persians want to be their friend, know their language if not for the sake of his customers, for the sake of his own pockets.
No body asked you to be Persian, The whole country was called Persian by Europeans. Reza shah put an end to that
And now it is called Iran. My Turkish friend  talk Turkish or (AZERI) as one call it freely. I do not tell her why? It is her language and she should be proud of it. The Turkish tribes all over Iran know their histories and the time they moved to Iran and which branch they are. For Azeri's also there are legions why they change their tongue from Kurds to Turkey. We all need to know these histories and where every one came from. But we all should agree that we choose to live in a land called Iran with her long history. If my an sector came from another part of the world that does not mean I am less Iranian or the Iran's long history does not belong to me.


As far as I know Azerbaijanis have contributed no less than Persians to building Iran so they are extremely unlikely to leave it all to Persians. But this does not mean we are Persians and the current regime is not only doing harm to a much greater extent to the religious minority but also to the ethnic minority. Because what we as non-Persian Iranians have inherited as culture, language and history is no less than what you, as Persians, have inherited from you ancestors. You may say they are the same but let others decide what they think is the same with yours, rather than you deciding for them that they are the same as you.

No, I do not think they are or contribute less than Persian. I even gave them the prize to be the first in every thing. I do not dispute the current regime's problem either. I was in love with Iran and was crying my eyes out when I came here. Longing to see my family and the familiar culture. I came to the conclusion that the land is not mine any more. A sad discovery but true. My argument is that if the government is oppressed, every one is oppressed not just the minorities.
In the Iranian Gathering, I can not tell Persian from Turkish, from Mazandarani or from Kurdish. That is me. I see all Iranian the same. That is the difference between you and me. If to you they are different race then be it, I do not and neither are some of my Turkish friends.

And you said that Azerbaijanis have not been discriminated because they are, and have been, ministers and so on. Reading my article you could have noticed that I did not deny that after Reza Shah those Azerbaijanis who accepted Reza Shah's policies were accepted among their ranks, and during the current Islamic regime, those Azerbaijanis who have accepted the policies of the Islamic regime have been accepted among high-ranking politicians. Do you seriously think that Iranian society could have functioned properly if Azerbaijanis were totally sidelined? Not that they are exceptional (you can say that but I cannot offer myself flattering comments) but because they are too many. And not only that Azerbaijanis are too many, they also have the history behind we are all aware of, as being high-ranking officials during the Qajar, and of course even before. We cannot deny those facts.

I think calling some one like Kasravi as accepting Reza Shah's policy is wrong. He wrote in Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit and of course Persian. He wrote hundred of books in social issues, in different languages of Iranian and on their histories. If he was assimilated he would not get killed. He was factual. And he put his fingers on the wound and asked to fix that. My kids are no longer Iranian because they want to be American. If all the Iranian think that way and think that they are one regardless of their differences they can get where we all want to get and create a great country. Unfortunately they are more in love with their ethnic background than  to their nationality. I do not whish you to be Persian but ask you to be Iranian. Learning the history of Iran is one of them. Having a common language to communicate is another.

My dear Ben, I have been in the villages of Fars where there was no Doctor, water or electricity. Over there women
Were traveling miles with big Mashk (The ship skin which was prepared to hold water) to get water from the remote spring to their families. Where only a cold  pool was their public bath.  The region which did not have one representative chosen from their region until 1976. Their mayor and governor were coming from  other regions also. Of course there was no way to Improve. To me that is oppression.

In here money specks. If you know some one, write an article in a newspapers, have a talk show etc they approach you to write your memory and pay you couple of hundred thousand Dollars. Fir you are a famous Actor, a football player
Or president this price goes up to several million. That is the capitalism for you.

In the places which is dictatorship you get ahead if you know or are close to the dictator. If  your city  is the city the dictator was born, if your language is the same as the king etc, you progress. That is why Azerbaijan was the center of attention over years beside it's geological position to be neighboring Russia and late Ottoman Empire. They got more attention than the other regions. I have read in the history that Reza Shah also was from one of the Turkish tribe who were living in Mazandaran. Nader Shah and Krim Khan too that I did not mentioned in my previous e-mail were Turkish. With all our kings being Turkish why do you think they let Iran's name remain to be Persia? And our people call Persian. That is not that Ghajar did not know people of Azerbaijan were not Farsi speaking people. So then Why?

It was oust the name like Egypt instead of Mesr. They knew it too. That means nothing. A Turkish speaking, Kurdish speaking a Jew or Armenian they all were called Persian.

What I see from this, is the bad smell of  separatism.
And with the bad economy of Iran and the policy of Iranian Government you are helping that aim. Even if you are not aware of it.
My dear Iranian, let's  talk about the problems. The great ancestor of yours fought and gave blood to have a constitution which
Would grant us democracy let's talk about that. Not our differences. Any child in school know that Turkish are Turks and the rest of the population are Tajik (Non Turk). All the Arabs in Iran know that we all are Ajam (None Arab)  and they are Arab.
Are we loving the same land? Do we want the progress in that land? Let ask for democracy. The social justice will follow
If we have democracy and if that is the will of the people of Azerbaijan to be federated without blood shed let be that too.
But look  around you. Is there one country in the region who does not have blood shed when there is  talk of differences? Imagine
Iraq have only three sect (Kurdish thanks to Safavid who exchanged part of Kurdistan with Gorjestan) Sunnis and Shiite
See the mess over there. Do you think we can have less blood shed with a country several times bigger than Iraq and with
So many more ethnic  group? Have you  not read the proposition that one of the senators offered that, to solve the Iran's
Problem we have to devide it? Do you want to be the tool in their hand? I am sure not.

I hope you investigate into your history not just the English one which is trying to make you mad that you were rubed of your culture since you learned a new language which was the language of the writing as you mentioned it yourself. You will know then that Azari's always were Azari's and Iranian . They resisted the sepratism with their lives and they were and are loved by other Iranian.  

Your truly

Maryam

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