Iranian of the day: In Memory of my Father Dr. Kioumarz Ruhollah KADIVAR(Sept 12 1930 - July 4th 2005)

My father Dr. Kioumarz Ruhollah KADIVAR was a prominent surgeon and university professor at Pahlavi University in Shiraz. He was educated in the French Iranian school of Razi in Teheran where he became acquainted with the language of Moliere, Voltaire and Rousseau. He pursued his studies in Medicine in Paris FRANCE and got this specialization in Urology Surgery at the Medical School of Minneapolis Minnesota (USA). He pioneered the first kidney transplant techniques in Iran in the mid sixties which have since been widely practiced in the country.

How can one summerize a life dedicated to healing and saving lives ?

I am certainly not the best person to talk about this. My father always kept a strict line between his professional life in the hospital and his family life. A loving husband married to my French Mother Jeanne and good father of three children: Cyrus, I Dariush and Sylvie-Roya KADIVAR.

My Father belonged to the generation of Iranians before the Revolution of 1979 who worked hard to build Iran and who believed in progress. They shared the dream of seeing their country reach the same level of prosperity and education as in the West. Although not affiliated to any political party or ideology, my father was always interested in the reasons and actions that shape a society and particularly in his own country Iran. He was a patriot who truly believed in Democratic values and Human Rights. He was heartbroken to see his homeland, the country of Hafez, Sa'adi and Khayyam fall into the Middle Ages of religious obscuratism and fanaticism. Dad was also a man of courage who bravely did his duty in saving lives in the midst of the revolution when bloody riots in Shiraz injured equally revolutionaries, simple citizens as well as soldiers or officers of the Imperial Regime. He never talked openly on what he saw not to disturb his children but he did mention one or two incidents where he felt helpless not to have been able to save some lives.

I recall with some humour and Nostalgia that my brother Cyrus once compared Dad to Dr. Zjivago after seeing David Lean's Movie with Omar Sharif in a Cinema in the Champs Elysees in the mid Seventies. My father did not like the comparison because of Zjivago's tragic life. Dad did not share with Pasternak's hero the same tragic life but their was certainly some truth in my brother's assessment. A surgeon is a man who dedicates his life to others and in many ways to the expense of his own personal priorities and happiness. My father's satisfaction was to be able to heal pain and sufferings. He also was proud to have been able to transmit some of his own experience to his students many of whome have become excellent surgeons themselves. Such satisfactions are not something easy to comprehend unless one shares the same profession. I must admit I did not always understand my father. This may sound curious but if it is not easy to be a Doctor, it is not always easy to be a Doctor's son or daughter. Although my father never imposed his opinions or choices on us, one always feels the burden of moral responsability you inherit, be it unconsciously. I did not always understand my father's choices and interrogations on life and death, on religion, politics or history. What I do know is that he had faith in Mankind. He was himself in many ways a Man of the Renaissance. This is not to praise him beyond lucidity, for Dad was not a man who loved being flattered. However I understand today that in many ways this definition applies to him and certainly to many others who like him had to start their lives all over again particularly after the revolution. It was not easy to leave one's country, friends and personal comfort and accept a new and more modest way of life in exile. In many ways my Father was lucky and he was conscience of this. So many Iranians gave their lives either in the turmoil of the Revolution or during the Iran Iraq war. We had many friends who were lawyers or engineers or former ministers who were reduced to working in Mall's or become taxi drivers. So there was no room for complaints. My Father successfully created a urology surgeory service in a small town called Forbach in the East of France. Such a service did not exist before his arrival and once again he amazed his collegues and nurses who worked with him. He was proud to prove to his fellow French collegues that as an Iranian he was actually contributing to their professional experience. Another Iranian Surgeon has since replaced him along with a young French surgeon he trained before his retirement. Dad applied the same dedication to his patients in Forbach and he was appreciated for his kindness and humility. On his spare Time Dad Loved Fishing, reading and in his last years painting and learning about the life and work of the Great painters. http://www.iranian.com/PhotoDay/2001/February/kadivar.html


He transmitted to his children and wife a taste for beauty and life.


To those who have known my Father: collegues, students, friends and family Dr. Kioumarz Ruhollah KADIVAR will leave the memory of the good man he was.

Darius KADIVAR

Paris FRANCE

Also read: Article by Author Reza Bayegan inspired on my father's hometown Shiraz.

http://www.rozanehmagazine.com/JylyAugust05/aRbayeganKadivar.html