Ahmad Ahmad Memoirs (48)

Edited by Mohsen Kazemi

Ahmad Ahmad Memoirs (48)
Edited by Mohsen Kazemi
Soureh Mehr Publishing Company
(Original Text in Persian, 2000)
Translated by Mohammad Karimi

Barrier over Barrier

Endless Interventions by SAVAK

One or two days after being freed I was thinking what I had to do. The responsibility for the new life would not let me be free. I could follow many affairs freely and relaxed because of being unmarried, but after being married and considering my parents’ oldness, I had to think more seriously about my life and activities. My wife had accepted to stay beside me in all up and downs, but I had to think how to make ends meet for my family. Occasional interventions by SAVAK had made it hard me. Besides, many businessmen would present their suitable job positions to me when being informed of my background.
I was confused with this uncertainty that one day the late Mohammad Sadegh Eslami (1) came to me and asked me the reason why I did not go to my previous work. I explained I would be trouble for them and every now and then SAVAK would be there. He did not accept my reasons and insisted that I had to go to my work from the next day. He said: “Come to you work. What is your business with these affairs? Do you think that you are the only person under SAVAK monitoring? The rest are also monitored.” He could satisfy me to go back to my work at “Qa’em Glaze” Company.
At company I noticed the different atmosphere. I found out SAVAK had referred to the late Mr. Eslami and put him under pressure for employing me and some other people with political background. He had answered them this way: “You should be thankful to me for employing political fighters with imprisonment backgrounds here; I have made their mind busy with work here.” He could manage to impede SAVAK from penetrating into the affairs of his company for short time. Anyway…, I began working there, but Manouchehri was still in chase of bothering me and would call Eslami every now and then and insult and threaten him for using people like me there as workers.
Days went on and day by day the pressure of SAVAK on Eslami increased. He was a man of moralities and would never talk about these matters.
About six months passed of my working there. One day unexpectedly I entered Mr. Eslami’s room. Nobody was there and he was talking on the phone facing to the wall: “…why are you insulting? Sir! Be polite! Do whatever you want. I won’t fire him. He is newly married. He would lose his income. He is a married man and should be able to manage his life. He has nothing to do with political affairs. Why do you bother him? Let him be free…” Mr. Eslami was speaking angrily. It was clear the person on the other side of the line was speaking insultingly. I understood they were talking about me. When he put down the phone, turned back and saw me. He did not expect to see me there. Then he asked: “When did you come?” I said: “Few moments ago!” He sat down on his seat. I went forward and said: “Dear sir, we are like brothers; friends; I don’t know maybe closer than brothers… I won’t stay here anymore.”
I knew it was useless to discuss the matter with him and he would insist on his idea to keep me there. So, I stopped working there at the end of that month. After getting the salary of that month I did never go to that company.
I was jobless and it was bothering me but finally few days after coming out of “Qa’em Glaze” Company, Abolhassasn Falahati and Ahmad Rouhi came to visit me. They were among my good and frank believing friends of INP fighters whom we had close and warm friendships from imprisonment days. They took me to a metal junk yard. This workshop belonged to two religious men named Ali Asghar Haji Baba (2) and Haj Ahmad Tahsili who would buy iron or metal junks and sell them after pressing. This way, I entered a new job and after some time and could learn the nuts and bolt of this job. My activity was concentrated in a shop near Shoosh Square in Dabbagh Alley. We would weight and buy the metal junks. I would earn very good money for this job (about 20 Tomans per day).

1- The late Mohammad Sadegh Eslami was born in Tehran in 1932 in a religious family. He began working in Bazaar in early years of his teen ages and would study Islamic studies at mosques at nights. After finishing his high school in 1956 we began working in Telecommunication Company but resigned a year later. After the establishment of Water Organization he was employed there. In 1961 when he became aware of the embezzlement of the freemason managing director of that organization, he began revealing this matter and then he was fired. Later he became the director of Metal Pars Company and then Qa’em Glaze Company of Qa’emian and also Morgh Daneh Company.
In his political life, the late Mr. Eslami was among the founders of Shi’ayan Group, and effective member of Freedom Movement (Nahzat-e Azadi) and later member of central council of Islamic Councils Coalition. After the assassination of Manour he was imprisoned for two years. From 1971 to 1975 he had relations with MKO. After the ideology change in MKO he cut his relation with this organization and about 1976 along with Seyyed Ali Andarzgou, he founded an anti-Shah group. When Andarzgou was martyred, he was arrested and imprisoned. At the dawn of the Islamic Revolution victory, he became the disciplinary official of Welcoming Imam Committee. After the establishment of Islamic Republic Party he became a member of its central council. He became parliamentary assistance of Trading Ministry. He was martyred in Islamic Republic Party office bombing in June 28th 1981.
2- Ali Asghar Haji Baba was born in Tehran in 1931. From young ages he began the fight against the Pahlavi regime. After graduation from high school he began his job in ironware. In 1961 he was arrested because of anti-government activities and freed in April 1962. He was arrested and imprisoned for the second time after the assassination of Hassan Ali Mansour because the late Moahmmad Bukhara’i was his worker.