Iran native reflects on hostage crisis

January 18, 2006

By DANE GOLDEN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

It was January 20, 1981. Ron-ald Reagan was being sworn in as president. And 52 hostages flew home from Iran.

That was 25 years ago this week. Taghi Rezaian, owner of Monarch Interiors on the Boulevard, had a unique role to play in that chapter of history. Back then, he owned a similar store in Mill Valley that had its windows broken by rocks and shot at by bullets in the dark of night. He was ostracized because he had been born in Iran. His business went from being successful to one that was shot at.

Rezaian's response when the hostages came home? He sent them each a letter welcoming them home and offering them a free $1,000 Persian rug. It earned him nationwide acclaim.

Now, a quarter-century later, the U.S. has military forces in nations immediately east (Afghanistan) and west (Iraq) of Iran. And this month, unresolved disputes between Iran and the U.S. have erupted in a very big way. Iran is restarting its nuclear program, and the U.S. is pressing for a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Rezaian's store had been in Mill Valley for more than a decade when the hostage crisis began in 1979.

"At the time the hostages were taken, I was doing a fabulous business, and I had a lot of friends," Rezaian said. "And all of a sudden, I became 'that foreigner guy at the corner,' and for a while they thought it was my fault."

After that, business never really picked up again. Even his good friends wouldn't visit his store anymore. The longtime San Rafael resident had his windows broken and shot at multiple times, and his older son was getting hassled in the neighborhood.

"When they announced that (the hostages) were coming back," Rezaian said, "I decided that I wanted to do something good for them, because I knew that they'd probably come back with nothing. So I decided to give each one a $1,000 rug."

His gift got nationwide publicity, and was reported by numerous newspapers, networks and wire services, including the likes of the New York Times, Walter Cronkite and Herb Caen.

Rezaian sent each former hostage a letter that read, "As an American I welcome you home, and as an Iranian I regret all that you have suffered during these past months."

In the end, Rezaian said, almost all former hostages took him up on his offer. Many visited his store in person.

Now, Rezaian's 30-year-old son Jason has made a PBS-style documentary about Iran called "A World Between" that will be showing at the Tiburon Film Festival in March.

(Contact Dane Golden at dgolden@arguscourier.com)