Khorramabad Student Choir Oral History

Along with Prophet Mohammad Army

Translated by: Atiyeh As'ad

2015-9-6

Note: In 1985 Khorramabad Student Choir could attract and gather talented and promising students to the group in a short time by Isa Sepahvani with the cooperation of life skills teachers.

Along with teaching music theory Mr. Sepahvani could also teach his students the lessons of service and sacrifice for the ideals of the revolution. Constant presence in frontlines and performing music and sing for warriors, performing at the ceremony of dispatching “Armies of Prophet Mohammad” in Azadi Stadium and their presence at martyrs’ funeral ceremonies in various cities made them famous.

From mid-November, the news of a great ceremony for dispatching warriors spread out. We had no idea of the number of the troops. A few days later as we were as always rehearsing at the basement a guy who probably was one of the authorities of Education Ministry came and called Mr. Sepahvani. He calmly went upstairs and talked with that guy. A few minutes later he came back. A paper was in his hands. He stood in front of the stairs and said: “We have been invited to Tehran to a great ceremony of dispatching thousands of warriors. We need more practice.” The students asked him to explain more about the event. Our Master said: “We have a big event ahead.” He emphasized that “our performance is very important.” In December we practiced more and more. The programs that we already had participated in were not so great and important. It was very exciting to perform in front of thousands of people.

A few days later two soldiers came to our office. They said that they were intended to prepare Basiji uniform clothes for our group as they wanted the group to have good uniforms and neat appearance. They want to have some of the students' sizes to prepare clothes for all the students according to those sizes. An argument rose because of this matter since it was important for the children which body sizes are going to be selected as base for preparing all the uniforms. Anyway they brought the clothes in a week. The clothes were not prepared according to the students' sizes and some of us complained about it. One would say: “My pants are short” and the other “My sleeve is long” and so on … Although wearing these uniforms was very interesting for everyone, we felt that we really were warriors and the musical instruments were our weapons. We were proud of our uniforms.

The dispatching ceremony of three battalions of Imam Hussein Garrison was held on 13^th of November. The performance in front of ten thousand warriors was the main topic of our discussion those days. Every day you could hear the news of the dispatching in the news. The officials also talked about the vitality of the issue. As we knew that we were to perform in the ceremony, we followed the news closely. 

Two days before our leave, we submitted our permission from school together with the parent consent letter to the Education Ministry. On December 1st, we gathered in the local department of Education Ministry. When everybody arrived we travelled to Imam Hussein Garrison. We could see people travelling to garrison on our way. As we got closer to the destination, the population grew. We made our way among the population to the garrison. We were to go to the ceremony with Lorestan warriors.

The garrison courtyard was overcrowded. There were a lot of buses, minibuses and Land Cruisers at each the corner of the garrison. IRIB was filming and interviewing with some guys. Some people were taking pictures. We reached near the cars and remained there till the caravan move. One of the buses was equipped with television. It was very neat. It drew our attention. We kept waiting for two or three hours inside the garrison area. We had no idea why the caravan didn't move. Some guys were in a rush to make the necessary arrangements.

After being kept waiting for so long we were ordered to get in. We had no idea of what to do or which car to get in. A young man in warrior uniform told us to get in a bus. It was the mentioned bus with television. We were very happy that we could get in the bus with television. We got in the bus. There was a great population there so we had difficulty in leaving the garrison. People were waving the warriors and sending blessings to our prophet Mohammad. We took Sabzeh Meydan track to Shamshirabad Square or Basij and left Khorramabad. Hojat Ziaei's song as “Jihad is the religion's command. It is fighting with pagan and the blessing of the Leader and Victory” and “Mother, Mother” Song by Mohammad Mirzavandi was broadcasted all way through the speakers of one of the Land Cruisers.

We stopped at 4 pm at Technical Garrison of Borujerd. It took us seven hours to travel a two-hour-long track. The cars' queue was too long. It was supposed to have our lunch there. There was no suitable place to have lunch. The Garrison Commander realized it and said: “The music band of children should go to the commander's office and have lunch there.” A soldier came and took us to the Commander's office. We went there by all means and sat at the Commander's office.

