Saadia, a man who is remembered with good deeds and kindness will never die.

Dead is the one who is not mentioned by good deeds and kindness.

(Saadi Shirazi, Persian poet, 1210-1291)

Karim Motamedi (born 1929 in Babol, Iran) was the Minister of Post, Telegram & Telephone (PTT) in the cabinets of prime ministers; Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, Jamshid Amouzegar, Jafar Sharif-Emami & General Gholam Reza Azhari during the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Life

Karim Motamedi, the son of Karbalai Mohammad Jafar Motamedi, was born on July 9th 1928 in Babol, Iran.
He started his elementary educations (in Badr School) in Babol and completed his electrical and electronics studies in Tehran and simultaneously his Masters in French language from University of Tehran, Iran.

Hereafter, for the continuation of his studies he traveled to Europe (France, England & Germany).
After his graduation he returned to Iran and started his career in the Ministry of Post, Telegram & Telephone, in the Radio station Pahlavi and the Iranian Academy of Telecommunication.
He also served as the manager of the Second Radio Station, established by the Ministry of Post, Telegram & Telephone.

Afterwards; he was selected to the position of president of Wireless Receiver Station in Najaf-Abad (south of Tehran) and subsequently to the president of the Central Public Telephone Company.
Next, he was promoted to the head of the program management of the ministry and shortly thereafter to the Deputy minister of PTT.

Karim Motamedi was first assigned to the post of Minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone 1974 in the cabinet of then Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda.
The second time in 1976, he was again selected to the position of Minister of PTT in the cabinet of Jamshid Amoozegar. Hereafter in September of 1978 and November 1978 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jafar Sharif Emami and Prime Minister General Gholam Reza Azhari respectively.

During the term of Karim Motamedi, the first worldwide satellite link of Iran in city of Asad-Abad was inaugurated & Iran was connected to the international automatic telephone system.
Karim Motamedi was a hardworking, quite, peaceful & humble person, according to the people who knew him.

Karim Motamedi and his brother owned a Radio, TV and HiFi shop in Tehran’s Ferdowsi Ave. They also had the exclusive license to import the Metz Company (German) devices to Iran and repaired the audio & visual systems there (1952).

They sold the shop to avoid any conflict of interest with their government jobs later.

Karim Motamedi, during his role in the cabinet of Jamshid Amoozegar, was also writing articles on his free time.
He is one of the few persons, who wrote articles for the “magazine of theoretical new society” during the activities of the Party “Hezb -e- Rastakhiz”, which actually were published.
He was professionally fluent in French, English & German languages.

From Mr. Khansari's memories: Karim Motamedi was the minister of PTT at that time. I have a special memory from him: "One day I came home from work and the phone rang. I was told to talk to the minister. He asked me; what happened to the stations? we had scheduled to visit each station at least twice a month. I explained to him in details what had happened. He told me: Now call the regional director and tell him, he should talk to me. Later we found out that the minister from his home in the evening calls every region and asks for the status of their work."

In the emergency meeting of the Iranian government, called by Prime Minister Sharif Emami (September 7th, 1978), he was one of few ministers, who opposed the declaration of Martial Law and resisted to cut the telephone lines and censor the telecommunication channels.
He believed the free communication is the basic human right of the Iranians.

He, after the February of 1979, against the advice of his friends and relatives, didn't leave Iran and around March of 1979, was arrested by four elements of Revolutionary Guards from Niavaran committee in his house in Niavaran part of Tehran, in front of his wife, his toddler and pre-schooler children.

He was declared political prisoner; against the Revolution and was jailed for two months in Ghasr Prison and four months in famous Evin Prison. During this time the revolutionary court was processing his case.
After the news of his arrest, a lot of trusted members of the new government and the new ministry of post, telegraph & Telephone, vouched & bailed for him and by pointing to his services to the country and his good deeds & moral character, requested his release.

The Islamic court, after confiscating his estate and his 30 years of his pension, released him but denied him the right to leave the country and/or any financial transactions until 1995.
Despite all these hardships, even after he could exit Iran, he stayed and lived there.
He truly loved his country.

The great family of Motamedi is rightly famous for their humanitarian and philanthropic activities in Northern city of Babol.
Among their activities is the donation of large acres of land to the city for establishing the public cemetery of Babol (Aramgah Motamedi) and founding the Motamedi Highschool (Dabir-e-stan Motamedi).
Also Karim Motamedi placed the center of telecommunication for the northern state of Mazandaran in Babol.

On the side note; his cousin; Ghasm Motamedi, was the Dean of University of Isfahan, Dean of University of Tehran & later the Minister of Education (in the cabinet of Amir-Abbas Hoveyda).

