The 1979 Iranian revolution did not surprise Gina Nahai's family, who had felt that Iran was more volatile than it seemed. In this interview with Canadian Jewish News the Iranian-Jewish novelist says that even under the 'golden age' of the Shah, Muslims and Jews were sharply divided, and antisemitism recurrent.
When Gina Nahai thinks of Iran’s Islamic revolution, she cringes.
“The revolution was a tragedy,” said the Iranian-born Jewish novelist, who was in Toronto last week as a guest of the International Festival of Authors. “The mullahs erased what is wonderful about Iranian culture, which is tolerant, forward-looking and open to new ideas.”
Born in Tehran, Nahai, 46, left Iran in 1977, two years before the pro-Western Pahlavi monarchy was swept away by Islamic revolutionaries. (...)
Iranian Jews – the storied descendants of Babylonia slaves who settled in Persia about 2,500 years ago and now form the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world – feared that the overthrow of the monarchy would probably be disastrous, said Nahai, whose wealthy family owned a chain of clothing stores.
“We were always concerned that if the shah – Mohammed Reza Pahlavi – fell, there would be blood on the streets,” said Nahai, whose maiden name was Barkhordar.
Nahai’s parents emigrated because they wanted to give her and her sisters access to better opportunities abroad and because they were convinced that an upheaval in the guise of regime change was inevitable. “They had a sense that Iran was far more volatile than people thought. The shah was not an ‘island of stability in the Middle East,’ as [former U.S. president] Jimmy Carter claimed during a visit in 1977.”
She added, “We were shocked that the revolution happened so quickly, but we weren’t surprised.”
During the Pahlavi dynasty, which lasted from 1925 until 1979, restrictions on Jews and other religious minorities were lifted as the power and influence of the mullahs were curtailed.
As well, the monarchy prohibited the practice of the mass conversions of Jews to Islam and eliminated the Shiite concept that non-Muslims were ritually unclean.
“Things were going well for Jews under the shah and his father,” said Nahai. “They protected us. The Jewish community was generally prosperous, but there were deep class divisions.”
Until 1925, Jews were ghettoized as second-class citizens and considered impure. “On rainy days, we weren’t allowed out of the ghetto, lest the rain wash off our impurities.”
As a tolerated minority (dhimmis), Jews were permitted to practise Judaism but had to pay special taxes. “We weren’t considered real Iranians,” she said.
Iran was home to some 150,000 Jews in 1948, when David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s statehood. Many Jews immigrated to Israel, and now about 75,000 Iranian Jews live in the Jewish state.
Although the Pahlavi period was a golden era for Jews, compared to the Safavid and Qajar dynasties from the 16th century onward, anti-Semitism was a recurring problem.
“We felt it all the time,” she said. “Our servants refused to eat food in our house because they assumed it was impure.”
Citing two other examples, she recalled that her husband, David (Hamid), would be singled out as a Jew during roll call at the secular school he attended, and that mobs ran amok when an Israeli soccer team playing a World Cup qualifying game against Iran in Tehran scored the first goal.
“The divisions between Muslims and Jews were sharp and clear,” Nahai said.
The riots touched off by that World Cup match stunned Nahai, given her emotional connection to Israel and Israel’s then cordial relations with Iran.
With the revolution, Iran promptly severed relations with Israel, and now its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, regularly calls for Israel’s destruction and denies the Holocaust.
In 1974, five years before the monarchy fell, Nahai was sent to a private school in Switzerland, her parents believing that a western education would better prepare her for a good career. “It was not easy being a woman in Iran.” she said. (...)
When Nahai’s family immigrated, her father intended to commute between the United States and Iran, but after the revolution, he revised his plan. In another blow, the new authorities confiscated the Nahai family home and business.
At least 30,000 Jews left Iran in the aftermath of the revolution, even though its spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa declaring Jews as a protected minority.
Thirty-five thousand to 40,000 Jews still remain in Iran today, despite the fact that several Iranian Jews have been charged with being Israeli spies and executed and 13 Jews from the city of Shiraz were arrested after being accused of maintaining illegal contact with Israel.
Nahai’s uncle and aunt continue live in Iran, though they are free to depart. Her husband’s family left in the early 1980s after an uncle, a Zionist leader, was imprisoned.
She doubts whether the Jewish community will dwindle in the years ahead. “Most Jews in Iran today feel secure enough,” she said. “They don’t feel threatened enough to abandon their lives and go into exile.”
Nor does she think that the community will eventually vanish. “We’ve been there for more than 2,000 years. Jews have always lasted.”
No comments:
Post a Comment