Ardeshir zahedi biography of mahatma

He returned to Iran to play an important role in the political life of his country alongside his father and the Shah, Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi. The narrative of the courtship and marriage, which sadly lasted only seven years, is recounted in the next volume of his memoirs. He presently lives in Montreux in Switzerland and is considered one of the most prominent personalities of the Iranian Diaspora.

He has been condemned to death by the courts of the revolutionary government of Iran. Foreword and Acknowledgments from. Chapter Two From the Battlefield to the Field. It was a complicated birth, but mother and child both survived. Their father was stern but kind, a disciplinarian, but averse to physical punishment. A mere angry look was all it took to silence the children.

Aredeshir was only about seven years old when, to his great agony, his parents decided to divorce. Aredeshir completed most of his early schooling in Iran. He was by no means a natural scholar; indeed his aversion to academic study would later become something of a political liability for him. His handwriting, too, was—and remains—all but indecipherable, and the syntax of his letters often left much to be desired.

But the clarity of his purpose, and the surprising honesty and fearlessness of his utterances—which often, according to his father, turned into a cascade of rash words—more than compensated for any shortcomings in his orthography and penmanship. Ministers and the media showered the shah with panegyrics about the magnificence and sublime wisdom of the celebration.

Zahedi wrote a letter, harsh in tone, uncompromising in honesty, protesting to the shah that to keep things quiet during the festivities, hundreds of youths had been rounded up by SAVAK in all major cities, on the pretext that they were communists, and herded into makeshift jails. Only a few, he wrote, were known communists, while many were innocent kids.

If we are such an old country, he asked, why then could we not serve some traditional Iranian dishes like kabab? Soon the British, who had occupied Iran after Reza Shah had failed to expel German nationals from the country, arrested General Zahedi as a Nazi sympathizer. All through his later life as a diplomat, hints of a lingering tension with the British could be discerned in his behavior.

The attitude of the British Embassy and Foreign Office toward him was equally rancorous. Inwith his father in prison, Aredeshir and his younger sister, Homa, were sent to Tehran, where they spent the next three years. No sooner was Aredeshir registered at the Adab School than he began agitating against the British. InAredeshir was sent to Beirut to continue his education.

He enrolled in the Eslamiye high school, and it was there that he organized a political rally against the Soviet occupation of parts of Iran. Anticommunism would henceforth remain an essential element of his political vision. During the summers, he traveled around the United States all the way to Alaska, often working at menial jobs—from factory labor at canneries to busing at restaurants.

Ardeshir zahedi biography of mahatma

He was a spendthrift and generous to a fault. Having tried constant pleas, complaints, and advice on the value of money and the dangers of sycophantic fair-weather friends, the general put his wayward son on a tight budget. Inwhen the shah traveled there, he visited Utah; Aredeshir for the first time spent some time with the monarch.

Through thick and thin, Zahedi would remain loyal to the shah. InAredeshir returned to Iran and soon began to work for Point Four, an American aid program helping Iran develop its infrastructure. Point Four also sponsored programs to fight malaria and malnutrition. A year later, Dr. Aredeshir became at first a pawn, and then an active participant, in this struggle.

In an apparent attempt to put pressure on General Zahedi, his chief rival, Dr. Mossadeq arranged for the dismissal of Aredeshir from his job at Point-IV. Aredeshir was eventually arrested, on the charge of conspiring against the government. Aredeshir spent a few eventful weeks in prison. On one occasion he was slapped by Dr. Another time he was beaten by a soldier.

Ultimately, he succeeded in escaping from prison. The physical scars and pain of the prison experience continue to live with him in the form of a disc badly damaged by the blow of a rifle butt. The events of August brought these simmering tensions to a boil. They catapulted Aredeshir to the center of Iranian politics and endeared him to the shah.

At the same time, his role in these events made him, for the rest of his life, the bane of the opposition. On some points, the two narratives agree. Aredeshir, in full coordination with his father and their other allies, set out to make and distribute copies of the royal decree appointing the general prime minister. Either way, it was a dangerous task.

Mossadeq had declared martial law and a dawn-to-dusk curfew throughout Tehran. Zahedi hid the original of the decree under the battery of the military jeep he was driving, in case he encountered an inspection post. The officer took a few steps in the direction of his commander, then hesitated. He returned and told Zahedi to move on. According to Zahedi, it took him several years to find that officer and return the favor.

Historians, obsessed with the roles of heroes and villains, often overlook anonymous participants like that officer whose actions, unassumingly, change the course of events. After copies of the royal decree were made at the famous Sacco photo shop in Tehran, they were given to several journalists who had been invited to the hills in the outskirts of Tehran.

By the next day, August 17, Zahedi had a meeting—his first ardeshir zahedi biography of mahatma, in his reckoning—with Kermit Roosevelt, who had been dispatched to Iran to help topple the government of Mossadeq. Roosevelt provided Zahedi with a pass, allowing him to move around Tehran after curfew. He was present at the Shah's death bed and funeral in Cairo in Zahedi lived in retirement in Montreux, Switzerland.

In Decemberin a ceremony held in Washington D. He received many awards and honors from nations around the globe for his humanitarian service and record in international affairs. He died at his residence in Montreux, Switzerland, on 18 Novemberaged Zahedi's papers are held in the collection of the Hoover Institution. He told Voice of America that the U.

Two documents in particular, dated 22 April and 20 Aprilshow that the United States and Iran held negotiations on a nuclear program and the U. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Wikidata item. Iranian politician and diplomat — Shahnaz Pahlavi.

Early life [ edit ]. Zahedi, along with the ambassadors of Egypt and Pakistan, personally negotiated and helped release the hostages. He has personally known a majority of world leaders of the latter half of the twentieth century, including ten U. To Shah Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, he was a son-in-law, adviser, confidante, and friend. After he moved to Switzerland where he presently resides.