Bahman Nirumand

Bahman Nirumand

Bahman Nirumand (* 18 September 1936 in Tehran) is an Iranian and German journalist and author.

Life

Bahman Nirumand was born at 18 September 1936 as a son of a wealthy family of civil servants in Tehran. His uncle was a consul in the Iranian embassy in Berlin before the II World War. Bahman Nirumand had been sent to Germany by his parents to go to the gymnasium when he was 14 years old, where he attended the Rudolf Steiner School. After his levels, he studied at the University of Munich, University of Tübingen, and the Berlin German studies, philosophy and Iran studies. He became a dozent ın 1960 at the University of Tübingen with the subject “Problems of transplanting European dramas to the Neopersian literature” (“Probleme der Verpflanzung des europäischen Dramas in die neupersische Literatur’)’. After finishing his studies, he returned to Iran and worked there as a dozent for comperative Literature wissenschaft at the University of Tehran, and as a writer and journalist. Together with Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani and Majid Zarbakhsh, he founded the “Goruhe Kadreh (Kader group)”, which assumed to be sich verstehen a Marxist-Leninist organisation and wanted to revolutionarya Kader ausbilden that are organised as revolutionary cells for the antiimperialistic war in urban areas of Iran by acting as urban guerillas.^[1] In 1965, he returned to Germany to escape a purported imminent arrest. His book “Persia, a model of a developing nation or the dictatorship of the Free World” (“Persien, Modell eines Entwicklungslandes oder Die Diktatur der Freien Welt”) published in January 1967 had a big influence upon the internationalism of the student uprising. Nirumand became a member of the Confederation of Iranian students. On a lecture tour for his book in Hamburg, he was invited by Freimut Duve and became acquainted with Ulrike Meinhof. They talked about the circumstances in Iran. Upon this, Ulrike Meinhof wrote ın Juni 1967 for the official visit of shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the Federal Republik of Germany an open letter to his wife Farah Diba.^[2] In this letter, Meinhof alleged among others that for the peasants of Mehdiabad, a »Persian meal« consists of straw put ın water.^[3] In October 1967, a critic was published ın the Spiegel, where several informations about Iran that had been published in the book of Nirumand were rated as dubiose or wrong.^[4] In 1979, he returned to Iran before the Islamic Republic of Iran was founded. After staying there for three years, Nirumand went to exile to Paris, as he got no permission to enter Germany. Later, he went to Berlin. On his own admission, Nirumand espouses for freedom in Iran. He assumes that the forces around Ahmadinejad are kept on life because of terror and threats from the West, as well as threatening with sanctions and war. Such actions bolster the regime up, he says. He appraises the support for the regime in the society much less than assumed ın the West. He states that artists, women, and the youth would not become radical and seek for freedom. Nirumand claims that the image of Iran in the West is reduced to the Islamic regime Bahman Nirumand is an author of several booksand writes articlesc – among others in “Die Zeit”, “Der Spiegel”, “Die Tageszeitung”, “Frankfurter Rundschau” and other German and international Papers; ın addition to that, he authors numerous contributions that havel been broadcasted. He published among others a Khomeini-biography called “With God for power” (“Mit Gott für die Macht”), as well as “Fire under the peacock thron. Forbidden stories from the Persisan opposition.’ ‘(“Feuer unterm Pfauenthron. Verbotene Geschichten aus dem persischen Widerstand”)’, “Iran - behind the bars wither flowers” (“Iran - hinter den Gittern verdorren Blumen”) and “Storm in the Golf: The Iraq crisis and the powder keg Middle East” (“Sturm im Golf: Die Irak-Krise und das Pulverfass Nahost”). Besides, he translated literatur from Persian to German, among others works of Sadegh Hedayat, Gholamhossein Saedi, Samad Behrangi. He translated “The trip” of Mahmud Doulatabadi for the Unionsverlag. Since 2001, he is the composer of the monthly “iran-reports” of the Heinrich Böll endowment.

Bahman Nirumand is the father of the journalist Mariam Lau, who is currently working as the politicalc correspondent of the weekly journal Die Zeit.

