The Misery the Qajar Dynasty Brought to Iran

I have been an avid reader of Ms. Fariba Amini's interviews. It is her recent writing titled "Slander in black and white" that made me realize she is nothing short of an Iranian who takes pride in her tribe and chooses to side with her relatives rather than being honest about historical facts! First of all I write this response as some one whose father was imprisoned during Shah's regime and I by no means support the Pahlavis, and personally do not believe a king or queen is the answer for the future of Iran. That said, unlike Ms. Amini I refuse to close my eyes to the facts and not recognize the misery the Qajar dynasty brought to Iran or the modern and positive improvements the Pahlavis brought to the country and the nation.

The Qajar kings committed crimes similar to what Iranians have endured for the past three decades under the current regime. Ms. Amini has boldly named poets who have been killed by Rezah Khan. Than she goes on to describe the life of Mosadegh, another Qajar, and how he would have single handedly changed the history of Iran. I don't deny that there have been Iranians among the Qajar who were noblemen and an example of such is Mosadegh. Unfortunately we will never know what Iran could really have been under his government, but we do know what the Qajar kings did to Iran, and what Mohammad Reza Shah and his father did for Iran.
What exactly did the Qajar kings do for Iran, but kill thousands of innocent Iranians? Why does Ms. Amini choose to ignore even more historical facts - that thousands and thousands of Kermanies were blinded by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar because they had given shelter to Lotf Ali khan Zand? What about the Bobbies and Bahaies who were persecuted and executed because of their belief, including the renowned Iranian poetess Tahereh Ghoratolein, by Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar and his prime minister, Amir Kabir? In fact, the same poet's birth records, her books, and clothing were burned the day after she was killed by the Qajar king. In addition to such horrendous crimes the Qajar spent the nation's wealth and earnings on their fests and thousand and one wives. It was as the result of this dynasty that Iran lost many important cities, young soldiers were killed in meaningless fights under incompetent Qajar rulers, the nation struggled with poverty, and the country was left to take care of hundreds of thousands of Qajar kids born illegitimate or legitimate who today proudly celebrate Family Galas in Paris and elsewhere. I wonder where they have earned their money to maintain such luxurious life in the west?

You and those like you who supported the regime, escaped the country on your Ali Baba carpets when some of us who in fact had nothing to do with the revolution (I, for example, was only five years old) had to leave the country on hands and feet! I guess after all these years of living in the west you haven’t learned to not try to change historical factors to your liking. In the end, dear Ms. Amini, please enjoy many more honeymoons like you have enlightened your readers with. Those of us who are not blind to the historical facts are well aware that honeymooning is what Qajar have been best at! And please don’t insult your reader's intelligence by saying Reza Shah had an uncultured background and moved up the military ladder, and then call Qajar nobility! If you want to believe that Qajar are nobility that is one thing but I for one have read and studied the Iranian history and know where Qajar really came from, what tribes they belong to, and what ladders they climbed to become nobility! We are also a witness to the crimes the current regime of Iran is committing against Iranian citizens. The same regime that Ms. Fariba Amini, her father and many Iranians collectively decided to support, irrationally and emotionally.

It is a historical fact that Reza Shah changed the face of the country in less than two decades, something that was never done before or after him. As for Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, he too wanted a modern Iran and achieved a great deal to modernize Iran. It was during his time that Iran experienced religious and cultural freedom. It was him who, in the end when he realized some of his mistakes that included lack of political freedom, apologized to the people. This is more than what any Iranian politician or leader has ever done. As for Princess Ashraf Pahlavi we should look into her work and the causes she cared for. As someone who has studied nursing in Europe and recognizes the importance of such a field, I want to say this: Princess Ashraf established the nursing schools in Iran, a field that doesn't just center around medicine but also empathy. Nursing is a cognitive and deliberate act of understanding anther person's situation and this tells us a lot about Princess Ashraf's priorities.