Writing the story of my parents, our story, has been a long-term project; actually doing it, however, continues to prove impossibly difficult. For now, I do wish to leave at least a brief trace of it on the cyberspace.
-- Payman Akhlaghi, February 25th, Los Angeles
Update: Many erudite friends contributed to a discussion on this post, resulting in a thread which I think is of value to the public. You may read and follow the thread located on my Facebook Wall, as it's been made open to Public. (Author)
Preface: [draft 1]
My parents, Aziz and Pouran, were brutally murdered within hours, each in a different Iranian city, on October 18th and 19th, 1990, respectively. To think that how such violent cruelty could have happened to our little family, this remains largely beyond comprehension. The scope and nature of the crime made it one of the worst cases of violence against the Jewish community in modern Iran.
A few months later, shortly before I left Iran, the lead detective on the case told me in person that there was not enough proof to charge and convict the lead suspect in the case. However, about 2 years later, by then in the States, I was informed by my relatives that the same man responsible for the brutality had been finally arrested, had confessed to the murdering of my parents, and had been punished for his crimes. It was rather ironic that this was also the man who had long been trusted by my family and I.
Those who knew my father knew that he didn't believe in revenge, and later in life, neither in capital punishment. To me, this has meant to create arts, communicate my stance against physical violence, trying to spread a general respect for life, and doing the little I can to help prevent such monstrosities from ever happening to anyone again. It means to stop the cycle of revenge -- "now". In part, it entails helping to uproot anti-Semitism, using the limited intellectual means available to me.
© 2012, Payman Akhlaghi. All rights reserved.
Shana Tova
15 years ago
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