None of the above however, was stated on Dr. Farrokhrou Parsa’s sentence nor appeared on her death certificate. She was condemned to death like thousand of others, on the charges of “spreading vice on earth and fighting God.”
The two phrases that brought a sudden end to the life of so many in summary executions, was a sentence loosely defined by representatives of Allah on earth who had chosen Iran as their platform to spread their revolution and their God’s justice.
When Farrokhrou was born, Iran was a weak country with its nation ravaged by poverty and disease. Her mother, Fakhr Afagh was among the first Iranian women who believed in equal educational opportunity for boys as well as girls. When she published two articles on the subject in a magazine she ran, Jahan-e Zanan or Women’s World, the mullahs of the time had raised their objections.
Under the clergy’s pressure on Qavam-ol Saltaneh’s government, her husband finally was forced to relocate his pregnant wife to a rented accommodation outside the religious city of Qom. It was there, under house arrest, that Farrokhrou was born minutes after Nowrouz New Year in 1922.
She was sent to school and encouraged by her parents to become an educated woman. As the situation in the country had changed for better under Reza Shah the Great, Farrokhrou had the chance to enjoy equal rights, at least as far as education was concerned. With her parents’ eagerness to educate their children she continued her studies even after she was married and bore children.
Years later, when Madam Parsa was a biology teacher at Tehran Jean D’Arc high school, Farah Diba, who later became the Empress of Iran, happened to be one of her students. Her dedication to her job as well as to women’s rights (after school hours, she used to visit and teach female criminals in prisons) promoted her to the school’s principal position.
In a letter in the early 60’s to the Shah, requesting His Imperial Majesty to consider the right for women to vote, the late Shah had replied to her: “I will seek my nation’s vote on the matter, my people are not only consisted of men.”
Dr. Parsa became a member of the Iranian parliament – Majlis, in 1963, when she pushed for legislation amending women and family laws. Two years later she became the first woman to fill the position of deputy minister for education. Finally on 27th August 1968 she became the first Iranian woman minister.
The fundamentalist clergies’ dislike of Parsa did not finish with her mother’s house arrest, but in the years that followed brought her at times face to face in conflict with the same black reactionaries who opposed her efforts in modernization and improvement in schools’ text books.
Twenty-five years on, Dr. Parsa’s murderers are still grazing carelessly in the country, while the world believes appeasement could be a new taming method. As much as it is perplexing to witness European countries’ policies of “let’s try to understand these people” or “let’s establish a dialogue” approach with the dictators, it is horrifying to see these countries taking similar attitudes as those who in the 1940s searched for moderates within the Nazi establishment, while thousands were sent to their early graves.
Dr. Parsa’s execution in the height of the Islamic revolution while they were basking in their glory was only the beginning of a systematic killing that since has been the official procedure by the religious rulers of Iran to silence any opposition. On the face of such atrocities - only comparable to genocides in Turkey, Germany and Rwanda – the free, democratic and so to speak, civilized world has chosen to remain indifferent.
Their behavior was well described in an article by Reza Bayegan on July 11th, 2003 that appeared in Front Page Magazine under the title “Iran – A Nation Under Siege”. In his article, Mr. Bayegan had reminded Europeans of their policies during the Second World War: “When the Jews were being slaughtered in Germany, many objected to getting involved in Germany’s ‘family fight’. Nazis were no kin to the Jews, and the Iranian people are no kin to the club-waving vigilantes beating them to maintain an Islamic dictatorship’s illegitimate power.” He had warned world leaders by stating: “The question is, how long will it take for the world to realize that there is no family resemblance? And at what price its hesitation?”
When Bayegan’s article appeared in the press two years ago, Ziba Kazemi, another Iranian woman, was arrested for having taken photographs outside a Tehran prison from family members waiting to visit their loved ones. After days of torture, physical abuse and enduring unimaginable pain, she was beaten to death. Despite her son’s relentless efforts to seek justice and to bring his mother’s body back for burial in Canada, the Canadian government has so far only assisted to a limited extent. One should be reminded that Canada too is high on the list of Western democracies enjoying lucrative trade with Al-Qaeda supporters and sponsors of international terrorism who suppress the Iranian people.
