بيست و يکم  آذر ماه 2544 شاهنشاهی
 11 درسامبر  2005

Shirin Neshat of Sarbazan to Dr. Bahman Aghai Diba and Persian Journal: A Return to the 2,500 Year Old Persian Monarchy is the Answer by Shirin Neshat of Sarbazan

Dr. Bahman Aghai Diba says much that is laudable in the December 8th Persian Journal. His observations about the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) regime can be summarized briefly as follows: the IRI regime is a brutal police state; its leadership pursues the brutal suppression of basic human rights, especially for women and political dissidents; the journalistic profession under this regime is reduced to either prison, death, or playing the role of propgaganda mouthpiece for the regime; the foreign policy of the Mullahs is largely one of theocratic extremism and ideological fanaticism, especially in putting Iran in the middle of the Arab-Israeli conflict; the economic management of this cabal is consigning a constantly increasing number of Iranians to perpetual misery and poverty; and Iran is becoming one of the major centers of drug addiction on the planet. Dr. Diba correctly describes all of this as "acute suppression." He also understands that with the election this year of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Presidency of Iran, the crisis there and the threat presented by the IRI regime to the larger world community is more acute than ever.

Ahmadinejad's recent proclamation of the personal reception of a divine aura during his pathetic podium address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and today's internationally televised remarks casting doubts on the historicity of the Holocaust (and the need to relocate Israel to a slice of Germany and Austria), are the latest open windows through which the rest of civilization may gaze into this man's deranged mind and psyche. Iran does indeed need a domestic program of nuclear power and fuel cycle--but not in the hands of this sick and reckless man, or the regime he represents. A miscalculation in the game of nuclear chess involving the United States, Israel, and the EU-3 may bring a tragic destruction upon the good and beloved people of Iran well beyond even that which occurred in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. It could bring about the eclipse of any possible restoration of the fortunes of Iran as a proud, independent, autonomous nation-state. Patriotic Iranians presently under the heel of this regime, patriotic Iranian expatriates, and the world community at large must not permit this preventable apocalypse to take place. But time is running out.

Dr. Diba notes that the people of Iran definitely know what they do not want--a continuation of Islamic theocracy--but do not know what their best alternatives are in ridding the country of an Islamicized, Arabized regime.

I believe there is only one alternative to an Arabized, theocratic regime of IRI Mullahs: the return of the 2,500 year old tradition of Persian Monarchy and the reestablishment of the dedication of the Persian Nation to the principles of universal human rights articulated by King Cyrus the Great, the great Achaemenid Monarch of ancient Persia in the 6th century B. C. This, and the absolute end of Islamic theocracy and the Islamic theocratic constitution of 1979, is the only solution to a tragedy of unfathomable proportions in the last 27 years that threatens to mushroom into a caldron of misery and mass death reminiscent of what befell Europe from 1939-1945.

This is the goal. But what strategy may be crafted which would bring to pass the reestablishment of Constitutional Monarchy in Iran and the consignment of the fundamentalist Mullahs to the ashheap of history?

I believe a workable, coherent plan would involve the following: First, the Western nations would be well served by fair identification of agents of, and sympathizers with, the Islamic Republic of Iran regime, and deporting them from their shores as enemies of human civilization. Second, the United States and the European Union should be working in concert to force the United Nations and the International Court of the Hague to engage in a full-court legal press of the Mullahs under the glare of the spotlights of full international publicity, for their crimes against the people of Iran. The international legal wrangle over Slobodan Milosevic may well be justified, but if so, how do this man's crimes in the Balkans compare with the track record of the IRI in Iran since 1979? Or the threat the latter poses to regional and global peace in an age of asymmetrical warfare involving nuclear, biological, and chemical capabilities? Third, the Western nations and petroleum companies must not make the mistake of supporting ethnic and tribal separatist movements in Iran as an alternative to facing down Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs once and for all. A unified, autonomous, independent Iran is a legitimate member of the family of nations. It should not be sacrificed on the altar of what some perceive as short-term corporate economic interest at the expense of a revitalized country and ancient heritage. The world will be watching for the work of unseen hands in Khuzestan, Balochistan, Kurdistan, and Azerbaijan.

Fourth, the Persian nation, both its indigenous and expatriate constituencies, must be committed to the taking of risks and personal sacrifice even to the point of death, to rid our beloved country of this malignant scourge against humanity. It will take massive funding of human rights organizations of which Sarbazan is only one. It will take the deployment of massive, but peaceful demonstrations against the Mullahs around the world's capitals whenever the opportunity presents itself. It will take the formulation of an underground network of activists against the IRI regime inside and outside of Iran, to bring organization and resources to the fight for freedom from theocratic oppression and fascism. And finally, if all else fails, it will take the development of a well-trained expatriate paramilitary force under Iranian leadership, to bring to pass what we cannot expect the West to simply hand to us on a silver platter--the recovery of our homeland, the restoration of our Persian heritage, and the reestablishment of a society based on law and justice. And the foundation of our fight is the unswerving belief that the restoration of the Persian Monarchy is the key to open the door to our individual and national redemption. This is the Light which guides the pathway to our Return.

Payandeh Iran, Shirin Neshat