Oral History of Islamic Revolution in Bushehr (3)

Rising Developments in 1978 Fall

Mohammad Jamiri
Translated by: Mohammad Bagher Khoshnevisan

2015-10-21

Note: In the following article, we will review the process of campaigns against the Pahlavi regime as well as the current of the Islamic revolution in Bushehr Province and in particular, the city of Bushehr. It also reviews the Islamic movement of the people of Bushehr in following the leader of the revolution Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul). Another goal of the following writing is to introduce the clergies and campaigners of Bushehr. Interviews have been conducted for collection of information. The first and second parts were presented to you and now here is the third part.

The revolutionary activities speeded up with the beginning of the year 1356 in SH (1977-78). The people of Bushehr were preparing themselves for more presence in the scene as they were informed of the activities of Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul). The events that happened in this year made the people step by step closer to the revolution.  One of them was the martyrdom of Ayatollah Mustafa Khomeini the sin of Imam Khomeini on October 22, 1977. Another was an article which was published in Ettela'at daily under the heading "Iran and Red Colonialism" authored by a person nicknamed Ahmad Rashidi Motlaq. He in this article had insulted Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul). On January 9, 1978, the people of Qom staged demonstrations in defense of Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul). A number of demonstrators were martyred in this protest rally and forty days later, the people of Tabriz took to the streets against the Pahlavi regime to hold the fortieth day of Qom martyrs during which a number of people were also martyred. After the event, the people of other parts of the country held the fortieth day of Tabriz martyrs and this chain continued.

It should be noted that before the publication of this article, the revolutionary activities across Iran hold special ceremonies to honor the position of Ayatollah Mustafa Khomeini and Bushehr was no exception, and a ceremony was held in Attar Mosque. The memoirs of Sheikh Sedaqat say in this regard, "Ayatollah Hosseini informed me that we would hold a ceremony for honoring Mustafa Khomeini and you have chosen as the speaker. I agreed and prepare myself for the speech. As soon as I arrived in the mosque, I found out that a number of SAVAK and police agents were present. At any rate, I started my speech with full delicacy and ended the debate on science and the status of scholars. After the event, the political meetings continued and more people got familiar with revolutionary issues." 

With regard to a ceremony on the fortieth day of the martyrs of Tabriz held also in Bushehr's Attar Mosque and the presence of people in the scene of revolutionary campaigns, Sheikh Slaman Bahrani also says, "A ceremony on the occasion of the fortieth day of the martyrs of Tabriz was held in Attar Mosque attended by Hojjat al-Eslam Qara'ati. But since Hojjat al-Eslam Qara'ati did not go through political issues, no demonstration was held after the ceremony."

About Bushehr's mosques, it should be noted that three mosques were more active than others during the campaign years in this city. They are the grand mosques of Attar, Amir al-Mo'menin and Towhid. Among the three mosques, Attar Mosque was the main one. The prayer leader of the mosque was Ayatollah Seyed Mustafa Hosseini. Many revolutionary forces used it as a base for campaign. Many demonstrations in 1978-79 either started or came to an end from this mosque. Later when Seyed Saleh Taheri Khorram Abadi was settled in Bushehr, he picked up Amir al-Mo'menin Mosque as a campaign base.

Another issue which is of great importance during the course of campaign in Bushehr was the dispatch of two revolutionary activists from Bushehr to the city of Hamedan for training of guerilla warfare. Martyr Ashouri intended to make familiar a number of revolutionary forces with guerilla warfare so that in necessary times, such forces were used.

The story was that martyr Ashouri was in London for a while for curing his illness. During his settlement, he got familiar with a blind clergy from Hamedan who invited him to learn guerilla and military exercises. When Ashouri returned to Bushehr, he commissioned Reza Qaderian and Baqer Meigoli Nejad to go to Hamedan and learn necessary trainings.

When the two arrived in Hamedan, some people on behalf that blind clergy took them to the mountains around the city to learn necessary trainings. On their way, the two found out that the instructor was very careless toward his religious beliefs. Thus, they came back to Hamedan and inform the story to the blind clergy. The clergy raised some questions which caused them to become more and more hesitant. Finally, after a while, they understood that the mentioned individuals were the members of Mujahedi Khalq terrorist organization.  So, they came back to Bushehr and informed Ashouri of the story.   

 However, martyr Ashouri believed in the thought of training guerilla warfare, in a way that Reza Qaderian says in this regard, "The members of Hosseinieh Ershad in Bushehr had been armed for a while before the victory of the Islamic revolution, using their guns secretly and carefully. The issue of collection of guns had happened with the full cooperation of martyr Ashouri. He was of the opinion that the Pahlavi regime with the coordination of the United States were probably seeking to kill people and loot public properties especially the campaigners', thus a number of revolutionary forces should learn military trainings. Therefore, the setting up of military camps carried out under sport recreation and exercise of football team was the beginning a new movement done by martyr Baqer Meigoli Nejad.  

