I was in Qum (and Tehran)

There were other major news items last week, like the first summit meeting of the G-20, that included countries like India and Brazil, to confront climate change; and the first handshake of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with Benjamin Netanyahu. But the most explosive revelation was the discovery of a second Iranian uranium enrichment plant being built outside Qum. Not many non-Iranians here know where or what that is. I knew, and had actually gone to, that holy Shiite city.

At the time, I was working for The Dow Chemical Company's James River (fibers) Division at Williamsburg, Virginia, and was sent to Japan for exchange of research information with the scientists at the labs of Asahi Chemical Company (with which Dow had started a joint company), mainly one at Numazu, with a clear view of Mount Fuji. Among the extra treats was being wined (sake) and dined (and entertained) at a Geisha House, hosted by the Asahi president.

When it was over, after 7 weeks, I decided to exchange my first class ticket back for a normal (“tourist”) ticket forward, for what is still my only trip around the world; having got a week's (+) vacation by phone. Dow even got some money back from the exchange. In principle, I could have gone way south to Australia, then way north to Siberia etc, as long as each new destination was west of the preceding. But I was moderate; stopping first in Hong Kong, then Bangkok, Delhi, Tehran, Tel Aviv and Copenhagen to Virginia.

The Asahi-Dow office in Tokyo had made all the travel arrangements, including a hotel reservation at the Tehran Hilton; which became famous when it turned out that Lt. Col. Ollie North and Reagan's National Security Advisor McFarlane had stayed there during their secret hostage mission. The Asahi-Dow people couldn't know that; nor did they know that my one day there would be on the holiest Shia holiday, commemorating the assassination of Ali, the Prophet's son in law and candidate for the succession. I was told that everything would be closed that day. But a Dutch businessman who spent much time there suggested that I go with him to nearby Qum; also that the Jewish and Armenian artisans in the big Bazaar stay open. So it was.

My main recollection of Qum is of our being on top of the mausoleum for the father of Reza Shah Pahlevi. It overlooked the courtyard of the main mosque almost directly below, and there was threatening shaking of fists from there in the direction of us tourists (most evidently Iranians). My Dutch buddy claimed there was srong anti-Israel feeling around, and I was still an Israeli citizen, but saw no reason to worry, having been admitted with my Israeli passport. I still don't adequately understand the complex Iranian history preceding the Islamic revolution emanating largely from the Qum Mullahs 1-2 decades after my visit in January 1961. It was not that long after the 1953 British inspired (BP, then still the Anglo Iranian Oil Co) CIA coup that overthrew the popular prime minister Mossadegh, an aristocrat and democrat, a kind of Warren Buffett for Middle Eastern circumstances. His support is supposed to have extended all the way from the Shia clergy to the Tudeh party, regarded as way left. So what I witnessed may still have been part of resentment over the restoration of the Pahlevis by the coup, even though turning (part of?) the clergy is alleged to have been an important achievement for Kermit Roosevelt, who was in charge of the coup.

(This will have to be continued later, possibly as a separate posting. It has already been interrupted unposted for close to a week.)