Carouge open to the world:
The Mossadegh Foundation
The Mossadegh Foundation – Library of Iranology
On Place d’Armes there is an arcade that has always intimidated me.
There are three display windows, one of which bears a sign in French and in Persian script: “Mossadegh Foundation – Library of Iranology”
Behind the glass, one can make out a staircase leading to shelves overflowing with books, separated by panels hung with paintings evoking the East. A small sitting room with plush armchairs seems to invite a journey to the land of the Thousand and One Nights…
I finally dared to push open the door a few months ago, and I didn’t regret it!
Let me take you on a discovery of an Ali Baba’s cave, rich in culture.
Once through the door, thousands of documents await — mostly books, but also portraits and magazines, in French, in English, and mainly in Persian, telling the thousand-year history, culture, and arts of that land that is Persia, known today as Iran.
Ms. Vida Amirmokri, president of the foundation, explains that the main figure displayed in the window is Mohammad Mossadegh, and she tells you, in case you don’t know, who this man was and why a foundation gathered all these documents in his name and has been active in Carouge since the year 2000.
“Born in 1882 in Tehran into a wealthy aristocratic family, Mohammad Mossadegh studied in France, then in Switzerland, where he earned a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel. Throughout his life, he fought for a secular, liberal democracy, for Iran’s independence, and for the nationalization of its natural resources, particularly oil, which had been plundered by the British Empire. Mohammad Mossadegh became prime minister of Iran twice, but was ultimately overthrown in a 1953 coup orchestrated by the British with American help. This coup allowed the Shah to seize power and his family to rule as autocrats, until the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. However, Mohammad Mossadegh, who died in 1967 in Iran, did not live to see that revolution. It was his grandson, Abdol Madjid Bayat, who, here in Switzerland, worked to establish this foundation (under Swiss law) in Carouge, bearing his grandfather’s name.”
Alberto Feldkircher, board member, adds: “Our foundation is entirely apolitical. Its primary goal is to raise awareness of this history and culture. It is open to anyone interested in Persian culture.”
Today, the foundation offers Persian language classes, an introduction to singing, and Persian miniature painting classes. It also organizes lectures, the most recent of which I attended were fascinating: Iranian Music and Persian Poetry by linguist Amir Artaban Sedaghat, and The Decipherment of Linear Elamite Writing by archaeologist François Desset.
Last autumn, the foundation also organized a screening at the Bio cinema of the film A Simple Accident by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
For the past two years, the foundation has also maintained a partnership with the University of Geneva as part of a master’s program in art history, taught by Ms. Negar Habibi, on the theme of Art and Architecture in the Lands of Islam.
The next lecture will take place on April 16, when specialist Sébastien Jallaud will present Iranian writer Forough Farrokhzad (1935-1967), considered the first “female” voice in 20th-century Persian literature.
— Chantal Boisset
La vente au numéro du Carougeois
C’est chez Percho
rue Ancienne 6, www.percho.ch
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 2 to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Fondation Mossadegh
Place d’Armes 21, Carouge
Tél. 022 300 37 55
Web: www.mossadegh.com