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CAIS
NEWS © LATEST
ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS OF IRAN & THE IRANIAN WORLD
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OBITUARY: Dr Manouchehr Farhangi: Cultural Activist and Philanthropist
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25 March 2008 |
'The Man who joined the History of Iran'
By Dr. Khosro Khazai ( Pardis)
Edited by CAIS
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Manouchehr Farhangi was a versatile entrepreneur, educator and cultural activist
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LONDON, (CAIS) -- Dr Manouchehr Farhangi one of the greatest Iranian Zoroastrian philanthropists and benefactors was assassinated by the Islamic Republic's Secret Service in his home in Moraleja on the suburbs of Madrid in Spain.
This assassination took place at 12.30pm on Wednesday March 20th, 2008. Despite the efforts of paramedics and hospital staff Dr Farhangi pronounced death six hours after being stabbed. He was 82 years old.
Dr. Farhangi was a successful entrepreneur, born into a Zoroastrian family in
1926 in the ancient Iranian city of Kerman.
In the early seventies he created coastal village vacation complex near Caspian
coast in Bandar Pahlavi. The coastal village complex known as Dehkadeh Saheli
contained over 350 villas and 70 apartments, and another 70 villas under
construction when 1979 revolution took place in Iran. Alongside the said project
he and his two brothers opened up a pharmaceutical company, which ultimately
became one of the largest drug manufacturers in Iran.
After coming of the Islamic regime to power in 1979 they demanded an immediate stop in and construction of the complex, under the pretext of an Islamic sharia law, that men and women swim together in the Caspian Sea.
As the result he was summoned to the Islamic courts on several occasions and was
the subjected of harassment, verbal and physical abuse. He finally decided to
take a short trip to London, where he was notified by his staff that the regime
had taken over his corporate offices and looted his house, burning it down along
with his possession and his priceless private library. Shortly after his return
to Iran, his assets were confiscated.
Farhangi, left Iran for Spain in early 1980s and began his life in exile. Soon
he settled in Spain, he founded the International School of Spain in Moralej, which
soon became one of the most prestigious private school in the country where
today over 600 students, of about 50 different nationalities are studying there. After his retirement a
few years ago, the school was taken over by his son Ramin Farhangi.
Farhangi was a true Zoroastrian who was generous to the cultural centres, radios, newspapers and authors who were active on this field and promoting the Zoroastrian religion and pre-Islamic Iranian culture and heritage. He was profoundly a humanist, and wanted to see a truly humanistic philosophy being established in Iran.
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"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
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Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
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