Arash Hejazi – Arash Hejazi

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

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

Iran denies banning of Paulo Coelho’s books

Arash Hejazi — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:48:09 +0000

Read the statement of the Embassy of Iran in Brasilia here.

To know about what started this visit here and here.

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

Arash Hejazi’s Interview with The Times / November 13, 2009

Arash Hejazi — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:53:04 +0000

Iranian doctor Arash Hejazi who tried to rescue Neda Soltan tells of wounds that never heal

As Arash Hejazi sat in an Oxford coffee bar, members of Iran’s Basij militia in Tehran were demanding his extradition outside the British Embassy.

The previous day the Iranian regime had sent an Oxford college a letter of protest over a scholarship given to honour Neda Soltan, the student killed during a huge demonstration against electoral fraud in Tehran in June. The letter also suggested that Dr Hejazi was responsible for her murder.

Read more

Ahmadinejad versus Oxford University and Neda

Arash Hejazi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:58:03 +0000

The Iranian Embassy Objects to the Queens College’s Neda Scholarship

The Queen’s College venerates the memory of Neda Agha Soltan; the Iranian Government blames it on Arash Hejazi!

The paradox in the Iranian Government’s Statement Regarding Neda
The paradox lies in the fact that the Iranian government has reacted in different manners towards the death of Neda. First, the head of the Iranian National TV claimed that the video of her death was fake. But then, when they no longer could deny the death of Neda, they blamed the BBC correspondent in Iranfor her death.However, the Ambassador of Iran in Mexico claimed in an interview that her murder was planned by CIA. The protesters to the election results in Iran and the People’s Mujahedin Organisation where other bodies blamed by different Iranian authorities.Then, after Arash Hejazi, the doctor who tried to save Neda in her last moment, explained in an interview with BBC that the Iranian militia or Basij were responsible for her death, he himself was ironically held responsible for Neda’s death and a prosecution started to arrest him. The Iranian Police Chief declared officially that Interpol is looking for Arash Hejazi, an allegation that was refuted instantly by Interpol.More than a week ago, the chief of the Martyr’s foundation of Iran said that Neda could be considered a Martyr if the police and the judiciary approved that she was killed by the Iranian opposition or foreign intelligence services, although the mother of Neda announced that if she was a martyr, she was a martyr for her people, not the Islamic Republic.

Neda versus Ahmadinejad
Now, in an ironical turn of events, when Oxford University decides to venerate the memory of Neda, Ahmadimejad’s government protests against this decision, claiming that it is a ‘political move’ and she is just someone ‘murdered’.

The Involvement of Arash Hejazi
Arash Hejazi’s involvement in the case of Neda is where he was present at the time of her death accidentally. He rushed towards her in an attempt trying to save her. In vain, Neda’s body was drained out of blood in less than a minute. Then, when he believed that the truth was being distorted, he left Iran and in an interview he described the circumstances of her death. Since then, the government of Iran has always been vengeful against him.

However, in the letter of the Embassy of Iran to the Queen’s College, it is claimed that Arash Hejazi who was involved in Neda’s murder, is ‘a fellow’ to the Oxford University. This couldn’t be farther from truth and there will be no surprise if Oxford University discredit’s this claim instantly.

Arash Hejazi has never studied in the University of Oxford and has no relationships to them. He has studied in Oxford Brookes University, an academic body completely separate from the University of Oxford.

The Involvement of the Iranian Government in Neda’s Death
It seems that the Iranian government, trying to conceal its own involvement in the brutal murders that happened after the Presidential elections of Iran, is rushing towards discrediting itself.
No one can deny that on the same day that Neda Agha Soltan died, at least 30 other protesters were shot to death by the Iranian militia. They were shot in the the eye, the chest and the neck, proving that the shooters were aiming to kill, rather than aiming to control.

The face of Abbas Kargar Javid — man accused of killing Neda Soltan

Arash Hejazi — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:10:23 +0000

The Times
August 20, 2009
The man accused of killing Neda Soltan has been identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, a pro-government militiaman, after photographs of the Basiji’s ID cards appeared on the internet.

The identification challenges the Iranian regime’s claim that foreign agents shot the young woman, who became a global symbol of resistance to the Government of President Ahmadinejad.

Read the rest here.

International Publishers Association Calls for the Immediate Release of Publishes List of Arrested Iranian Journalists, Publishers & Writers

Arash Hejazi — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:09:01 +0000

Source: International Publishers Association
Geneva, 31 July 2009
Following the massive wave of arrests targeting bloggers, journalists, publishers and writers, the International Publishers Association (IPA) publishes a list of some of those under arrest (see Note for Editors), and demands their immediate release.
IPA also calls on the Iranian authorities to drop the investigation of Arash Hejazi, the publisher who provided the first aid to Neda Agha-Soltan, killed during the street protests on 20 June 2009.
Publisher Arash Hejazi (Caravan publishing) is pictured on video trying to help 26 year old Neda Agha-Soltan during her last moments. On 29 June 2009, Mr. Ahmadinejad called for a probe into Neda’s “suspicious” death, and sent a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi requesting a serious investigation to help identify “the elements” behind Neda’s killing. A few days later, Iran’s police chief, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, declared that Arash Hezaji, Paulo Coehlo’s publisher in Farsi, who was present at the death of Neda during opposition street protests in Tehran, was under investigation by both Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and by the international policy agency (Interpol). Since then, Interpol has denied any knowledge of the case.
Bjorn Smith-Simonsen, Chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee, declares: “A climate of terror has taken over Iran since the 12 June elections. Massive arrests have been targeting journalists, bloggers, writers and publishers as a way to stifle freedom of expression. Ahead of Iran’s review by the United Nations Human Rights Council, IPA is urging the Iranian authorities to release immediately all the journalists, bloggers, writers and publishers who have been engaged in non-violent demonstrations, thus exercising their right to freedom of expression. In addition, IPA is also calling on the Iranian authorities to drop the investigation of Arash Hejazi, the publisher who provided the first aid to young Neda, killed during the street protests on 20 June”.

Iran is now being described as the second largest prison for journalists worldwide following the wave of arrests among the intellectuals, including publishers, since the June street protests. The following is a list of named arrested journalists, writers, and publishers since the protests of last month:
Ahmad Zeidabadi – Journalist
Maziar Bahari – Journalist
Said Leylaz – Journalist
Homa Rousta – Actress
Jila Bani Yaghub – Journalist
Issa Saharkhiz – Journalist
Keivan Samimi – Magazine Publisher
Abdolreza Tajik – Editor
Mojtaba Pourmohsen – Journalist
Mehdi Khazali – Publisher (Hayyan)
Kambiz Norouzi – Secretary of the Legal Committee of the Iranian Journalists’
Association
Alireza Beheshti – Editor in Chief (Kalameh Sabz newspaper)
Shokoufeh Azar – Journalist
Behzad Basho – Cartoonist
Hengameh Shahidi – Journalist
Mahsa Amrabadi – Journalist
Masood Bastani – Journalist, Blogger
Misagh Bolhasani – Poet
Mohammad-Reza Yazdan Panah – Journalist
Majid Saidi – Photographer
Satiar Emami – Photographer
Said Movahedi – Photographer
Mehdi Zaboli – Photographer
Shadi Sadr – Journalist
Arash Hejazi – Writer, Publisher (Prosecuted)