Works

As an author

• “Problems of transplanting European dramas to the Neopersian literature” (“Probleme der Verpflanzung des europäischen Dramas in die neupersische Literatur”). University of Tübingen. Dissertation, 1960. • “Persia, a model of a developing nation or the dictatorship of the Free World” (“Persien, Modell eines Entwicklungslandes oder Die Diktatur der Freien Welt”), Rowohlt, Reinbek 1967 • “Iran. The New Imperialism in Action”, Monthly Review Press, New York 1969 • “With God for power. A political biography of Ayatollah Khomeiny” (“Mit Gott für die Macht. Eine politische Biografie des Ayatollah Chomeini.“), Rowohlt, Reinbek 1987, ISBN 3498046284 (mit Keywan Daddjou) • “Fire under the peacock thron. Forbidden stories from the Persisan opposition” (“Feuer unterm Pfauenthron. Verbotene Geschichten aus dem persischen Widerstand“, Rotbuch Verlag, Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3880221243 • „“Iran - behind the bars wither flowers“ („Iran - hinter den Gittern verdorren Blumen“), Rowohlt, Reinbek 1985 ISBN 3499157357 (Übersetzung ins Türkische durch Kemal Kurt: „Iran – Soluyor Çiçekler Parmaklıklar Ardında“, mit Belge Yayınlar, Istanbul 1988) • „Living with Germans“ („Leben mit den Deutschen“), Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3499124041 • „Storm in the Golf: The Iraq crisis and the powder keg Middle East“ („Sturm im Golf: Die Irak-Krise and das Pulverfass Nah-Ost“), Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, ISBN 3499129264 • „A stranger for Germans“ („Fremd bei den Deutschen“), 1991, ISBN 3499129248 • “The Kurdish tragedy. The Kurds - Chased in their own land” (“Die kurdische Tragödie. Die Kurden - verfolgt im eigenen Land“), Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3499130750 • „Scared of Germans. Terror against foreigners and the disintegration of the state of law” (“Angst vor den Deutschen. Terror gegen Ausländer und der Zerfall des Rechtsstaates“), Rowohlt, Reinbek 1992, ISBN 3499131765 • „iran-report“, Heinrich Böll endowment, Berlin, seit 2001 (erscheint monatlich; siehe Weblinks) • „Iran. The imminent catastrophy“ („Iran. Die drohende Katastrophe‘)‘, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2006, ISBN 3462037080 • „The undeclared World War“ („Der unerklärte Weltkrieg“), Booklett, 2007, ISBN 978-3-940153-01-2

As a publisher

• “In the name of Allah. Islamic groups and the fundamentalism ın the Federal Republic of Germany” (“Im Namen Allahs. Islamische Gruppen und der Fundamentalismus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland“), 1990, ISBN 3894523077 • „In the name of Allah“ („Im Namen Allahs“), Dreisam Verlag, Köln 1990, ISBN 389607346X • „German conditions. Dialog over a endangered country“ („Deutsche Zustände. Dialog über ein gefährdetes Land“, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1993, ISBN 3499133547 • „Iran after the polls“ („Iran nach den Wahlen“), Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 2001, ISBN 3896915061

As a translator (a choice of)

• &&& Sadegh Hedayat: „The blind owl“ („Die blinde Eule - Ein Roman and neun Erzählungen“), Eichborn, Frankfurt 1990 • Mahmud Doulatabadi: „The journey“ („Die Reise“), Unionsverlag, Zürich 1992, ISBN 3-293-20139-3 • Mahmud Doulatabadi: „The old World“ („Die alte Erde“), Unionsverlag Zürich 2005, ISBN 3-293-20318-3 • Mahmud Doulatabadi: “The colonel” (“Der Colonel”), Unionsverlag Zürich 2009, ISBN 3-293-00402-4

References

1. ^ http://www.manoochehryazdi.blogfa.com/cat-9.aspx^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Revolutionäre Romantik" | Cicero Online
3. ^ Ulrike Marie Meinhof Offner Brief an Fra Dibah
4. ^ Der Spiegel, 46197096, Titel=GEWALT AUF DEM CAMPUS

Persondata
Name	Nirumand, Bahman
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1936
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

External links

• Gewalt auf dem Campus - Das Persienbild des Bahman Nirumand, Der Spiegel 44/1967, 23. Oktober 1967, S. 132] • Welcher Perser isst schon Schwein? Dr. Bahman Nirumand zur Spiegeltitelgeschichte über Persien, Der Spiegel 47/1967, 13. November 1967, S. 164]

• Der Iran und die Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung - Kritik an Reformbewegung unerwünscht (Juni 2000)
• iran-report - monatliche Berichte über die Lage im Iran (seit 2001)
• „Revolutionäre Romantik“ - umfassendes Interview mit Bahman Nirumand über sein Leben and den Iran
• Interview mit Bahman Nirumand im Deutschlandfunk (Juni 2007)
• Die Kriegsgefahr wächst: Das Szenario erinnert an den Irak-Krieg