Shojaaddin Shafa

Fatemeh Moezzi

Shojaaddin Shfa was born in Qom, 1918. Following his primary and secondary education in Qom, he entered Tehran University to study Persian literature. Then he left for Lebanon and Paris to continue his studies on literature.

He returned to Tehran in 1941 and was engaged in the translation of literary texts in the general bureau of propaganda and radio. There was created an open atmosphere after September 1941 and many parties became active in this period. Shojaadin Shafa founded the patriot’s party in collaboration with Majid Yektayi, Kazem Emadi, and Ali Jalali and published a newspaper with the same title. The editorials of the paper were written by Shafa. He founded the Pahlavi library himself being the managing director of it. His close relations with Hossein Ala, the minister of court led him to become closer to the court. He prepared the text of the Shah’s speeches in the international circles. He became a deputy to Ala in 1959 and was in charge of attending the journalists reporting the Shah and Farah’s wedding ceremony. It is said that he received huge amounts of money to let the journalists to take photos of the ceremony. He was for the ideas of praising ancient Iran and encouraged the Shah to hold the festivities for 2500th anniversary of Iranian empire. He was the secretary of the central committee for the provisions of the ceremony. He recommended the publication of many books in admiration of ancient Iran. He was the one who prepared the text of the Shah’s speech which was delivered at Cyrus’s mausoleum in Passargad starting with, “Cyrus, the king of kings, this is me, the Shah of Iran, rest in peace, we are awake…”

The same trend in praising the ancient Iran led to the adoption of royal calendar based on the coronation of Cyrus the great in Iran instead of solar calendar. Subsequent to the fall of the Pahlavi regime, Shafa made his escape to the United States and joined the oppositions of Islamic republic of Iran. SAVAK documents report him as a man of pleasures and unscrupulous.
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