The Fondation Mossadegh makes thousands of books available for consultation, organizes conferences, and offers Persian classes.
Fabien Kuhn
On place d’Armes, in Carouge, an arcade opens almost directly onto one of the oldest plane trees in the canton. Here there is no ostentation, just three windows of a sobriety that arouses genuine curiosity. In one of them, a sign bearing Persian script, subtitled in Latin letters, indicates that this is a library of Iranology. The portrait of a high-ranking dignitary is prominently displayed in the second. This is the heart of the Fondation Mossadegh: a library rich with 9,400 works, in Persian, French and English, open to everyone. It also holds historical documents, manuscripts, photographs, videos and recordings — in short, a goldmine for anyone interested in the culture of this centuries-old country. The foundation’s aim is to raise awareness of Iranian civilization, culture and arts by making available its library, which covers fields as varied geographically and humanly. It has a reading room as well as a conference room.
“We have no political activity whatsoever, and our sole aim is to inform people about the culture and history of Iran.”
Farhad Diba President of the Fondation Mossadegh
A prominent Iranian dignitary, Mohammed Mossadegh was born on 16 June 1882 in Tehran. After studying in Switzerland, crowned by a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel, and a political career in his own country, he became prime minister twice: from 1951 to 1952, then from 1952 to 1953. He was later overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the United States and the United Kingdom. “He is a major figure in Iran,” says the Foundation’s administrator, Alberto Feldkircher. “He is best known internationally for the nationalization of Iranian oil (exploited at the time by a British company), and he carried out numerous changes at the national level, such as the major agrarian reform and the redistribution of land among the population. He was prime minister under the Shah of Iran, at a time when there was not yet an Islamic Republic. Iran was a modern country, like the West.”
It was in his name that the foundation was born twenty-three years ago, on the initiative of one of his grandsons, Abdol Madjid Bayat. “At the beginning, the library held around 4,000 books; now we’re up to 9,400, and we therefore have a fine library. We organize events and conferences, offer Persian classes, and award the Mossadegh Prize every two years,” adds the administrator.
The Fondation Mossadegh is self-financed and runs on donations. For its president, Farhad Diba, nephew of the former prime minister and author of a biography of his uncle: “We receive no funding whatsoever from the Iranian government. My cousin had invested in real estate, and that is the main source of the foundation’s income. We have no political activity, and our sole aim is to inform people about the culture and history of Iran, with particular emphasis on the Mossadegh era. Last September, at the Grütli cinema, we awarded the Mossadegh Prize to Taghi Amirani and Walter Murch for their film ‘Coup 53’, a documentary on the 1953 Anglo-American coup in Iran.”
Attachment to Switzerland
If the Foundation settled in Carouge at the beginning of the century, it is thanks to the family’s attachment to Switzerland. “Mossadegh’s sons studied at the University of Lausanne, and Bayat, my cousin and founder of the institution, lived in Geneva for fifty years. Our family has very close ties with Switzerland, ties that we intend to maintain, in particular through the University of Geneva. We are in fact in the process of establishing a partnership with it on studies about Iran,” adds the president of the foundation.
Fondation Mossadegh, 21, place d’Armes, 1227 Carouge