Publication of SAVAK docs a brave act

During the Fajr decade celebration held as the National Library of Iran, manager of the Islamic Revolution Bureau said the professional production of written works on Islamic Revolution has not been achieved yet. He then considered the publication of ex-regime and SAVAK documents in the last decades a brave act.

IBNA: The Fajr Decade celebration was held this morning (February 6) at Shariatzadeh Hall of the National Library of Iran with the presence of Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi pro tempore Imam Jom'a of Tehran, Eshaq Salahi, director of the National Library, Mohammad-Ali Besharati ex-Interior Minister and Hedayatollah Behboodi, researcher of the Islamic Revolution.

Besharati, the first speaker, said: "The Britain's request for… tobacco in Iran was not a subject for the Shah to interfere with. It should also be asked why the British brought 200 thousand foreign women to Iran as labor force. By declaring the Tobacco Protest, Mirzaye Shirazi made all evil plans of British colonizers ineffective."

Then referring to Naser-alddin Shah's memoirs, he regarded Qajar kings as bon vivants who just cared for their own benefits. One example is limiting the admission of Iranian medical students that resulted in employment of physicians from Pakistan, India and Philippines that did not even understand the Language of people."

Besharati then recited parts of books written by Farideh Diba (Farah, My Daughter) and Farah Diba (The Orphan Girl) to show the attitudes of the courtiers during the Pahlavi period and emphasized that after the revolution, the authorities are obsessed with the development of the country and people.

Then researcher Hedayatollah Behboodi introduced himself as a journalist who has spent twenty years serving the people, and asked all media fellows to pay more attention to what they broadcast, as it will be used as a part of the country's historical document.

"Why is the Islamic revolution a heritage" was his first question. "It is a national heritage as it sets the goals of Iranians and forms part of the historical memory of today and tomorrow," he said.

"Having surveyed the historical events of the last three decades, I have come up with a historiographic method based on three chronological divisions:

In the first period (the 1980's) we have been mere consumers of foreign texts and the ideas of their thinkers regarding the Islamic Revolution," he asserted.

The second period (the 1990's) made a balance between foreign and domestic sources about the Islamic Revolution. "In this period the focus on oral history was a successful measure, while in the third period (2000's) internal texts gained supremacy over foreign ones.

He finally asserted that professional production of written works on Islamic Revolution has not been achieved yet, and then considered the publication of ex-regime and SAVAK documents in the last decades a brave act.