Keyhan

The news of Richard Frye's passing was saddening. Iranians and students of Iranian culture and history lost an eminent scholar who had dedicated his entire life to science of history and public education. His loss is all the more cruel for all his unfinished works, although the strength of his contributions provides an unshakeable basis for Iranian studies in many areas.

I decided to go to Richard Frye's memorial service in Los Angeles because I felt it was a small homage which I could pay to a great scholar. Before going to the service I heard from a dear friend that Homa Sarshar would not be attending the event despite the fact that her name appeared on the event's program. When I entered Tehrangeles' Westwood Public Library I realized that Prof. Nikkie Keddie, who was likewise listed on the program, was also missing from the room. Given that Professor Keddie is usually very punctual and shows up early to such events, I assumed this meant she too would not attend.

The program started late as such events usually do. They started playing the well known nationalist song called: "Ey Iran". Mr. Nikbakht who was the M.C. from the "Marzeh Porgohar" organization asked everyone to stand up. I decided to remain seated because of my internationalist views. A middle-aged man while holding his hand on his breast asked me to stand up. I protested by giving him the Nazi salute. But I quickly sat back down because I was there out of respect for Mr. Frye--although I did think about leaving once all the nationalist Iranian flags were marched into the room.

Nikbakht talked at length and then read a few messages from Iranian youths. Then Mr. Khalili spoke and enumerated the reasons for the opposition to Frye's burial in Iran. Subsequently, he knocked out those arguments one by one.

Afterward, a video message was shown from Richard Frye's brother. The brother's name was not mentioned as he was a nonentity through Mr. Nikbakht's eye and it probably sufficed to mention that he was "Frye's brother". (By the way his name was William Frye.)
Bill Frye mentioned some memories from their childhood and Frye's time in the U.S. army.

In the next session the only English-speaking person left the room and the rest of the program was carried out in the sweet Persian language. Nikbakht said: there was so much pressure on us to cancel the program, which caused some of the speakers not to attend the program.

Adib Boroumand's and Davood Hermidasbavand's short messages from Iran were then read.

Some time after that, Afshin Zand spoke about the fact that Frye was not a CIA agent. He also claimed that all Iranian religions believe in forgiveness and Richard should be forgiven if he had done anything wrong and be buried in Iran. Zand also read parts of a book which he had coauthored with Frye about Cyrus the Great. They also showed part of a movie which seemingly had been aired by IRIB before. It was part of a 90 minute movie by Mahnaz Mokri. 

Ali Akbar Jafari was the next speaker, and the one whom I could not bear to listen to. Mr. Jafari, who on his website claims to have more than 10 million Zoroastrian followers in Iran, mostly talked about Zoroastrianism and his views of that religion. Mentions of Frye were few and far between, and entirely superficial. As I got up to leave the room, people thought I was standing to applaud Jafari and I left in disgust. Richard Frye deserved better than this.