Fereydoun Farrokhzad
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image Fereydoun Farrokhzad (Template:Langx; October 7, 1936 – August 7, 1992) was an Iranian showman, host, poet, actor, political activist, singer, humanitarian, and writer. He is best known for his television variety show, The Silver Carnation, which introduced and featured many artists, such as Ebi, Leila Forouhar, Shohreh, Sattar, Hayedeh, and many more.
Farrokhzad was forced into exile after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. After relocating to Germany, he was the victim of an assassination set up by the Islamic Republic government as part of the chain murders of Iran.[1][2][3]
Early life and career
Fereydoun Farrokhzad was born in Tehran, to career military officer Colonel Mohammad Bagher Farrokhzad (originally from Tafresh) and his wife Touran Vaziri-Tabar.[4] He was the fourth of seven children (Pooran, Amir (Masoud), Forugh, Fereydoun, Gloria, Mehrdad, and Mehran). After graduating high school he moved to Germany and Austria for his post-secondary education. He received his doctorate in political science from Munich University.
At a young age Fereydoun had a passion for poetry and for singing. He turned that passion to reality in 1962 when he started writing poems in German which were published in two German newspapers. In 1964 he published his collection of poems called "Fasleh Deegar" (Another Season). His book was critically acclaimed and was honored by many German poets. Five months after the release of "Fasleh Deegar", Fereydoun Farrokhzad received the Poetry Award of Berlin. For a couple of years Farrokhzad was a member of the Munich Academy of Poetry.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". In 1966 he found his way to the Television and Radio of Munich. On Radio he had a comedy and music program which played middle eastern music including music from Iran. On TV he created and produced a show called "Khiyaban-haye Alp" (Alpine Roads). In 1967 he returned to Iran and performed on successful radio and TV shows. His most successful TV show was "Mikhakeh Noghrei" (Silver Carnation), and his radio show which aired every other Friday mornings called "Jom'eh Bazzar" (Friday Bazaar). The TV show was watched by millions of Iranians. On the show Farrokhzad introduced and discovered a number of Iranian artists including Sattar, Shohreh, Shahram Solati, Ebi, Morteza, Rouhi Savoji, Hamid Shabkhiz, Leila Forouhar, Saeed Mohammadi, and various others. After the 1979 revolution, Farrokhzad was imprisoned, then released. He escaped the country and settled in Germany.[5]
Politics and activism
Political views
According to Voice of America, Farrokhzad was known by his fans as an "educated patriot" who frequently criticised the Islamic Republic and its leaders and who was present during many demonstrations against the clerical government.
Farrokhzad produced a weekly radio show for the "Voice of the Flag of Freedom Organization of Iran," the radio station of the Organization of Kaviyani Banner, an "organization of exiled supporters of the Iranian monarchy."[6] Farrokhzad also acted in a film, I Love Vienna,[7] which was considered by some Iranian authorities as anti-Islamic.[5]Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Personal life
Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh claimed that Farrokhzad was homosexual.[8] He said: "His main obstacle was the homosexuality that he was not ashamed of; he knew it and he wanted people to understand it."
Farrokhzad married and divorced twice. His first marriage took place in 1962, to a German-Polish woman named Ania Buchkowski, whom he met in Oxford. Like Farrokhzad, she had a passion for poetry and theater; it was after meeting her that Farrokhzad started writing poems. The result of this marriage was a son named Rostam. Farrokhzad and Ania later separated and got divorced. In 1974 he married an Iranian woman named Taraneh.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".[9]
Besides his native language of Persian, he also spoke German.[10]
Death
On the evening of August 3, police officers responded to cries for help at the building where Farrokhzad lived, but were unable to identify the apartment where the screams originated from.[11][12] On August 8, 1992, Farrokhzad's body was found in the kitchen of his apartment in Bonn, Germany after neighbours reported barking by his two dogs. Farrokhzad had been killed violently, having been stabbed repeatedly in the face and upper torso.[13] Many urban legends surround Farrokhzad's death, including the widely repeated myth that he was beheaded.
Prior to his murder, Farrokhzad had been involved in producing an opposition radio program and, reportedly, received death threats. In his show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, he criticised Khomeini and made fun of Khomeini's obsession with sex in his Ressaleh book, which followed death threats and concerns for him.[6]
According to the U.S. state-funded Voice of America (VOA), the murder was "widely believed to be the work of Iran's Islamic government".[1]
In March 2025, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, former Minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, admitted that the IRGC had paid Basque separatists to assassinate dissidents abroad, including Fereydoun Farrokhzad.[14]
Legacy
Farrokhzad remains a significant Iranian cultural icon whose popular music and television programs continue to be circulated through various media platforms. His murder—a political assassination of a celebrity activist entertainer—is a well known and oft-cited event amongst Iranians.
The play ‘Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World’ by Javaad Alipoor explores the international cultural coverage of his death.[15]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | I Love Vienna | Ali Mohamed | Houchang Allahyari | Selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards |
See also
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References
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- ↑ Michael C. Hillman, A lonely woman: Forugh Farrokhzad and her poetry, Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 1987, p. 7.
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External links
- Template:Sister-inline
- Fereydoun Foundation on Official Farrokhzad Foundation Website Template:Webarchive
- Farrokhzad's biography on BBC
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- Farrokhzad's documentariesTemplate:Category handler[<span title="Script error: No such module "string".">usurped]Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Radio Farda investigation documentary.
- Pages with script errors
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- 1938 births
- 1992 deaths
- 1992 murders in Germany
- 20th-century Iranian male actors
- 20th-century Iranian male singers
- 20th-century Iranian poets
- Caltex Records artists
- Murdered actors
- Deaths by stabbing in Germany
- Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in Germany
- Iranian democracy activists
- Iranian dissidents
- Iranian emigrants to Germany
- Iranian LGBTQ rights activists
- Iranian male poets
- Iranian people murdered abroad
- Iranian pop singers
- Iranian radio actors
- Iranian radio and television presenters
- Iranian critics of religions
- Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
- People from Tafresh
- People murdered in Germany
- 20th-century Persian-language poets
- Poets from Tehran
- Taraneh Records artists
- Unsolved murders in Germany
- Persian-language singers of Iran
- Persian-language singers of Germany
- Iranian monarchists
- Iranian political artists
- Chain murders of Iran