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Iran
Focus
 Tehran, Iran,
Apr. 08 – “Unknown assailants” desecrated the tomb of Iran’s renowned and most popular
contemporary poet.
Ahmad Shamlou was admired for his marvellous poems since the time of the Shah.
State-run news agencies reported that “unknown assailants” had broken the
stone on Shamlou’s tomb and that chunks of the
stone were missing.
Many of Shamlou’s poems criticised
the Shah’s dictatorship with particular fervour,
making him a hit in the eyes of Iranians.
A number of his poems passionately defended Iranian dissidents, some of whom
were executed in the Shah’s prisons.
Shamlou’s popularity continued after the 1979
Islamic revolution as he resisted pressures by Iran’s ayatollahs to stop writing
about the persecution of dissidents and corruption by the officialdom.
He died in his home on July 23, 2000 at the age of 74.
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