Activism With a Grin

QUICK: WHO WEARS double-breasted suits, does honors work in economics and chemistry, is going to Harvard Law next year, and manages to erect gulags in the Yard in his spare time?

Saied Kashani '86, that's who.

Kashani is probably best known as the guiding force behind Harvard's Conservative Club, masterminding a series of events that have ruffled the feathers of the left. But he was also one of the prime movers in the Harvard Model United Nations for four years, an academic dynamo in two disparate fields, and occasional journalist for both the Crimson and the Salient.

To put it mildly, Kashani is controversial. And like all controversial personalities, he has strong supporters and committed enemies.

Kashani himself recognizes that he elicits strong feelings, and rarely flinches from giving others cause to display them.

With the same determination as his more notorious conservative counterparts at Dartmouth, Kashani frequently has assumed the role of a foil to many anti-apartheid protesters on campus. Instead, he believes that Harvard should divest from companies doing business not with South Africa, but the Soviet Union.

As two-time president of the 40-member strong Conservative Club, Kashani was primarily responsible for building a Soviet gulag and a black tower in the Yard this spring, a few days after the the South African Solidarity Committee (SASC) erected a makeshift shantytown in front of University Hall.

"[The Conservative Club] discussed that long before the shanties went up. We said if the SASC people put up shanties, we should put up anti-shanties. We were discussing that long before the shanties went up. And then when they went up, a lot of people--many just interested people we called--set them up, and just built these shanties."

Kashani admits that the shanties, like several other of his club's ventures, had less to do with the South African issue than with campus politics.

"After a while these people, these radicals start believing what they say so they get wrapped up in what they're doing. They just treat themselves so seriously. So we thought that by putting up a gulag we could protest the fact that the University is basically caving in to these people. And also maybe puncture [SASC's] balloon of seriousness."

WHILE NOT AGREEING with some of Kashani's tactics, former Republican Club president Mark G.P. Lagon '86 says that he respects what his ideological ally does. "He tries to push liberal sensitivites to an extreme by testing people's double standards."

Last year, for example, one week after the day-long SASC sit-in at the Harvard Corporation's headquarters at 17 Quincy St., Kashani invited the South African consulate general to address a closed meeting of conservative at Lowell House. A mob of students, including many SASC members, blockaded Lowell House, preventing the departure of the South African diplomat until the police were able to extricate him. Following this incident, the University revived a Vietnam-era disciplinary committee which eventually placed 10 students--all SASC members--on academic probation for the Lowell blockade.

This incident "was nothing but a ploy to anger the liberal community," says SASC member Evan O. Grossman '87-88, who currently works for a Massachusetts Democrat. "I think most members of the liberal wing would argue that Kashani is a grandstander. They view him as someone who likes to be annoying."

Kashani doesn't quite see the incident in exactly those terms. The impetus behind inviting a representative of the government, Kashani says, was that "if you want to know where SA is going right now, then you have to ask them. Now if the situation changes, if there's a revolution, all that will change."

Which isn't to say that Kashani was happy about how the incident turned out. "If we did it again we'd set up a forum or we'd have someone else speaking for an opposing viewpoint, and also we wouldn't ask him to speak on apartheid. We'd ask him to speak on security issues, on issues of Soviet involvement in Southern Africa, and the Cape route and the minerals, and that sort of thing, and in a long term strategic sense more important."

KASHANI'S FOREIGN POLICY interests have also led him to the Harvard Model United Nations, which is run by the International Relations Council. However, even here, he has managed to stir some controversy.

In his junior year, he was the Secretary General of College Conference, and this year arranged for the controversial visit of former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith to address the conference. "Ian Smith, I thought would be quite unique. He was a man who was a very staunch white minority leader but then he changed over to Black majority rule fairly peacefully. And I thought that would be a very interesting perspective, since South Africa is definitely in the news."

Kashani was also instrumental in getting student delegations from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel to participate in a mock Mid-East summit. "If you talk to people at the Model U.N. they respect his ability to get things done, even if he does it exceedingly" said Grossman. For example, Kashani's security-consciousness was notorious. One IRC member described how at the high school U.N.s "he would charge around like a maniac all night," busting parties and confiscating alcohol. Saied closed off Ian Smith's speech to the Model U.N. even to the press. Kashani sometimes offered the Conservative Club's services as a security force to Dean Epps, who always declined the offer.

