Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June/July 2019, pp. 73, 74
Compiled by Amin Gharad
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, 96, died in her home in Tehran on April 20.
The celebrated Iranian artist was born in the northwestern city of Qazvin, and moved to Tehran at the age of 7 after her father was elected to parliament. She would go on to study art in Tehran before moving to the U.S. in 1945, where she studied art and fashion at Cornell University and later the Parsons School of Design. She then began a career as a fashion illustrator during which time she met and befriended prominent designers and artists such as Andy Warhol and Joan Mitchell.
She returned to Iran in 1957 and married Abol Farmanfarmaian. Her work on the Iran Pavilion at the 1958 Venice Biennale won her a gold medal. She returned to New York in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Despite her public criticism of the Iranian regime, she returned to Iran in 2004 and lived to see the opening of the Monir Museum in 2017—the first museum in the country devoted to showcasing the works of a female artist. In addition to seeing the opening of a museum solely dedicated to her own works, Farmanfarmaian’s work was exhibited around the globe—from the Emirates to France—and eventually in the prestigious Guggenheim Museum in 2015 where she enjoyed the honor of being the first Iranian artist to have a solo exhibit.
Her artistic legacy includes having played a key role in the development of abstract art and for her reliance on geometric abstractions imbued with traditional Persian motifs. She is survived by her daughters, Nima and Zahra, and grandchildren.
Bahman "Batman" Batmanghelidj, 83, died of complications from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s on April 25 in Fairfax County, VA.
Born in Tehran in 1936, he was sent to boarding school in England by his father, a successful Iranian businessman. He returned to Iran after attending Oxford but immigrated to the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Doing business under the name “Batman,” to ease pronunciation issues and promote name-recognition, Batmanghelidj entered the real estate business, purchasing land in Fairfax County and launching construction projects, including housing, office and shopping complexes. His development projects transformed the Dulles Airport corridor in Northern Virginia. He is survived by his wife, Roshanak, four children, four grandchildren, his brother and three sisters.
Issa J. Boullata, 90, died on May 1, surrounded by loved ones in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada.
Born in Jerusalem in 1929, Boullata would go on to a celebrated career as an academic, author and translator. Between 1949-1968 he taught at secondary schools in Jerusalem before eventually studying at the University of London where he earned his doctorate in Arabic literature. In addition to his tenure as a professor at Hartford Seminary and McGill University, Boullata translated and penned a number of original pieces including award-winning works of poetry, fiction, numerous scholarly books and articles, and a memoir reflecting on his coming of age in Palestine, The Bells of Memory: A Palestinian Boyhood in Jerusalem (available from Middle East Books & More).
Remembered fondly by former students and colleagues alike, Boullata is survived by his brother, Kamal, sister, Souad Shammas, and his children and grandchildren.
Kadir Mısıroğlu, 86, died on May 5 in Istanbul after battling a long illness.
Born in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, Mısıroğlu moved to Istanbul to attend law school. He developed a deep fondness for history and rose to become a celebrated yet controversial figure in Turkish society. He enjoyed a prolific career of writing and scholarship, producing more than 60 works of history, fiction and poetry. Arguably his most famous work, Lozan: A Victory or Misery?, contested the view that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne had been a national victory for the Turkish people.
Influential sectors of Turkish society did not always praise and accept his work. In addition to having been briefly imprisoned for his views, the second edition of his book was banned, and he was forced to flee to Germany in the wake of the Turkish military coup of 1980. He and his family would later be denied residency permits in Germany forcing him to flee once more, this time to the UK. During this period of exile, he was also stripped of his Turkish citizenship. Mısıroğlu returned to his homeland and regained his citizenship in 1991.
The Turkish president sent condolences and his funeral was attended by thousands at Türkiye’s newest and largest mosque, the Çamlıca.
Hani Shukrallah, 69, died on May 5 in his home.
Born in Cairo in 1950 to Coptic Christian parents, he became a student activist, a self-described Marxist and lifelong leftist, in the days of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. He was the editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Weekly between 1991 and 2005, and founded Ahram Online, Egypt’s largest English-language online news outlet. He has been eulogized as not only one of Egypt’s most esteemed journalists, but also as a lifelong human rights activist. In the mid-80s, Shukrallah helped establish the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) with the aim of documenting human rights violations across the country.
Shukrallah briefly joined the Social Democratic Party in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution of 2011. After the Muslim Brotherhood came to power, he would go on to endorse the removal of President Mohamed Morsi.
Mike Daryoush, 66, died of heart failure on May 8. An Iranian immigrant, Daryoush was the founder of the successful Moby Dick House of Kabob restaurant chain, a Washington Report staff favorite.
After struggling with his first attempt at opening a restaurant 30 years ago, Daryoush shifted away from traditional American breakfast and lunch dishes and began experimenting with new menu items to introduce Persian dishes. The restaurant chain has since enjoyed great success and expanded into more than two dozen locations across the DC metropolitan area.
Daryoush is survived by his wife, Suzan, and four children.
Mena Mangal, 31, was shot dead by gunmen on her way to work in Kabul on May 11.
An outspoken advocate for women’s rights, Mangal worked at Afghanistan’s largest private broadcasting station, Tolo TV, and was recently appointed as an adviser to the Afghan parliament. Her killers have not been arrested despite the shooting taking place publicly in broad daylight. Fellow activists decried the lack of governmental protection despite reports of numerous threats to her life just days before her assassination.
Mangal was born and raised in Afghanistan’s Paktia province before going on to train as a midwife and later studying law. She transitioned into a career in broadcast journalism, and composed and performed original poetry as well. She is survived by her parents, five sisters and a brother.
Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, 98, died May 12, three days shy of his 99th birthday, at the Hôtel-Dieu de France hospital in Beirut, after battling a long illness.
Cardinal Sfeir was formerly the head of the Maronite Church and played a pivotal role in Lebanese politics and society. He was born in the Lebanese district of Keserwan in 1920 and was ordained as a priest in 1950. He studied at the Saint-Maron Seminary in Gahzir, Major Seminary of St. Joseph’s University, and finally the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Joseph.
In 1986 Cardinal Sfeir was elected the 76th Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch. He was eventually made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1994.
The former Maronite patriarch used his considerable political clout to negotiate between warring factions during the Lebanese Civil War and advocate for Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon.
Sameeh Hammoudeh, 59, died on May 25 in Ramallah after battling cancer for almost a year.
A celebrated Palestinian scholar and historian, Dr. Hammoudeh published a number of scholarly works and articles focusing on Palestinian history, society and activism. Some of his most well-known include writings on the lives and accomplishments of Palestinian revolutionaries such as Dawud Saleh al-Husseini and Izz al-Din al-Qassam, as well as Ottoman Ramallah, which explores the history of the city under Ottoman control from 1517-1918.
Born in the West Bank in 1960, he was studying anthropology in graduate school at the University of South Florida in 2003 when he became embroiled in what has been decried as a prejudiced prosecution of Muslims by the U.S. justice system post-9/11. He and his co-defendant, Prof. Sami al-Arian, were eventually acquitted of all terrorism charges in 2006—but not before spending years in federal prison—and both were deported.
He returned to Palestine and headed Birzeit University’s political science department, where he taught until his death. He is survived by his wife, Nadia, and six children.
