Agents in Search for the Fighter

Translated by Mandana Karimi

2025-7-8

[Interview with Fatemeh Amir Hosseini 2019/03/08.] The agents were always at our house. They would come day and night, turn the house upside down, mess up the library. For example, I remember we had the book Eqtesadona (Our Economy) by Mr. Sadr, and Imam Khomeini’s Resaleh (Treatise). We had many books—they would pack some of them up and take them away. Then the next day, they would knock again. Back then, our house was on Ghiyasi Street. We were really distressed.

One day, the SAVAK agents raided our house again. My mother got angry and said, 'What do you want from us? Is it these books you’re after? I’ll take care of that right now for you.' She threw the books into the yard, poured kerosene on them, and set them on fire. She said, 'Alright, are you satisfied now? Leave us alone. He’s not at home! My husband isn’t here! Stop harassing us!' Then they said, 'No, Ma’am, don’t burn them!' In short, they put out the fire and gathered the half-burned books and took them away.

Another time, when my father was home, as soon as he heard the doorbell, he ran upstairs to escape over the neighbour’s rooftop. We also threw a bunch of books, pamphlets, and whatever we had into a sack and tossed it over to the neighbour’s house. The next day, the neighbour returned some of the books to us because he knew what kind of books they were. We hid them again.

I remember another time when the SAVAK came to our door, I was very young, maybe 7 or 8 years old, Haj Agha Mahmoud Mer’ati was a guest at our house. When they banged on the door, my father tried to escape over the rooftop. Mr. Mer’ati told me, 'If they ask who I am, say I’m your uncle, so they don’t know my real name!' Then he pretended to be praying. The agents came in and searched, asking, 'Where’s your father?' I said, 'He’s not here!' They searched and didn’t find him—because he wasn’t in the house—and asked, 'Who is this man?' I said, 'He’s my uncle, he came to visit us. My father hasn’t been home for a while, and my uncle came to check on us.' They searched and left, only to return again the next morning.

They were after my father day and night. He was in hiding, and we barely saw him, until eventually, they caught him. I don’t remember exactly how they arrested him.

Source: Arabani, Javad (1401 SH/2022), Yadegar-e Mobarezeh: Zendegi va Mobarezat_e Seyyed Mohsen Amir Hosseini Be Revayat-e Khaterat va Asnad (The Relic of Struggle: The Life and Struggles of Seyyed Mohsen Amir Hosseini), Tehran: Iran Publishing Co., Pp.204-206