Excerpt from Orianna Fallaci’s 1973 interview with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi: No, we Iranians aren’t all that different from you Europeans. If our women wear the veil, so do yours. The veil of the Catholic Church. If our men have more than one wife, so do yours. The wives you call mistresses. And if we believe in visions, you believe in dogmas. If you think yourselves superior, we have no complexes. Don’t ever forget that whatever we have, we taught you three thousand years ago.
Orianna Fallaci:Three thousand years ago…I see now you’re smiling too, Majesty. You don’t look so sad any more. Ah, it’s too bad we can’t agree on the business of the blacklists.
MRP:But can you really be on the blacklist?
OF: Majesty! As if you didn’t know, you the King of Kings and who knows everything! But I told you, it may well be. I’m on everybody’s blacklist.
MRP:What a pity. Or rather, it doesn’t matter. Even if you’re on the blacklist of my authorities, I’ll put you on the white list of my heart.
OF: You frighten me, Majesty. Thank you, Majesty.
