if_chf24
06-26-2007, 10:22 AM
Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060745339/ref=nosim/xangacom)
Author: Afschineh Latifi
This is a story of love, of courage, and of beauty of humanity in the face of adversity.The true life story of an American Iranian female attorney, whose father was executed by Islamic fundamentalists during the Islamic Revolution because he was a military official and a supporter of the Shah, its lucid story-telling captivates my mind for ten hours from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, breathless. The love between her dad and mum, the courage her mum demonstrates in the face of the atrocity done by fellow Muslims and in her widowhood, the stuggle she had accommodating into Western society, first in Austria and later in the US, and so on, really struck its readers' heart and mind. Afschineh's profound insight in the dynamics of religion and politics in Iranian society is also valuable. Her records of what happened to the Persian elites during the Revolution reminds me of the Chinese elite during our own People's Revolution. Although the Islamic fundamentalists and the Maoists are the absolute opposites on the scale of religiosity, they are astonishingly similar in the way they dealt with those with whom they disagree. The lawlessness during the Revolution, the disrespect of procedural justice by the mullahs in the criminal court, the cronyism of the new Islamic Republic bureaucracy, the hatred against the 'have' under the Shah's regime by the 'have-not' and that against the 'irreligious' by the so-called 'religious', and the suppression of women under the new fandementalist regime found so much its similarity with our glorious Fatherland during the period of 1949-79, with the only exception that the atrocity committed in the Red regime were done by the 'irreligious' against the 'religious'.
Why do we human beings continue to committe atrocity against one another, even in the name of God, of Atheism, of Freedom, of Democracy, of the People, of the Party, you name it? Under all these veils, the bare fact of fanaticism, I reckon, is the quest for power, the power that subdue others unto ourselves, meanwhile, pretending that we are the Representative of the Truth, be it religious or atheist, political or scientific.
And yet, in the midst of all these, we see the bright side of humanity, the love and sympathy that we all share despite our diverse and immense differences. From the neighbours of the Latifis who tried their best to help the widow and the children despite harassment by the new regime, the American friends and Persian relatives who tried their best to help them taking refuge the country of freedom and make a living in this foreign land, and the surviving members of this family who helped each other getting through every valley of darkness, we witness the rainbow after rain storms, and to borrow a biblical phrase, we see the 'Image of God' in each of us.
Author: Afschineh Latifi
This is a story of love, of courage, and of beauty of humanity in the face of adversity.The true life story of an American Iranian female attorney, whose father was executed by Islamic fundamentalists during the Islamic Revolution because he was a military official and a supporter of the Shah, its lucid story-telling captivates my mind for ten hours from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, breathless. The love between her dad and mum, the courage her mum demonstrates in the face of the atrocity done by fellow Muslims and in her widowhood, the stuggle she had accommodating into Western society, first in Austria and later in the US, and so on, really struck its readers' heart and mind. Afschineh's profound insight in the dynamics of religion and politics in Iranian society is also valuable. Her records of what happened to the Persian elites during the Revolution reminds me of the Chinese elite during our own People's Revolution. Although the Islamic fundamentalists and the Maoists are the absolute opposites on the scale of religiosity, they are astonishingly similar in the way they dealt with those with whom they disagree. The lawlessness during the Revolution, the disrespect of procedural justice by the mullahs in the criminal court, the cronyism of the new Islamic Republic bureaucracy, the hatred against the 'have' under the Shah's regime by the 'have-not' and that against the 'irreligious' by the so-called 'religious', and the suppression of women under the new fandementalist regime found so much its similarity with our glorious Fatherland during the period of 1949-79, with the only exception that the atrocity committed in the Red regime were done by the 'irreligious' against the 'religious'.
Why do we human beings continue to committe atrocity against one another, even in the name of God, of Atheism, of Freedom, of Democracy, of the People, of the Party, you name it? Under all these veils, the bare fact of fanaticism, I reckon, is the quest for power, the power that subdue others unto ourselves, meanwhile, pretending that we are the Representative of the Truth, be it religious or atheist, political or scientific.
And yet, in the midst of all these, we see the bright side of humanity, the love and sympathy that we all share despite our diverse and immense differences. From the neighbours of the Latifis who tried their best to help the widow and the children despite harassment by the new regime, the American friends and Persian relatives who tried their best to help them taking refuge the country of freedom and make a living in this foreign land, and the surviving members of this family who helped each other getting through every valley of darkness, we witness the rainbow after rain storms, and to borrow a biblical phrase, we see the 'Image of God' in each of us.