Death

on December 24th ,2018 Mr. Motamedi was delivered to Firouzgar Hospital in Tehran because of internal bleeding. He peacefully passed away on the morning of December 25th, 3:30AM and was buried on December 26th , 2018 in Tehran’s cemetery “Beheshte Zahra”, joining his creator & his wife.

May his soul rest in peace.

Links & Sources

• کتاب : تاریخ بی‌سیم و رادیو در ایران، Publisher: kolbe , ISBN 978-1-59584-205-3 صفحه ۲۰۷–۲۰۶

• 'شهریور ۵۷؛ 'ژاله خون شد، خون جنون شد BBC فارسی

• سخنرانی دکتر کریمیان در مراسم درگذشت کریم معتمدی در مسجد پیامبر اعظم تهران و مؤسسه پیام، ۷ دی ماه ۱۳۹۷

• مراسم ختم کریم معتمدی، وزیر پست تلگراف وتلفن (سایت موسسه فرهنگی ورزشی رفاهی پیام در ایران)

• آ رامستان معتمدی؛ یادگاری از مردی بزرگ(مازندنومه)

• از فراز گردنه اسدآباد

• دکتر سیف الرضا شهابی Dr. Safealreza Shahabi (Instagram)

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فارسی: اولین حکم انتصاب کریم معتمدی به وزارت پست، تلگراف و تلفن در کابینه امیر عباس هویدا با امظأ محمد رضا شاه پهلوی ، ۸ اردیبهشت ماه ۱۳۵۳ ، کاخ نیاوران English: The first order to assign Karim Motamedi to the minister of post, telegraph and telephone cabinet of Amir Abbas Hoveyda with the signature of Mohamad Reza Shah Pahlavi, April 28, 1974, Niavaran Palace, Tehran, Iran (Courtesy of Motamedi Family)	Karim Motamedi (first left) with other ministers assigned by Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, accepting the order & congratulation by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1353, 1975 Niavaran Palace, Tehran, Iran (Courtesy of Motamedi Family)
فارسی: حکم انتصاب کریم معتمدی به وزارت پست، تلگراف و تلفن درکابینه جمشید آموزگار با امظأ محمد رضا شاه پهلوی ، ۱۶ امرداد ماه ۱۳۵۶ شاهنشاهی ، ۲۵۳۶، کاخ نیاوران English: The order to assign Karim Motamedi to the minister of post, telegraph and telephone in cabinet of Jamshid Amoozegar with the signature of Mohamad Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1976, Niavaran Palace, Tehran, Iran (Courtesy of Motamedi Family)	English: Ashraf Pahlavi (sister of Mohamad Rezah Shah Pahlavi), Abdol Reza Ansari, Mohamad Safi Asfia, Karim Motamedi (left) Courtesy of institute of Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies فارسی: اشرف پهلوی (خواهر محمد رضا شاه پهلوی) به همراه عبدالرضا انصاری، محمدصفی اصفیا و کریم معتمدی
English: Karim Motamedi and Dr. Wernher von Braun (father of space technology at NASA), 1976, Tehran, Iran (Courtesy of Motamedi Family) فارسی: کریم معتمدی و دکتر ورنهر فون برا ن (تهران۱۳۵۴ )
English: Karim Motamedi (Iranian Minister of Post Telegraph and Telephone) & Helmut Schmidt Former Chancellor of Germany, November 1976 Mehrabad Airport/Tehran, Iran (Courtesy of Motamedi Family) فارسی: کریم معتمدی وزیر پست و تلگراف و تلفن و هلموت اشمیت صدر اعظم آلمان غربی (فرودگاه مهر آپاد، تهران، آبانماه ۱۳۵۴)
English: Karim Motamedi (Iranian Minister of Post Telegraph and Telephone) & Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (VGE), Former President of French Republic, Palais des Congrès de Paris- Porte Maillot, January 19th, 1978, France (Courtesy of Motamedi Family) فارسی: کریم معتمدی وزیر پست و تلگراف و تلفن و والری ژیسکار دستن رئیس‌جمهور فرانسه (کاخ کنگره پاریس،فرانسه ، ۲۹ دی ماه ۱۳۵۶)
English: Karim Motamedi and Dr. Safealreza Shahabi (from Instagram, Courtesy of Dr. Safealreza Shahbi)	English: Karim Motamedi's grave Tehran, December 26th, 2018, (Courtesy of Mansoor3s Instagram) فارسی: قبر کریم معتمدی ( تهران،۵ دی ماه ۱۳۹۷)

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