Charles Gordanier

NYC

Iran 1979

I was an American 12-13 year old living in Tehran, my father worked worked for AT&T International. A few of many memories:
) the revolution built slowly and only got hot in the fall of 1978 with huge daily street demonstrations
) the authorities would shut down electricity every night in an attempt to quell the crowds. from our apartment you could see sections of the city go dark
) while I did regularly hear gunfire, I never once felt personally threatened. I continued going to school during the day, and watched events from the roof at night
) all television programming was about the concurrent revolution in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe, and look how that turned out), slide shows of flowers with music, or occasionally a very nervous looking news correspondent. nothing at all about local events
) I was evacuated suddenly when a Pan Am 747 made an unscheduled maintenance landing and I was put aboard, bringing nothing and never to return. my father stayed until after Khomeini returned, helped shut down the company and was airlifted out by the US Air Force.

Living through this ignited a love of travel that continues today. He and I would very much like to visit Iran again someday, but there never seems to be a good time for an independent American to go.

Sadly, the Iranian revolution replaced one dictatorship with another. If this form of rule is all people know, strengthening a broad based civil society that is the bedrock of democracy is difficult. The Eastern Europeans have done it, but few others. Having spent time in Tunisia, I think they may have a chance, but now is their Philadelphia 1776, and all depends on what they hammer out in the near future.