The Gaze of the Gazelle – Arash Hejazi

The interview of ISIS Magazine with Arash Hejazi, on the publication of The Gaze of the Gazelle

Arash Hejazi — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:57:31 +0000

Read the article free online

Book Review: The Gaze of the Gazelle, the memoir of a little boy who became a revolutionary for truth

Arash Hejazi — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:10:17 +0000

We talk about the tyranny of the Shah of Iran and the even worse tyranny of the Mullah’s that followed. We talk about the politics of Iran today and its role in terrorism, violence and the instability of the Middle East. We talk about the conflict that the United States started using their dictator pal Saddam Hussein, and quickly forget the hardships that were wrought on the people of Iran and also Iraq. And we talk about the Middle East conflict as if it is just another story.

Yet what we don’t talk about are the lives that were destroyed and permanently altered, reshaped violently and the many deaths, most of the dead are names and faces we will never know or see.

Iran has been but a political square in a political debate. But it is a nation of enslaved people, enslaved under the pro-Western backed tyrant the Shah Reza Pahlavi and then by the Ayatollah Khomeini and then again by the little dictator President Ahmedinejad.

Arash Hejazi tells the story to the Western World that is so ignorant of the facts of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf and the Islamic World in a way that puts a human face on its cover. “The Gaze of the Gazelle” is a poignant retelling of all the history we have accepted as political rhetoric in a human form. The story of real people who were impacted by our policies and our political viciousness and our stereotyped rhetoric and racism in America.

The story begins from the eyes of a young boy and watches as the world around him collapses following the fall of the Shah and the Rise of the Mullah tyrants. Then there is the war with the US backed Iraq and Saddam Hussein and the destruction in brought on everyone in the country. He tells the story of how he watched the Revolution turn from a people’s movement to another vicious dictatorship, this time religious and twisted. And he recounts the day when he was only 17 and watched the Mullah’s soldiers pull aside a young Muslim woman who was also only 17 and shoot her in the head in front of a crowd of frightened observers.

He watched as his family life was destroyed and his friends and his father’s friends fled or vanished.

No one could speak but Arash managed to launch a publishing company and his struggle to get the true story out about the criminal behaviour of the leaders of Iran is a compelling story that every American should read. It was our tax dollars that paid for the bullets that fired into the brains of young women by the mullahs, that bought the scimitars that were used to cut off the heads of dissidents, and that funded the bombs that rained down on millions of innocent people.

We owe it to the Iranian people to at least try to learn the truth.

“The Gaze of the Gazelle” offers one window into the horrors of the history of Iran under tyrannical oppression over the years.

I couldn’t put this book down. It read swiftly and cleanly and with a comprehension that was utterly shocking to me. I urge everyone to read this memoir of a little boy who became a revolutionary for truth.
Read the full review here

Paulo Coelho: [The Gaze of the Gazelle] an Important and Life-Affirming Memoir

Arash Hejazi — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:47:24 +0000

On 20 June 2009, a brief video clip was circulated all over the world. It showed the death of a young, unarmed woman called Neda, who had been shot in the chest while taking part in a protest in Tehran and was bleeding to death on the street. Few images in the contemporary world have had such an instant and powerful impact. This footage was so intense it raised the awareness of the world on what was happening in Iran and forced world leaders to condemn the way the Iranian government was treating its citizens.

For me, however, it was more personal. There was a young man in the video trying to save Neda. He was my friend, Arash.

When I met him for the very first time, I could never have imagined that this slim young man would get caught in the crossroad of history ten years later. Even if I had the power to look into the future and see that this passionate doctor-publisher-author was destined to be present in one of the most important documents of contemporary history, I couldn’t have imagined the way he would react to it. I couldn’t have imagined that he would have the courage to testify against an unspeakable crime, and be prepared to forsake everything to expose the truth.

I met Arash in Tehran in 2000 when I visited Iran. Arash was the Iranian publisher who, despite the fact that Iran has not signed up to any of the international copyright agreements, had made the decision to publish my work with my authorisation.

I was in a state of confusion when I met him. Finally I was in Iran, and while I had been looking forward to visiting Iran for some time, I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know what the implications of my visit were going to be, or if Christina and I were in any kind of danger. However, I had made the decision to venture this visit; I already knew that I had thousands of readers there waiting for me and I was ecstatic at the thought of seeing the land of Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz and Omar Khayyam.