Kashani was born to be a CEO; he loves french cuffs, limousines, bodyguards, and telexes. He affixes the title "Mir" before his name, which is roughly equivalent to "Prince", and signifies that he is a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed. Kashani's most extravagant appurtenance was a briefcase containing a cellular telephone that he sported during the 1985 Model U.N.

Kashani's management style and personality ran afoul of some of the other members of the IRC. "He tends to go around people he should talk to. He goes and does things that he doesn't have the power to do," said a member of the IRC. Another complained of excessive perfectionism, and unreasonable requests.

However, Kashani had his share of defenders in the IRC. "The hallmark of that whole organization is infighting and politics," said another IRC member. "It's the breeding ground of the petty bureaucrat. Anyone with any life destroys their organizational chart."

After the college conference a group of graduating seniors attempted to impeach Kashani, on the grounds that he had broken IRC rules by inviting Smith, and because of accounting irregularities from the year before, when Kashani was Secretary-General. The motion was tabled by a one-vote margin. Kashani believes that "the reason it was only graduating seniors [who voted against Kashani] was because anyone on the board who had supported this would have been driven out of office at the next election."

IN PERSON, KASHANI is polite and soft-spoken, someone who can discuss his views with articulate confidence. Neil Morganbesser '86, a friend of Kashani's, acknowledges, that Kashani "can be a bit more arrogant than the average Harvard student," but described him as friendly and easy to work with.

"Saied has a tight following of eight to ten people," says Lagon. "His leadership is because some people see him as an operator."

Kashani's sense of the ironic comes through in whatever he does, whether he's erecting a black tower to mock SASC's white tower, or he's dressing up as a German stormtrooper and firing toy cannons during his high school's field day. "It's never been entirely clear to me how serious Saied is" about his political activities, said Damon Silvers '86. "There's an element of the prankster in him."

Kashani's high profile prompts many bizarre tales and rumors. A week after the Lowell House blockade, members of SASC said they began to hear rumors that Kashani was inviting a South African Army colonel to speak. Someone who identified himself as Kashani even phoned the Crimson to advertise the event. Several hours later, Kashani phoned to deny that he had made the earlier call and spread rumors. Last week, several people reported that Kashani was importing backpacks from South Africa, but Kashani denied this as well.

Freshman year, Kashani's roommate Stephen Hanna '86 accused Kashani of harrassing him because of his homosexuality, and later changed rooms. Kashani admitted to a personality conflict with Hanna, but says the situation became "blown out of proportion."

KASHANI'S BACKGROUND IS almost as colorful as he is. Born in Tehran to a wealthy Iranian landholding and merchant family, Kashani was brought to the United States when his father, a developer and international businessman, decided to settle in La Jolla, California. Though his family naturally had a strong interest in foreign affairs, Kashani describes rest of the family as politically apathetic.

Like many other Iranians, Kashani became politically mobilized by the Iranian Revolution. he blames the fall of the Shah on the kind "of people who think they're improving a country--with new values, liberal values--and end up ruining a country." One member of the IRC who had spoken extensively with Kashani about his views declared "he's afraid of revolutions." Dean of Students Archie C. Epps concurs, saying, "His conservativism is enforced by the fact that his family is from Iran, and is a reflection of recapturing the glory of Iran. These are conservatives whose ideas are rooted in the ethnic immigrant experience. He has to struggle to move it [his views] from from its parochial base."

Outside of the campus, Kashani has done some "very minor volunteer work" for political campaigns. Even though he is attending Harvard Law next year, he is unsure about whether he will engage in any political action in the future: "I have to see that when I get there. I don't think there's as much activity at the Law School as with undergraduates." Kashani's politics are one of response, not initiation, attempting to balance the the debate rather than further the cause in a concrete manner, he says.

In the classroom, where Kashani often appears in a three piece suit and sports a black leather attache case, he is a whirlwind, majoring in economics and chemistry. He took Chem 20 in his freshman year, five courses a semester from then on, and wrote a magna plus thesis on the chemical industry of Saudi Arabia.

Though few people agree with Kashani, everyone respects his mind and his energy. "I think Saied has been the only person on the right at harvard good at finding ways of dealing with the left, and the only one effective at attacking the left in the headlines," says Grossman from the left. "Saied should be criticized for his beliefs, but not for his being irrational," says Lagon on the right. "I have great respect for Saied, but I'm glad I'm not doing what he is."