Distribution of Declarations in Saudi Arabia

The 2500th Anniversary Celebrations of the Monarchy

Translated by Kianoush Borzouei

2024-9-25

When the state celebrations of the 2500th anniversary of the monarchy were held in Iran in 1971, Imam Khomeini issued a proclamation against the Shah and the Iranian government. He then asked us, the students, to take this declaration—addressed to Iranian pilgrims, to make them aware of the true nature of the Shah's regime—to Saudi Arabia and distribute it among the Iranian pilgrims during the Hajj season.

It was at this time that, with the permission of the Imam, I initiated another effort to strengthen the presence of Iran’s revolutionary clergy in Iraq. Our political plan involved sending a telegraph from senior students to the Shah himself. The idea was that Iranian students residing in Najaf, who hailed from various provinces, would collectively write a letter to the Shah expressing their objections to the regime’s policies. Of course, we planned to draft these letters in the name of students from each city, and they would simply approve and sign them. However, given the large number of students from certain cities, it was impractical to include all their names in a single letter or telegraph. Additionally, listing their names might have exposed them to potential dangers from the regime.

Therefore, we decided to suffice by referring to the general body of students from each city. However, there was a challenge: some of the students opposed the very idea of writing such letters. For example, among the Shirazi students, while Seyyed Hashem Dashti and Biazari Shirazi agreed, two of the sons of Seyyed Abdulhadi Shirazi were against it. Since we did not wish to issue a declaration that faced internal dissent, I sought the Imam’s counsel. His response, with remarkable intelligence and insight, solved the issue in a way that had not crossed our minds.

The Imam remarked, "Those who oppose this initiative aren’t truly Shirazi! Anyone who prays the shortened prayer when returning home has, in essence, left their birthplace and cannot be considered Shirazi." In light of this, we realized that those opposing the declaration were actually from Najaf, not Shiraz, Mashhad, or elsewhere. In other words, the Imam was subtly implying that we need not concern ourselves with those who opposed sending these declarations of protest against the Shah and his government.

An interesting point to note is that when we wrote a letter on behalf of the students from Khansar, we found there were only two students from Khansar residing in Najaf. One of them was Sheikh Kazem Khansari, who now resides in Qom and is an adept calligrapher. At the time, he was one of the prominent calligraphers in Najaf. Since I had a friendship with him and some knowledge of his temperament, I thought to myself, that if I inform Sheikh Kazem that we are planning to issue a political declaration on behalf of the students from Khansar, he would certainly raise objections. Interestingly, when I approached him and sought his opinion, he simply laughed and said, "No problem." Then he added, "Other than me, is there another Khansari student in Najaf?" I replied, "There is Seyyed Habib Khansari, from whom I have already sought permission." Thus, we sent the telegraphs on behalf of the Iranian students in Najaf to Iran, so that the Shah would know, during his state festivities, that Khomeini was not alone in his exile.

In 1970, it was decided that we would take the Imam's proclamations to Mecca and distribute them among Iranian pilgrims. Initially, we placed the prepared leaflets in several sacks and sent them with vehicles traveling from Najaf to Mecca. Soon after, my comrades and I, tasked with distributing the Imam's proclamations, quickly made our way to Mecca as the Hajj season approached. We deemed Mina to be the most suitable location for distribution, and based on this decision, we carried the declarations in bundles, ensuring that we reached nearly all Iranian caravans, handing the Imam's declarations to each pilgrim individually. However, we avoided approaching two particular caravans, as we suspected they were infiltrated by SAVAK agents.

Each year, the Shah's intelligence organization would send agents disguised as pilgrims to the Holy Kaaba to monitor the situation, report back, and identify regime opponents, who would then be handed over to Saudi authorities and subsequently returned to Iran. Thus, the distribution of the declarations was swift, and completed in just a few hours, as we had no choice but to act quickly to avoid capture.

One individual who played a crucial role in distributing the Imam's declarations was Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Mahdi Tabatabaei Khorasani, the brother-in-law of the martyred Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammadreza Saeedi. He had come from Iran for pilgrimage, and we enlisted his assistance, entrusting him with the distribution of one of the sacks, which he executed flawlessly. Additionally, some caravan leaders cooperated with us, distributing the leaflets among their members, including Haj Tofighi Moteberi (Dolabi), one of the more prominent caravan leaders. I recall taking the entire sack of leaflets to his tent, from where the bundles were distributed to the caravans. It is worth noting that I personally did not hand out any declarations directly to the people; I merely distributed the sacks and bundles among the caravan leaders. Moreover, apart from the sacks we had, some leaflets were brought by Mr. Mohtashamipour and other colleagues from Najaf, who distributed them in Arafat and Mina.

Unfortunately, during the distribution process, Mr. Mohtashamipour and my other friend, Sheikh Mohammadreza Naseri Yazdi, were identified and arrested. Fortunately, Mr. Mohtashamipour managed to escape, but Mr. Naseri was taken to one of the caravans and handed over to the Saudi authorities. The caravan was led by an individual named Safai, while the caravan’s reciter and lamentation singer was a man named Allameh. In addition to the head of this caravan, the managers of some other caravans were present in the tent; however, these individuals had secured lodging near the Jamarat, and it seems that Mr. Naseri was apprehended near that very area. I do not claim that they had any hand in his arrest—far from it—but they lacked the courage to oppose the Shah’s regime and showed little affinity for the Imam and his proclamation. Eventually, Mr. Naseri was taken from that caravan, which resembled a detention center, and handed over to Saudi authorities.

After this incident, one day, near "Safa and Marwa," Mr. Morwarid came up to me with a smile and said, "Sheikh Hassan, there are many bees here—be careful not to get stung!" He was, of course, referring to the SAVAK agents, who were scattered all over Mecca.

Following Mr. Naseri's arrest, we immediately began our efforts to prevent his extradition to Iran and his delivery to SAVAK. Upon returning to Iraq, we repeatedly visited the Saudi Embassy, demanding Mr. Naseri’s release. Whenever we went, we made sure to go in groups of twenty to underscore the seriousness of the matter. I, along with Mr. Rezvani, led the group of students advocating for his release. We visited the Saudi Embassy so persistently that they had no choice but to release Mr. Naseri after about two years. In reality, had it not been for the pressure exerted by the clergy in Najaf on the Saudi ambassador, he would not have been freed so soon.

Source: The Noble Emigrant: Memoirs of Hojjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin Hassan Yazdizadeh, compiled by Alireza Nokhbeh, Tehran: Orouj, 2020, pp. 145-149.