Read the rest of the article here

Per gli occhi di Neda: A review on the Gaze of the Gazelle in the Italian magazine L’Espresso

Arash Hejazi — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 19:55:08 +0000

You can read it here if you can read Italian

Two feedbacks from Italian readers of The Gaze of the Gazelle (Negli occhi della gazzella)

Arash Hejazi — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:19:38 +0000

Your book hit my the soul…

Sorry but I write with translator, my name is Romina, I am writing from Italy (ancona-marche). I read the book In the Eyes of the Gazelle (the Gaze of the Gazelle: Negli occhi della gazzella), it was so beautiful!
I tried to understand better what you meant, jihad, Basij, imams, mullahs, jinn, Shari’a, Tudeh and other terms … I have seen many pictures, women with hijab, your wonderful mountains, the lights of Tehran in the evening, the moon, the stars, Iran is really a beautiful world!
I found pictures of Neda when she died, and I have them saved on my PC, sometimes I look at those beautiful eyes that only the Iranian women have … Her smile is forever caught in the middle, then it’s your book, which hit my soul, I would like to thank you for the gift that you gave me, your story, your writing about your life, your emotions … I can never forget!
I thank you very much for what imprinted on my heart!
I’m talking to my friends about your work, I would like to share this excitement with them!
I hug you my friend!
with great affection
Romi

Thank you for making me appreciate my freedom…

Thank you Arash, I want to thank you for making me appreciate my freedom to be and do whatever I want and feel. Thank you for letting me know lot of things about your beautiful country. Thank you for letting me know about the story of your country, of its culture through the innocent but critic eyes of a little smart boy, of an adolescent and of a young man as you was and I am. Thank you for letting me knowing Neda, the Voice of freedom. Last but not least thank you for letting me cry, on a plane, reading the last page of your beautiful book “The Gaze of the Gazelle” just few hours ago, reading words of hope for the present.

Nothing personal just wanted you to know how much you impressed me with your words. Again thank you

Damiano

Your book hit my the soul…

For Neda: The film: Tuesday 21 June, 10.00 PM on More 4 (UK only)

Arash Hejazi — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:40:32 +0000

On 20 June 2009, Neda Agha Soltan was shot in the heart by a sniper and lay bleeding to death in a backstreet of Tehran. Within hours of her death this young Iranian woman’s dying moments, captured on mobile phones, were appearing on computer screens across the world.

Anthony Thomas’s film tells Neda’s personal story and attempts to find out who this young woman was, how she became a powerful symbol to millions and what she was fighting for.

The film not only shows the plight of the Iranian citizens who peacefully fought to free their country from its current government regime, but also the ongoing struggle the women of Iran face every day in an attempt to live a life free from oppression.

The only way to get to the heart of the story was to work inside Iran, at a time when foreign film-makers are forbidden entry, and Iranians themselves risk arrest and long-term imprisonment if caught filming without official approval.

The film won the Foreign Press Association’s Best TV Feature/ Documentary Award and was among 2011′s Peabody Awards winners list.

Read More

Arash Hejazi’s Interview with the Italian Magazine Io Dona: I can’t live in silence, Neda’s eyes hunt me

Arash Hejazi — Fri, 20 May 2011 19:17:25 +0000

“Non posso vivere nel silenzio, gli occhi di Neda mi perseguitano”

Dal suo rifugio a Londra parla ilmedico che cercò di salvare la studentessa-simbolo della rivolta iraniana. E che trovò il coraggio graziea Paolo Coelho

di Emanuela Zuccalà, Io Dona, 20 May 2011

UNA RAGAZZA A TERRA, il volto percorso da rivoli di sangue scuro. Due uomini tentanodi rianimarla. Uno urla: “Resta con me!”. Le grida della folla crescono tragiche e confuse. Era il 20 giugno 2009: a Teheran milioni di persone manifestavano contro i brogli elettorali, che avevano portato alla vittoria del presidente Mahmud Ahmadinejad sull’avversario riformista Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Neda Soltani, 26 anni, studentessa di Filosofia freddata da un miliziano, diventava il simbolo dei giovani iraniani affamati di libertà. La sua morte in diretta, ripresa da un telefonino, si diffondeva per il globo attraverso YouTube: un documento eccezionale, che rivelava senza filtri la brutalità del regime iraniano. A metterlo online era stato lo stesso uomo in camicia bianca che nel video cerca di salvare Neda. E che adesso siede di fronte a me in un appartamento di Londra.

