NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5997

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: IRAN: Exile's life under fear of death
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/** mideast.gulf: 49.0 **/
** Topic: IPS/IRAN/AUGUST 1992 **
** Written 10:36 pm  Aug 16, 1992 by pnmideast in cdp:mideast.gulf **
From: <pnmideast>
Subject: IPS/IRAN/AUGUST 1992

/* Written 12:11 am  Aug 16, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "IRAN: Exile's life under fear of de" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: IRAN: Exile's life under fear of death

an inter press service feature

by guido de bruin

utrecht, aug 13 (ips) -- even when living in a quiet netherlands
town, the threat of violent death is a very real one for iranian
writer nasim khaksar -- as the murder of exiled singer and
prominent opposition member fereydun farokhzad in germany last
week graphically illustrated.

almost exactly one year since the former shah's last prime
minister, shahpur bakhtiar, was killed in paris, farokhzad was
found knifed to death in his home in bonn friday. ''it's the first
time an artist was targeted, and i think iranian intellectuals
should now be more careful,'' khaksar says.

the threat of assassination at the hands of iranian death squads
has been a constant one for khaksar, who spends his time in exile
considering the years of struggle, imprisonment and torture
endured by what he calls his 'hamlet generation'.

like hamlet in shakespeare's play, the fellow artists who
struggled against the shah under the 'fedayeen' communist party
banner in the 1970s, ''mixed a pure view of the world with love of
humanity,'' he mused.

''we never thought about taking power like politicians or
diplomats,'' he adds. ''we interpreted everything with our hearts.
our motivation to be involved in politics was the love of
justice.'' nevertheless, the small guerrilla unit he was involved
in believed they could overthrow the government.

a novel about hamlet in the 1970s brought him to the attention of
shah's secret police, who suspected that khaksar's depiction of
king claudius was a hidden reference to iran's merciless ruler.
which was true, of course, but could not be proved.

now, 20 years later, khaksar has no illusions left. the artists
of his generation either live in exile or have been executed under
the late ayatollah ruhollah khomeini in the latter's ''campaign
against intellectuals''.

khaksar says his generation fought against khomeini's islamic
regime, as it ''places life under the censorship of religion''. he
served two terms of imprisonment under the shah, but the fall of
the shah did not bring him respite. under khomeini's rule he was
severely tortured and sentenced to death by the ayatollah.

but the writer was too popular in iran for quiet execution, and
was imprisoned instead. finally, in 1983, he escaped to turkey,
eventually finding a home from home in utrecht, in the
netherlands. (more/ips)

iran: exile's life under fear of death(2-e)

iran: exile's (2)

''the joy of being an exile is that i like to discover new
things, to find new definitions of my country, of life,'' khaksar
says. but at the same time, freedom comes with pain: ''you are
thrown into a new world, and you have to turn, turn, turn to find
your place.''

it's like a new birth, he says. at first a migrant has to accept
and imitate his new world, later on he can actively mix it with
his own culture. khaksar likes his new world, but notes that
adaptation has often been hard.

''to find the real meaning of something, you have to be at a
distance from it,'' he says, but at the same time he realises that
the distance from his homeland has its dangers. ''there is nothing
here around you that helps you to keep your memories alive.''

knowing that ''going back to iran is a dream'', khaksar writes
feverishly to ''let my generation never be forgotten, and thereby
gain more knowledge about who i am and whom i want to be. as long
as i can write, i feel that i am alive, that i don't kneel before
weakness.''

illusions may have been shattered but khaksar is hopeful that
with the collapse of state socialism in eastern europe, ''we can
look at socialism in an open-minded way, build our world again,
and never let bureaucracy and stalinism come in and destroy our
hopes.''

but in iran, change will come about slowly, he says, because
''the censorship that religion places on life, does not let one
reach the truth''. khaksar points to the fate of salman rushdie,
who still lives in hiding following a 'fatwa' issued by khomeini
in 1989, calling upon muslims worldwide to kill the british writer
for writing 'the satanic verses' as a ''insult to islam''.

''when we were young, we never thought that mohammed and the
quran could be weapons to fight others, but when the religious
leaders took power in iran, these innocent ideas about islam were
lost,'' khaksar says, adding that ''innovation has never been
accepted by islam''.

khaksar does not trust ''moderate'' forces like president hashemi
rafsanjani, who has recently been advocating better relations with
the west. ''as long as the government does not change the
constitution, i cannot trust them,'' he says.

according to khaksar, an important force in iranian society are
the inhabitants of the shanty towns, ''staunch disciples of the
regime, many of them injured during the war with iraq''.

he says many of these desperate people have recently taken part
in demonstrations against the regime, as they feel left in the
cold, now that the war is over and the leaders do not need them
any longer. (end/ips/ce/gdb/rj/92)

** End of text from cdp:mideast.gulf **