On our way as the cars were moving very slowly, Bagher and Nore-Khoda got off the bus. Master reminded them to return soon. When Bagher and Nore-Khoda got off, the cars moved. A few minutes later Bagher and Nore-Khoda in a distressed and upset mood returned and got in the bus. We had no idea why they were so upset. As I asked them the reason, they replied: “When the bus started to move in the dark, we started running along the road. Some water had collected in a small hole. We mistook them for asphalted road because of the reflection of the cars' lights and jumped into it by mistake. Our socks and shoes were filled with water and all wet.”

They had given us sports shoes in the camp. The track shoes were reached to the legs and had a velvet appearance. They were upset not only because of missing the bus but also because of their wet shoes. Since the bus moved so slowly that they could easily catch it.

When we reached Tehran, they took us to a half-finished apartment that had no door and windows and its interior walls were still in bricks. It was impossible for us to tolerate the cold. Bagher and Nore- Khoda's pants and shoes were still wet and since it was cold, they didn't get dried. So, they felt cold more than the others. Our Master looked for a solution and continually told them: “The children ought to go to somewhere else otherwise they would catch a cold.” Finally, because of Master's insists they took us to an indoor sports hall. It was warm there and had the necessary facilities. They brought Basiji theology students there too. They first thought we were also Basijis and wanted to go to the war area. As soon as we wanted to take a rest, Master told us to sing for the theology students. We performed a number of songs in slack suits for the theology students. Master didn't feel so well. Abbas Rostami and Hasan Kandi were delicately nursing him.

We were awakened early in the next morning. After the Morning Prayers, they gave us our breakfast and we moved fast. Butter was so cold that we couldn't hold it in our hands. We were also given a piece of bread that we had it self-service. Some of the children took extra butter and put it in their pockets. When we reached to the stadium they still hadn't opened the door. We kept waiting in front of the stadium. We couldn't wear jackets while performing. We had to wear uniforms. We were shivering from cold and couldn't hold the instruments in our hands. Our Master told us to do exercise for a while but we were still bothered by cold weather. He told us maybe it's better to practice.

We held the instruments in our hands. Our fingers were numb with cold and we couldn't easily push the buttons. We did a couple of practices and performed a number of songs for warm up. When the door opened we enthusiastically entered into Azadi Stadium. We thought it's going to be warm inside. We went near a decorated stand. There was a platform on it. The platforms were frozen. We broke the platform's ice and sat there. When we entered, nobody was there. The forces were beginning to enter the stadium. Many of the soldiers waved the flags as they entered. Slogans such as “Allah-u-Akbar (God is the greatest)!” and “La ilah-a illa Allah (I testify that there is no God but Alla”, “Mohammad Rasoul-ullah (I testify that "Mohammad" is the Messenger of Allah” “Mohammad Army is coming” were written on the flags. Some of the soldiers chanted slogans. Some of the troops were wearing anti-chemical clothing. Some of the students tied red headbands and the stadium looked special with these effects. We were performing hymnodies that it was coincided with their arrival. The ceremony was officially opened. It was getting warm little by little. The coordinator talked with our Master on the time of the performance. After they cited Quran, we performed the national anthem. The first lecturer (1) was one of the authorities of “Basij-e Mostaz'afin (The Organization for Mobilization of the Oppressed)”. Then we performed “War, War till Victory!” hymnody. The warriors were singing with us and repeating “War, War till Victory!”. The next lecturer was Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ayatollah Khamenei made a speech after Mr. Hashemi. He was Islamic Republic of Iran President on those days. His face was younger and happier. It was the first time we were performing in front of senior officials of the country.

We had short performances in the program intervals and this caused to the diversity of program. A large number of the Basijis were in shroud and were standing just under the stand. Several helicopters poured flowers on the population. In another part of the ceremony hundreds of pigeons were released in the sky. The scene of flight of pigeons at the same time was very nice. After the authorities’ speeches, the presenter announced that the music group must get transferred out of the stadium for the forces to executive parade.

