The Memories of Morteza Alviri

A March in Support of IRGC

Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

2023-7-22

Mojtaba Taleghani, the son of Ayatollah Taleghani, has been arrested due to his affiliation with a leftist group and carrying illegal weapon.

This issue made a fuss. It was heard in the news and sayings that Mojtaba Taleghani has planned to attack somewhere with this weapon, and the other impressions like this.

At that time, Engineer Gharazi served in IRGC, and it was he who arrested Ayatollah Taleghani's son. Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi and several other members of the cabinet of the interim government also protested against Mr. Gharazi’s action.

Those days, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization had a very good propaganda power; thus, made a real fuss about the arrest of Ayatollah Taleghani's son. It propagated that Ayatollah Taleghani was insulted by the arrest of Mojtaba Taleghani.

When Ayatollah Taleghani left Tehran without informing where he was going, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization propagated that Ayatollah Taleghani has migrated from Tehran to protest the arrest of his son. Even to magnify the matter, it started scattered demonstrations in Tehran. These events were headlined by the dailies of those time.

In an interview, Imam mentioned the arrest of Ayatollah Taleghani's son and said: "If they arrested my son, Ahmad, I would not have said anything."

This interview caused Ayatollah Taleghani to return to Tehran, and then meet the Imam in Qom. Thus, that issue was ended. Later on, Imam appointed Ayatollah Taleghani as the Imam of Friday prey in Tehran.

At that time, we also planned a demonstration due to the fact that anti-revolutionary groups had organized a demonstration and chanted anti-IRGC slogans. In this march, we intended to defend the IRGC's performance in arresting Mojtaba Taleghani. But it was notified by Ayatollah Taleghani that no demonstrations should take place in this regard. We did not know what to do in this situation. On the one hand, Mojtaba Taleghani was rightfully arrested, and the anti-revolutionary groups had launched a demonstration against his arrest and had slandered the IRGC, and we had right to respond to them with a demonstration; but on the other hand, Ayatollah Taleghani, who was considered a revered figure to us, had told that no demonstration should take place.

Therefore, we decided to ask the Imam for his opinion. I visited Mr. Mahdavi Kani in the Central Committee, presented a summary of the events, and requested him to call Qom and ask the Imam for his advice. Before making the phone call, Mr. Mahdavi Kani said: "If Imam gives an opinion that is against the Ayatollah Taleghani’s, there will be a division, and this is not something that imam will be pleased with."

But my insistence made him pick up the phone and dial the number of Imam's house in Qom. Imam’s son, Ahmad, answered the call, and after hearing Mr. Mahdavi Kany’s request, he said: "Imam's opinion is clear; he doesn’t want to create a division."

But I don't know why it occurred to me that Imam's opinion is contrary to what Ahmad had said.

The corps guards and members of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization had also prepared placards for the demonstration, and were waiting for me to deliver Imam's order about their demonstration.

Anyway, Ahmad went to Imam and said that Mr. Mahdavi Kani has called from Tehran and asked: "Some adherents of the revolution want to demonstrate in support of the Revolutionary Guards action around the arrest of Ayatollah Taleghani's son, and this is while Ayatollah Taleghani has told that no demonstrations should be done."

Imam, contrary to the opinion of advisors, said that there is no problem with demonstrations.

After receiving the Imam's positive opinion about holding the demonstration, I ran from Mr. Mahdavi Kani's office, located in the former National Council, to the office of the Mujahideen of the Islamic Revolution on Zhaleh T-Junction; because I wanted to deliver the news as soon as possible, and the demonstration to take place immediately.

We started the demonstration in front of the university, and went along the path of Enghelab Eslami Street. A large crowd participated, which the newspapers of the next day announced, there were about 50,000 people.

When I got home at night, my wife said: "Mr. Motahari phoned and asked you to call him."

I immediately phoned Mr. Motahari. He was very happy that the demonstration was launched, and expressed his pleasure.

It was the second time that I witnessed the imam giving an opinion contrary to the advisors: once on February 10, 1979, when he asked people to be present in the streets, and the second time in the same case, i.e., a march in support of IRGC.[1]