Iran’s former prime minister, ShahpurnBakhtiar, and who, though failing tonfinish off the “criminal,” managed tongun down and kill an innocent womannand a French policeman.nDid Valery Giscard d’Estaing (nowntrying to stage a political comeback)ndenounce this craven capitulation toncrass expediency? Not that I know of,nand for a simple reason. In Januaryn1979, when Shahpur Bakhtiar was belatedlynappointed premier by the reluctantnshah of Iran, he immediately summonednthe French ambassador andnasked him to transmit an urgent telegramnto the Quai d’Orsay in Paris,nrequesting that the French governmentndo everything in its power to delaynKhomeini’s departure from his refuge atnNeauphle-le-Chateau, west of Paris.nThe message was received by the foreignnminister, Jean Frangois-Poncet,nwho dutifully transmitted the request tonPresident Valery Giscard d’Estaing.n”Nothing doing!” was Giscard’s glibnreply, dictated by some arcane motivenof Machiavellian Unrealpolitik. Francenhad no “legal” way of preventing thenayatollah from returning to his homelandnif he wished.nFew French men and women knownthis shocking story, and even fewer arenaware of the no less shocking sequel.nNot only did Giscard d’Estaing fail tonraise a finger to impede Khomeini’sndeparture, he even offered him an AirnFrance plane to carry him back innmagic carpet triumph to Tehran.nWhen the ayatollah and his joyousnsuite reached the special plane, parkednon an Orly airfield tarmac, they werengreeted by four hostesses wearing neatnAir France caps. The ayatollahnstopped, scowled, and issued a gruffncommand in Persian, duly translatedninto French. Those four hostesses hadnto wear a chador before he wouldndeign to set a sandal inside that airliner.nFortunately for the honor of France, ornwhat is left of it, the four hostessesnrefused. Whereupon the directors ofnAir France had them replaced by fournmale stewards.n”I feel nothing but contempt fornMonsieur Giscard d’Estaing,” ShahpurnBakhtiar said to me several yearsnago when I went to call on him at hisnwell-guarded villa in the western suburbsnof Suresnes. “Frangois Mitterrand,non the other hand, has the makingsnof a statesman.”nToday, I can’t help wondering if thisnis still his feeling. (Editor’s note: Mr.nBakhtiar was found stabbed to death atnhis villa on August 8.)nCurtis Cate, a biographer andnhistorian, has for years been andisabused observer of French politicsnand poUticians.nLetter From thenLower Rightnby John Shelton ReednTaking the TenthnA year or so ago, a concerned citizennasked Cari Fox, our district attorney, tonlisten to 2 Live Crew’s nasty album AsnNasty as They Wanna Be. ProfessornHenry Louis Gates, Jr., of the DukenEnglish department had just argued innthe New York Times that the album’snlyrics were a valid expression of thenvibrant folk culture of African-Americans,nbut our D.A. wasn’t buying it.nHe’s black himself, but he didn’t haventhe advantage of a Duke education,nhaving gone instead to the state universityn(where, as a matter of fact, he tookna course from me). Carl thought thenrecord was both misogynistic and obscene,nas it most certainly was, andnannounced that he would prosecutenany record dealer who sold it in hisnjurisdiction.nGuess what? His phone started ringingnoff the hook, and before very long,nhe backed down. He said that most ofnthe voters who elected him appear tonbelieve, “shockingly so, that the onlynthing that should be restricted is childnsex.”nI’m glad he’s shocked, but he’s probablynright about voter opinion. I’mnafraid putting up with obscene rapnsongs is one of the prices we have tonpay for the dwindling pleasure of livingnin Chapel Hill. Those of us whonbelieve in local control have to take thenbitter with the sweet.n* * :(:nYou know, communities really ought tondecide these matters for themselves,neven if they decide wrong. But ournlegal system doesn’t make that easy.nThe Supreme Court now includesn”contemporary community standards”nWOMEN VERSUS THE STATEnINDEPENDENTnINSTITUTEnAvailable at better bookstores or order bynmail and receive the complete catalog:n1 he issues that gave birth to thenwomen’s movement before the CivilnWar are still with us today. Freedom,nFeminism, and the State demonstratesnthat from sex and birth control tonbusiness and science, government hasnbeen the real obstacle preventingnwomen from achieving freedom andnequal rights.n”Freedom, Feminism, and the State is annexciting collection. McElroy’s analysis helpsnexplain why so many women feel non-commitalntoward the modern feminist movement.”n—JENNIFER ROBACKnProfessor of EconomicsnGeorge Mason Universityn”No one who reads this volume can ever doubtnagain that women have been oppressed by mennwho have teamed up with the state powers of thenday to keep women down.”n—ANNE B. ZILLnDirector, Women’s Campaign FundnIndex • 250 pages, Paperback, Item #8029n$19.95 plus postage ($2.00 per book; C A residents add Sales Tax)nORDER TOLL FREE 1-800-927-8733nCredit card orders only. 24 hours a day.nThe Independent Institute, Dept. AAX, 134 Ninety-Eighth Avenue, Oakland, CA 94603nnnOCTOBER 1991/43n