Son of mother Earth who joined his mother
Yesterday, Mahmud E'temad-zade (nicknamed, Beh-Azin), Iranian prominent translator, researcher and untiring peace and justice activist passed away at the age of 93.
A while ago he stopped taking food and medicine; he wanted to die.
During all his long years of life, he never stopped fighting for Freedom. An uncompromising activist, he was a beacon for my generation. We got to know about Romaine Rolland and Mikhael Sholokhov through his translations. You hardly find any home library in this country without Beh-azin's translations.
An active member and one of the founders of our Writers Union, he was arrested several times by Shah's regime. But the last detention during Islamic Republic was the one that broke his backbone. Having a reputation for being a long time leftist, the interrogators forced him to take part in a TV show denying his whole life and his political beliefs and identity, claiming before millions of people (with their whole attention on their TV sets those days) that he has been a spy of the Soviet Union. The show which later was disclosed to be a falsified act as a result of terrible physical and mental tortures, darkened rest of his life. When after eight years of imprisonment he was released in 1991 (in his late 70s), this man who had always a loud cry for Liberty, kept quiet and just published a few autobiographies.
Beh-Azin was a typical figure of thousands of people all over the world who always remain 'clean'. Their decent life and their commitment to their goals are unbelievable. This kind of people never bow their heads before the hardships of life, always remain uncompromising and devotee to their human objectives and are ready to pay any price for it.
He asked his family to have no ceremony for him after his death. He even wrote about his death in a few words which was read today for the few of people, family and friends who went to the cemetery to bury him. He wrote: "..Death is a part of life. Mahmood E'temad-zade was a son of mother Earth who joined his mother."
posted by Laila @ 6:22 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I am very saddened to read that our beloved Mahmud E'temad-zade (also known as Beh-Azin) is no longer among us. I am grateful to his enormous effort and sacrifice to introduce intelligent literature such Romain Rolland’s Jean Cristoph to us.
He is in our heart forever and we will always remember him with honor and respect. I extend my deepest sympathy to his family.
ba ehteram va sepas
I came accross this nice website about our dear and beloved Behazin:
http://www.negaresh.de/didgah/behazin.htm
I only wish he had lived long enough to see freedom in Iran. be omid bazagshte Azadi be Iran.
sorry the link should end in .htm
www.negaresh.de/didgah/behazin.htm
I really hope that our dear Behazin forgave those who remained silent while he was in prison for being a noble man. I hope someone who knew him during the last few years would inform us that he was aware that so many Iranians loved him so much. How could a country allow a man of his intelligence and dignity be in prison in his seventies?
We must continue his path and unite to free Iran from despotic mullahs.
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