Dr. Parsa, the first woman executed by the Islamic regime by no means would be the last one. Ziba Kazemi, murdered by the reformist government of President Khatami – the man Europeans so much love to negotiate with and appease – was yet another reminder to the world that if the situation in Iran is not dealt with soon enough, many more would loose their lives in ayatollah’s Islamic dungeons. But again it seems all this falls on deaf ears!
Twenty-five years after Dr. Parsa’s execution, thousands of Iranian women and girls are still being executed, tortured, raped, stoned, lashed, hung from cranes in Iranian cities and even sold to Sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf. Even at this point instead of assisting Iranians to eradicate the mullahs, the best strategy the British, French and German governments have recently come up with is their new idea of offering economic incentives to the Islamic regime in the hope that they may put an end to their uranium enrichment program. This is again a proof that such countries’ support for human rights and democracy are simply a mockery of such noble concepts when it comes to countries where trade takes priority over human lives.
Up until 1979, Iranians compared their country to the most advanced nations in the world. Our people’s expectations from our government were to provide them with the best the world could offer. Nothing less seemed to be satisfying Iranians’ appetite for progress and reaching the Great Civilization they were promised. This happened at a time when our public figures were the educated elite of men and women known and respected internationally.
We all remember those days when our people like spoiled children complained about absolutely everything. But the question I seem to be failing to find an answer for is how could it be possible for the same demanding people to allow themselves to be reduced to the current sub-human levels? How could a nation whose leaders were educated and intelligent personalities allow themselves to be ruled by an ignorant bunch, totally irrelevant to modern times?
The Islamic authorities have always feared our women. Twenty-six years on, their dictatorial power has yet to succeed submitting the Iranian women to their barbaric ways. They are well aware that the might of our women once united can destroy the foundation of their evil mullahcracy.
The agony our late Iranian-Canadian journalist, Ziba Kazemi had to go through and her eventual death resulting from all sorts of torture will always remain as a proof to their fear of women who were born, brought up and educated during the Pahlavi years. These women had learned to have a free spirit and were taught to be strong and independent. The ayatollahs’ fear doesn’t stop with women rejecting their authorities today, it extends to even those brave women who had died years prior to the revolution. But it is their legacy that is worrying their theocratic system, so much that soon after the revolution they ordered the destruction of Sediqeh Dowlatabadi’s tomb (who had passed away in 1962). The Islamic Republic leaders do not understand that destruction of tombs and books cannot vanquish our women’s free spirit and will to live freely. These values were encouraged and rekindled by the likes of Dr. Farrokhrou Parsa.
Although Sediqeh Dowlatabadi’s grave does not exist anymore, but her last will in which she stated: “I shall not forgive any woman who visits my grave veiled,” is not only a torch to lead our female compatriots to freedom but also is a concept more powerful than any weapon or any religious fanatic.
Today all over the world, Iranian women of Dr. Parsa’s generation and those who were educated by her and her colleagues hold respectable positions in renowned organizations and universities. With the exception of few who have never given up fighting for their rights, those who are living in free and democratic environments seem to have chosen to remain silent in the face of on-going barbarities in our country.
The regime’s enmity towards our women is in the ethos of the Islamic Republic, and it is for the very reason that I recommend the 25th anniversary of Dr. Parsa’s execution, a fitting date to remind and to invite all women of conscience, from within and without Iran, Iranian or not, to unite against the Islamic Republic.
I would like to encourage personalities such as Mahnaz Afkhami, Dr. Simin Redjali, Goli Ameri and many others to form a united front together with the likes of Shirin Ebadi - if she is willing to break free from reformists who are using her good name and intentions, and to mark May 8th in our late teacher and minister’s memory to form an Iranian Women United Front demanding world leaders and the international community to support a true referendum for the abolishment of the government of the mullahs in order to introduce democracy, secularism and justice in Iran.
This conspiracy of silence must be broken. It is in our silence and apathy that we remain weak and beaten. How can we forget and forgive those who never stop killing?
In the last message that Dr. Parsa managed to send out of her prison cell, she addressed her children: “I am a doctor so I have no fear of death. Death is only a moment and no more. I am prepared to receive death with open arms than to live longer in shame by being forced to be veiled. I am not going to bow to those who expect me to express regret for fifty years of my efforts for women and men’s equality. I am not prepared to wear the chador and step back in history.”
“True reconciliation does not consist in merely forgetting the past.”
- Nelson Mandela in his speech, January 7th, 1996.
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