Read the Rest of the Interview Here

Arash Hejazi’s interview with his shadow

Arash Hejazi — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:23:01 +0000

“If I have decided that I should write, It is only because I should introduce myself to my shadow–a shadow which rests in a stooped position on the wall, and which appears to be voraciously swallowing all that I write down.” from The Blind Owl, by Sadeq Hedayat.

I am having a very sincere and straightforward interview with my shadow, or he is interviewing me; the excuse being the imminent release of my memoirs, the Gaze of the Gazelle. This is neither stunt or satire; but an attempt to organize my never-ending internal monologue and controversies. I’m trying to gain the courage to ask myself the questions I have always had in the back of my mind, but never dared to answer. No interviewer in the world could find out about these darkest corners of my mind and ask the relevant questions, so the task is up to me. Why made it public, I want witnesses, so I can’t deceive myself. This is going to be a very long interview, in my attempt to rediscover myself.

An interview with my shadow, or my shadow’s interview with me

29/03/2011

Q: You are only forty. Isn’t it too early to write your memoirs?

A: A phase in my life is over. Yes, it might be too early, or not. I’m one of those people who, unlike many others, wish they could live forever. I have never had a death wish. But on 25
But I couldn’t live in the purgatory, nor could I give up my past. A man without a past is a man without feet, and without feet, how can you walk towards your future? You can crawl, maybe, as the mind, this brutal sponsor of the journey, will not equip you with wheelchairs.

I wrote my memoirs, so I could always remember, and even if my memories started to fade, there would be people who would read my memoirs, and there could be a few, who would keep my memories, which are the memories of a generation, alive. Then I could move on. I could start living again, without the fear of losing the past. I could enjoy my surroundings, the new way of life, the new language, traditions, or the modernity.

Q: But REALLY? Is this the only reason you wrote them?

A: I was sad. I was extremely sad. I had to do something. I thought if I went through everything again, I might find something that would help me keep going on. I was lost. I had to go back to the beginning, to see where I could find my Ariadne’s thread again.

Q: And did you find it?

A: I definitely did.

Q: And what was it that helped you?

A: Rocky Balboa.

Q: Rocky, Silvester Stallone?

A: Yes.

Q: How?!

A: It was the first smuggled film I saw on the video-player we bought from the black market. I was 15, and I had lost my way then, too.

Q: And how did Rocky help you?

A: It might sound ridiculous. After reading tons of high-bro literature and pearls of wisdom, Rocky was the only one who really helped me. I watched and watched, I don’t know how many times. I became angry that Apollo won the match on points, although Rocky had fought so hard, until I discovered the truth. It wasn’t the winning itself that Rocky was after. Not being knocked out for one more round was his ambition. That was what I had to do. I had to make sure that I wasn’t going to be knocked out. What happened after wasn’t important.

Q: Ok, so you dug into your past on a self-rediscovery journey. But why do you think the world needed to know about your journey?

A: It wasn’t only my story. It was the story of my generation.

Q: And who made you the representative of your generation?

A: No one. But I had the means to tell the story. I could write, I could get it published. When the my current agent approached me, I was half way through the book, and then I thought, ok, the world had seen the videos, the news headlines, and photos coming out of Iran during the protests, they had been shocked by the eyes of Neda staring into the camera just before she died, but they never had the chance to really understand what was happening there. What was it that took those young men and women into the streets, ready to give up their lives. It wasn’t just because of the rigged election. There was a story behind those eyes, and I felt compelled to write about it, and I felt that I owed Neda to tell the story of our generation.

Q: And you thought you were the right person to do it?

A: Yes. I believe in myself. I love writing and no one can stop me from writing. After speaking up about Neda, the government of Iran seized my assets, shot down my publishing house in Iran, banned my books, prosecuted me, and tried to accuse me of treason. But they couldn’t stop me from speaking up. They couldn’t stop me from writing. And I had to make sure that I wasn’t going to be knocked out in this round. The rest was up to the publishers. If they liked my book, they would go for it. If not, at least I hadn’t been knocked out and I was ready for the next round.

Q: But tell me the real reason.

A: Why don’t you stop repeating the same question over and over again?! I told you the reason.

Q: Yes you did. But what’s the real reason for someone at forty, sitting down and writing about his past.