Two big cars were on our two sides. There were a lot of reporters, cameramen and photographers. They were standing on two cars. The coordinators had determined somewhere in front of the stand for us to stand. Other officials including Gen. Mohsen Rezaee and Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani were also present. People were waving for the warriors and sending blessings on Prophet Mohammad. A lot of people were in tears. As we saw the scenes we also burst in tears.

Before coming to the ceremony the “treble staff” key of his instrument broke. Bagher's instrument was very important. He would perform many of decorative techniques in performances with this instrument. The audio-visual head of Education Ministry got steel glue to fix “treble staff” key. We went to Tehran with the same instrument. Unfortunately, when we were performing inside the stadium, the "treble staff" key of Bagher's saxophone broke.

When we wanted to perform for the army parade, Bagher couldn't play and this issue made him upset. Our teacher gave a flag to him. Bagher took the flag and stood beside us. There was also a pious old man there. He had held a giant flag in his hand. When he waved the flag, it covered the whole group. As the Master realized Bagher was upset said: “Come and sing “War, War till Victory” song.”

After the ceremony, we returned to the apartments that we had been accommodated last night. However, because of the cold weather, we were taken to another place. We were to have lunch. Some guys from IRIB came and told us: “”War, War till Victory” song should be performed for the television record.” We went to the courtyard. One of the Basiji forces held a bullhorn in front of Bagher's mouth. We performed the song. The warriors circled around us. We also performed a number of songs and music instruments.

“War, War till Victory!” became so popular. They decided to make a TV clip for the song. When the song broadcasted, as the song got to this part saying: “I am the wale in the sea!” the warriors' boat was shown. Or when we were saying: “I am the tiger in the mountains!” the warriors were shown in their disguise clothes in the mountains and as “I am the roaring lion in forest!” was played, the warriors were shown in the forests. The clip arts were broadcasted again and again on television.

Short Sassan was in his Basiji uniform sitting in a corner and resting. A Japanese photographer, as if he had discovered a different subject, took various pictures from him. One of the Basijis said: “Don’t let him take pictures. They want to advertise that the Islamic Republic of Iran is dispatching young children to the front line.” Another guy said: “Let him take the picture so that everyone knows that Iranian people are all Basijis.” Sassan looked tired and confused. The photographer was taking pictures without any attention to his surroundings. It was very hot and we were unaware of what was happening around. The butter that we had put in our pockets early in the morning had melted and our pants had got dirty.

The next day we moved to an indoor hall in central Tehran. Baqir Al-Olum Army Prophet Mohammad Soldiers were there. All the forces of this army were clergy. Ayatollah Khamenei gave a speech. We performed one or two songs there. Bagher was sick and couldn't sing. Masoud was solo-voice. As he was singing, he forgot a part of lyric. Manouchehr Rahmati began to sing that part of the song that Masoud had forgotten without pre-coordination and preparation. He could handle the situation in a way that nobody noticed. Ayatollah Khamenei appreciated our Master and the music group for a few minutes among his remarks.

After performing at the ceremony, Mr Alvandi and Amraei came from the Army Advertisement center to record the projects at the basement of Education Ministry. They had an old video recorder, a number of cassette tapes and a deck. Our Master mentioned the name of the song and we began to perform. Friday was the day of the record. The children went to the school during the week so all the students couldn't attend. The issue made us upset. We wanted to take a rest and watch TV on Friday. The hymns that were performed at that tape included military marches, songs and music instruments. Then they sent a copy of it to IRIB and a copy to Training and Education Center. Training and Education Center gave the cassette tape to the school so that the schools could broadcast it in schedule intervals and in breaks. They also gave a cassette tape to the each of the group members.

After the ceremony and broadcasting the tape, the situation went on in a manner that they invited us for most of the ceremonies that were held in the country. Sometimes two or three ceremonies were performed at the same time. So our Master had to select one of them. …

1- Gen. Rahmani, the head of The Organization for Mobilization of the Oppressed, affiliated to Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.