Save Persepolis

To:  People of the World

We, the undersigned, regretfully have to inform you that insufficient number of guards and people’s irresponsibility has resulted in irreversible damage to one of the most important historical sites in Iran, The Persepolis. On December 23, 2006 a film crew attained access to enter the Persepolis in order to film a movie. This permission was granted while Maziar Kazemi, the Persepolis Ancient Complex director had made a request to officials to ban any authorizations to film at this historical sites, but his efforts were overlooked.
The recent damage to Persepolis was done by one of the crew members of the film who vandalized two bas-reliefs depicting Achaemenid soldiers on the wall of the Palace H, denoted to Artaxerxes. According to officials the crew member was arrested while trying to remove the face of the two soldiers by a metal tool. It took the Persepolis’s guards so long to get to the destruction site that by the time they made the arrest the vandal was able to fully damage two faces and start damaging the third. This is not the first time that Persepolis is being ravaged by the people of our own country. Several months ago another film crew burnt a part of Xerxes Palace at Persepolis.
Dear friends, historical sites in Iran are subject to ignorance and lack of funds to get refurbished. Considering that many historical sites in Iran will soon forever perish, it is unacceptable to tolerate people who deliberately destroy our national heritage. According to one of the officials, even after arrests are made to punish these vandals at courts, they end up walking free and without paying any penalties.
We call upon the conscious of all human beings and caution them about the destruction of many important historical sites in Iran. We need your help to seek actions in order to punish these vandals and enhance security in historical sites. With this suggestion we hope to see the vandals paying a heavy price for their destruction of irreversible part of our history. It is amazing that in the Islamic Republic of Iran the punishment for stealing (money/car) is to cut off the thief’s hands but no penalties at all are given to people who are stealing our national identity and a part of our history.

To read more relevant documents regarding the above issue refer to the following websites:
http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6890
http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2006/December2006/23-12.htm

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Save Persepolis Petition to People of the World was created by and written by Mazdak Samii (mazdak_samii@yahoo.ca).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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