A: OK, I was bleeding. I was wounded. The bullet that pierced Neda’s chest took her life away, but ripped my life apart. She stared into my eyes and died. She couldn’t say anything. But it was as if she was telling me: ‘Do something!’ and I couldn’t do anything. Those eyes are following me wherever I go. Those eyes keep my heart bleeding. I lied when I said that memories fade away. Some don’t. A few years ago I saw the film Memento by Christopher Nolan. There, Guy Pearce has lost his short-term memory after a blow to his head, during an attack on himself and his wife, during which his wife is killed. The last thing he remembers is the look on her wife’s face, while life is slipping away from her body. From then on, his brain cannot keep short-term memories, so time does not pass from the horrible moment. The memory doesn’t fade away, so he can’t heal.
I couldn’t heal. The memory of those eyes did not leave me. They haunted me, asking me to ‘do something’. I spoke up about her, thinking that she will leave me. I talked to BBC, The Times and other media, when I realised that the Iranian government was trying to conceal her death and then blame it on foreign service. But she still didn’t leave me. I had to do something else, or else I would have bled to death myself. So I wrote, and when I wrote, I felt better, and the eyes became kinder, and the bleeding stopped whenever I resumed writing. She wanted me to tell her story, the story of the generation, she wanted me to tell how it came to that moment… I wrote, because I was in pain, and telling the story eased the pain.

Q: What do you miss most about your homeland?

A lot of things. The desert for one thing. I miss the burning sun and the yellow sands, I miss watching the horizon and spotless blue sky, where I felt I was part of a magic. Where at nights you felt that you could reach the stars just by lifting your hand. An the mountain as well. There are not mountains in England. The view of the mountains reaching the heavens, with all the mystical and mythical lore surrounding the Mountains Alborz, I felt that I was a mythical hero myself. The mountain alborz is the home of the legend of Arash the Archer, the abode of Mithra, the Iranian God of light and promises, and wher the prophet-king Kay Khusro disappeared. Paradoxically, it is also where the embodiment of evil on Earth in Iranian myths, King Zahak, is chained, waiting for his time to be released and devour the world. I miss Alborz a lot.

There other things that I miss, the feeling that I belonged to a society. Here in exile, I am living with the society, but I don’t feel I belong to it. It is like watching a fascinating 3D movie, but no matter how hard you and the producers try to give you a real-life experience, you are not part of the cast or crew, you are a visitor. I miss the feeling of being one of the living cells in a society.

I miss the Iranian jokes as well, I must say. The darkest humour in the world.

Q: This is too cliche. Isn’t there an original thing you miss?

Well, that’s how I fee. the family and friends?

Q: You don’t need to be an exile to miss your family and friends.

I suppose you are right. Let me see… To be fair, I was a successful author in Iran. I miss my readers, although they still write to me all the time. I miss the Tehran Book Fair, but the government destroyed the spirit of it a couple of years before I was forced into exile. I think the most important think I miss, is the joy of living in Iran. It’s a fascinating country, and most importantly, you can never know what to expect from your tomorrow. It’s quite different here; everything is predicted, everything is planned for. In the West you live in a democracy, but are ruled by the norms of the society. In Iran you live under a tyranny, but you have all the freedom to push the boundries. You become much more courageous in Iran, and therefore you experience the true essence of human feelings: fear, joy, hope. I have yet to rediscover these feelings here in exile.

TO BE CONTINUED. CHECK THE SAME SPACE

The Gaze of the Gazelle goes to the US, UK, Italy, Sweden, India and Germany

Arash Hejazi — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:28:13 +0000

Seagull Books has acquired the English, Irisiana, a Random House imprint, the German, Edizioni Piemme the Italian, AB Bonnier the Swedish, and Olive Publication the Malayalam rights to my memoirs, the Gaze of the Gazelle. I am trilled by the news.

Arash

Source: The Gaze of the Gazelle

The Gaze of the Gazelle, a story of a generation: Arash Hejazi’s Memoir

Arash Hejazi — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:22:38 +0000

Well, there is something to write about after all. My memoirs The Gaze of the Gazelle, is coming out in spring 2011 by Seagull Books in English.

Writing this memoir in the past twelve months has been the only help I have had to survive the memory of the horrors I experienced last year, in June 2009, when Neda, the young and brave Iranian woman, bled out under my hands, in a street in Tehran. She looked into my eyes before she turned towards the camera, trying to say something.

She never managed to say it. But I am trying to answer that question in those gazelle eyes: How did it come to this?

My close friend Paulo Coelho, the renowned author of The Alchemist and The Zahir, was the first one to identify me as “the doctor” in the footage taken from Neda’s sad death. And now, he has kindly written a foreword to the book, which I will publish shortly here and in the other media.

I hope you will support me by spreading the word about this book. I will write more about the book soon.

With love,

Arash Hejazi