How Did Tasu

Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2024-8-1

The coherence and transmission of people's messages to the government, army and foreign countries including the important functions of the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights (ICDFHR) were explained before. One of the important measures was to formalize procession of people on the days of Tasua and Ashura. Of course, this issue had been raised for a long time and people and different groups used every opportunity to hold protest ceremonies, but ICDFHR was able to force the military and security institutions of the Iranian government through negotiations or human rights institutions to accept a free and public march. During those days, negotiations were held with the government and especially with the army, and it was decided not to disturb the people. By the way, these days also coincided with the International Human Rights Day, and the demand of ICDFHR was that we want to announce our protest to the world on this day, and finally, these negotiations and consultations came to an end, and we all prepared for a large and comprehensive march. Because unlike other ceremonies where security concerns and disagreements caused the participation in and invitation to demonstrations to not be public and inclusive, this ceremony had no security restrictions and considering the importance of Ashura in our culture, everyone agreed about it. On the other hand, these negotiations caused the international journalists and observers find their place to the Iranian revolution, and they could freely prepare reports in Iran to record the demonstrations and protests of the people.

A headquarters was formed to hold this march and the actions were fully organized. The constituent members of this headquarters were representatives of ICDFHR, the National Front, Freedom Movement of Iran, representative of the Association of Combatant Clerics, and possibly representatives of other groups and circles. The main councils of the headquarters had 5 or 7 members, which were naturally formed to divide the work. I [Mohammed Tavasoli] was also a member of the staff and was in charge of the publicity of the event. Mr. Shah Hosseini, as a representative of the National Front, was in charge of the procurement, etc. Division of assignments was in the way that everyone undertook a part of the work and pursued it.

The meetings of this headquarters were held in the Human Rights Office located at the beginning of Qoba Street. Some meetings were also held in our house which is near to Qoba Street. In these meetings, the starting time of the ceremony, routes, placards and slogans were determined. Through Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, this headquarters was in direct contact with Mr. Khomeini and the friends who were in Paris at that time, and various reports were exchanged. Among other things, Mr. Khomeini sent a message through Dr. Yazdi that people should use the term “Islamic Republic” instead of the term “Islamic government”, and this was an important point in that period.

Since I was in charge of publicity and our house was near to the headquarters, placards and signs were written in our house. As far as I remember, those who cooperated in the publicity commission were generally people from the market like Mr. Asadollah Badamchian. Anyway, all the executive work was done by the headquarters forces and all the plans had been determined in advance. Days close to the ceremony, the office of the late Ayatollah Taleghani issued a statement announcing that Ayatollah Taleghani will leave his home on the day of Tasu'a and people are invited to accompany him. Of course, the statement was written by his own and he had personally invited the people. Mr. Taleghani's house was in Vali Abad Street, Pich-e Shemiran. When the headquarters found out about this statement, it negotiated with him and his representative was also joined the headquarters to coordinate this measure too. The headquarters had chosen different points to start the march; for example, from Tajrish Square, Imam Hossein (AS) Square, and several other squares of the city. The routes had been planned in such a way that they lead to the axis of Enghelab Street, and the crowd moved seamlessly from the Enghelab Square to Azadi Square.

Holding a peaceful, regular and extensive march on the day of Tasu'a caused the crowd to increase much more on the day of Ashura, and it is usually referred to as the Million March on the Day of Ashura. So, in this march, people were able to announce their message to the world, and in fact, a kind of public referendum was formed. I think the role of ICDFHR was very important in holding this march and its results, but this was not fully reflected in the news and excitement of the days of the revolution and later.

Another part of my work as the headquarters publicity officer was coordinating with journalists, especially foreign journalists. This work should be left to people who both know foreign languages ​​and were familiar with journalists. For this purpose, we formed a focus group with people who knew foreign languages, and in one of the rooms of ICDFHR’s office, we communicated with news agencies, reporters, and observers in an organized and regular manner, and followed their issues. On the day of the march, translators and guides were provided for each of the foreign journalists to translate and explain the necessary slogans and points during the ceremony.

What was done on that day was more than what the headquarters imagined. The headquarters had not prepared itself for such a big march, but the people participated regularly and spontaneously, and they observed the order of the ceremony themselves. The presence of national and Islamic figures during the march was quite impressive. The army forces were present outside the designated area and on the same date, people passed by them by offering flower branches to the soldiers who were on the tanks. Because there was such a connection with the army’s tank troops on the routes that came from outside the area to the city center, the army commanders had ordered the forces under their command not to interfere in the people movements. As I said, they had already been negotiated with and they were acting within the framework of negotiations. Mr. Nategh Noori read the headquarters' resolution in Azadi Square. The text of the resolution and its details are included in the documents, but what stood out in this march were the people's demands, one of which was the slogan of death to Shah (the king), and the other was the approval and support of leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, which was prominent in the slogans. The rest of the people's slogans were mainly against SAVAK. The open space allowed people to say what they had in mind about SAVAK's atrocities.

Source: Tavasoli, Mohammad (2019), Sixty Years of Resistang and Service: Memoirs of Engineer Mohammad Tavasoli [in Persian: Shast Sal Istadegi va Khedmat: Khaterat-e Mohandes Mohammad Tavasoli], Tehran, Nashr-e Kavir, pp. 214-217.