Bloody Muharram

Translate by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2023-12-11

There were staunch supporters of the Shah in some cities and if a revolutionary thing was carried out in Najafabad, we were sure that we would have problem in passing the town. If a passing car did not have a photo of the Shah on its windscreen, they broke the windscreen with stones. We also preempted and kept a two or five-Toman Shahanshahi bill on the windscreen. In the last one or two years of the Pahlavi's rule, gasoline was very expensive and scarce due to numerous and sometimes long strikes by refinery workers. For this reason, we had arranged with several employees who were working outside of Najafabad that just one person brings a car every day. Dr. Ghayoor, the then deputy of provincial health, Dr. Kazemiun, the then deputy of forensic medicine, and Asadollah Velayati[1] were part of this group.

On 21^st of Azar 1357 (December 12, 1978), concurrent with the day of Ashoura, the statue of the Shah was pulled down in the central square of Najafabad. On that day, unlike usual, all the mourning groups had gone outside the town and the National Garden was not crowded. From that moment, the agents of the regime started to plan to retaliate for this action and put their supporters on alert. The next morning (11th of Muharram) concurrent with the announcement of martial law, a convoy of thugs and mobs, the Savak agents and police forces poured into the city.

Before this, there were sometimes rumors of the launch of such programs among the people, but until then nothing special had happened. On the 14th of Aban (November 5) of the same year, the Etela'at daily reported about the spread of rumors of the attack of thugs on Najafabad with all kinds of cold weapons and the people's fortifying, and in an interview, the governor of the city "Dargahi" asked the security and law enforcement agencies to prevent the entry of strange people and groups into the city during these days. Dargahi, who was considered the last governor of the city before the revolution, was a religious man and a dervish by profession who always wore a ring on his hand and most people had no problem with him. He promoted to this position after "Foroozesh" and after the revolution, the first person to replace him was "Negooee".

During the events of Muharram in the year 1357 in Najafabad, thugs broke the locks of some shops and looted them. They had stolen all the shoelaces of "Javanan Shoes" shop that had been placed in the show window. They had stolen the transportation files of a home appliances shop near the central branch of Melli Bank. Many items had also been stolen from its central warehouse in Yazdanshahr crossing. They also set fire to my newspaper kiosk, and a little further up, they looted the Kaviani shop that had the Kayhan agency, along with the confectionary next to it. Of course, it was not only the invaders who looted; I saw with my own eyes one of my fellow citizens carrying a sack of tea in front of his bicycle. As it got dark, the new phase of attacks began. They went to the house of famous revolutionaries and after beating the residents, they set the house on fire. Of course, some houses were also set on fire by mistake.

The shops of some businessmen were set on fire in a coordinated manner. One of them was a seemingly justified bazari who was double-crossing; on the one hand, he backed the regime and on the other hand, he claimed to be a revolutionary. Sometime after these events, reliable news was received that he had already emptied his shop in the central square of the city and put some garbage and sacks inside it so that it would be more visible than others when it was set on fire.

Another one of such people was the one whose house and shop were attacked, but by the way, he was not very revolutionary. Years ago, the Savak had arrested him on charges of collaborating with one of the leading revolutionaries of the city and released him after some time. In the midst of the revolution, offices in Isfahan, including our workplace, were closed every other day, and people like me had to go back. I came to Saremieh intersection and from there I would return to Najafabad by the passing cars. Once, by accident, I got into the car of this man. On the way, he said about the reason for his early release: "I told them that I was one of those who paid the most money for the construction and installation of the Shah's statue. With this background, can I be accused of sabotage?!"

This statue, which showed the Shah handing over the land ownership documents to an old farmer, was installed in the central square of the city as a symbol of "Shah's White Revolution" in Dey 1353 (December 1974), and the cost of this work was taken from the bazaris and famous figures of the city. One of the leading bazaris of the city said: "We paid most of the money for the statue, why has he turned his back on us?!"

A similar issue could be found among other anti-regime groups. Before the revolution, centers called "Azad University" were established in many cities, which in some cases hired professors with a bachelor's degree. It was said that in the admission of post-graduate students, a quota was considered for the dependents of the court. For example, out of a group of 35 people, 15 people were ordered by Savak and the same number were selected from among the courtiers, and only 5 people reached the graduate level without a quota. Najafabad University was headed by a doctor who was a staunch supporter of the Tudeh party and always prayed to the Shah and his family with great passion and intensity in official ceremonies and classrooms. This extreme contradiction in thoughts and actions had turned into a serious question in my mind, but in the end he gave me the answer.

I was waiting for passing cars on the side of the Isfahan-Najafabad road to go back home when the doctor recognized me and gave me a ride. As I was talking, I went to the point. He explained that after the assassination attempt on Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1327, which the regime considered to be the work of the Tudeh party, the Shah presented three options to the Tudeh people. Acquittal of the Tudeh party and their ideas, along with employment with proper salaries, leaving the country, or trial in military courts, which usually ended in prison. With this proposal, some Tudeh members made a plan to accept the first one; They enter the government and after gaining power, they can hit the king. With the same thinking, Dr. Ma had climbed the steps of advancement and reached the position of the president of the university.

As I was waiting for passing cars on the side of the Isfahan-Najafabad road to go back home, the doctor recognized me and gave me a ride. As I was talking, I went to the point. He explained that after the assassination attempt on Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1327 (1948), which the regime considered to be the work of the Tudeh party, the Shah presented three options to the Tudeh people. Separation from the Tudeh party and their ideas, along with employment with proper salaries, leaving the country, or trial in military courts, which usually ended in prison. With this proposal, some Tudeh members made a plan to accept the first one; to enter the system and blow their considered blow to the Shah after gaining power. With the same thinking, our doctor had climbed the steps of advancement and reached the position of the dean of the university. This complex in Najafabad was changed to Payam Noor University after the revolution.

The morning after the 11th of Muharram, I set out with a camera to photograph the damaged areas. I started from the bazar and walked from Shariati street to the city entrance square from Isfahan side. Around 9 am, before reaching the square, I saw Zulfaqari, the then police chief, who was driving by a Peykan car at high speed in the opposite direction. When he arrived near the current education center, he got off and immediately shot at a middle-aged man[2] who was standing beside the street with a G-3. At that time, the police uniform was blue, but I don't know why Zulfaqari was wearing the khaki uniform of the soldiers. Anyway, I saw that the situation was not proper to stay there so I left there very quickly. I didn't print anything from the photos I took, but maybe we have their negatives.

Before these incidents, in my opinion, Zulfaqari was a calm and servant person who tried his best to do his duty, but an incident during these days changed everything. The police headquarters was located on 22 Bahman Street, and the house of the police chief was located at the current location of 12 Police Station. With the intention of assassinating the police chief, some people threw a homemade bomb from the heater pipe inside his house, which caused Zulfaqari's wife to have a stroke. From that day on, the police chief changed his methods and dealt with the revolutionaries very harshly.