For supplying weapons, they upon the order of martyr Ashouri had established relations with Haj Mashallah Kazerouni who was among the veteran activists in the town of Borazjan, and went to Zahedan for supplying guns. Martyrs, Baqer Meigoli, Qassem Hendizadeh, and Abbas Kamkari along with Reza Qaderian and other campaigners were present in the streets on 10^th and 11^th of February 1979 in order to safeguard the people's life and probable fighting with the military forces of Pahlavi regime. However, the armed presence had been consulted with Mr. Taheri Khorram Abadi. The members of Hosseinieh Ershad were thinking about how to attack the military sites if Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul) ordered armed attack."

Demonstrations, strikes and clashes between revolutionary and security forces boosted day by day across the country. In Bushehr, waves of the revolution had been spread and people all over the province had staged protest rallies. The holy month of Ramadhan in 1978 was different with other Ramadhans as the mourning months of Moharram and Safar were more different. On one of the nights of the Ramadhan of that year, the security forces attacked the people who had gathered in a mosque, while Hojjat al-Eslam Hosseini was delivering a speech. They closed the mosque's doors and threw tear gas canisters, beating and prosecuting the worshippers.

Also, Eid al-Fitr prayer was held gloriously in that year across the country. In Bushehr, the prayer was led by martyr Ashouri at the presence of Mr. Hosseini. While the police cars had surrounded the site, martyr Ashouri delivered a speech during which he talked about the characteristics of Imam Hossain (PBUH), causing the people to become passionate, chanting slogans against the regime. After the end of the Eid prayer, the people chanted slogans such as "Long Live Khomeini" and "Down with Shah".

With the martyrdom of several innocent people including Shiekh Ashouri, the uprising speeded up in Bushehr in July, August and September 1978.

The staff of governmental offices also joined the majority of revolutionary population since September 1978. Thus, after the bitter events of November 4, 1978 which led to the martyrdom of several students in Tehran, the people of Bushehr decided to hold a glorious demonstration led by revolutionary forces on November 8 in a sign of solidarity and expressing of loyalty to the revolution.

Reza Qaderian who was the main organizer of the demonstration says in this regard, "After the bitter event of November 4, 1978, I along with my other colleagues in the Social Security Office concluded that we should hold a demonstration in protest to the event of November 4 and raise our voice to the regime. So, we closed the Social Security Office which continued until the fall of Pahlavi regime. Only the financial department continued its work to pay the salaries of the pensioners. On the morning of November 8, we moved toward the health department, asking the manger who was a physician to accompany us. But he denied accompanying the people under the pretext that he was the representative of the government.
Nevertheless, the people moved toward Sa'adat High School. Near the school, the security forces started shooting at the demonstrators. Concurrently, we were informed that a person named Meigoli has been martyred. Since everybody was well aware of the competence of Haj Baqer Meigoli Nejad in the revolution's executive affairs and thought that the person who has been shot dead may be him, we immediately moved toward the hospital, but found out that the martyred person has been one of the students of Sa'adat High School."

This is how Haj Sadeq Meigoli Nejad was martyred. After the event of November 4 which led to martyrdom of many students in Tehran, a number of students and teachers of Sa'adat School went on a strike. The police and SAVAK had threatened that if the strike continues, the strikers will be eradicated. They fixed November 8 as the deadline for breaking the strike. On the same day, a demonstration mentioned earlier was supposed to be held. The police had surrounded the school. Sadeq was shot and martyred while he was preparing to throw his hand-made grenade toward the police cars from the roof of the school.

The memory of Sheikh Mohammad Sedaqat regarding the martyrdom of two others during the revolution is interesting, "Among the martyrs of the revolution who are unknown, two were killed very accidentally and innocently. A person named Sadeq Derakhtian who worked in bazaar and had no presence in the demonstrations and political was martyred by a bayonet while dispersing the demonstrators. Another person was Esmaeel Mahmoudi who had a repair shop around Sa'adat school and originally was from Khorasan. He was shot and martyred very accidentally concurrent with the martyrdom of Sadeq Meigoli Nejad on November 8, 1978."

After these events and the martyrdom of the three by police forces, the presence of people in protest rallies increased significantly. In this regard, Sedaqat says, "In a ceremony held on the occasion of the seventh day of the martyrdom of Meigoli Nejad organized by the members of Hosseinieh Ershad, I along with my father and brother took part in the ceremony. The speaker was martyr Ashouri. At the same time, Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad Ali Zam who had been invited from Tehran was also present. It is interesting to be noted that the name of the person in charge of police operation was Rahbari. He came and asked me to tell the people not to chant slogans against the regime. I told him to take care of his forces not to shoot at people. He agreed. And rightfully I should say that if he was not there, many people would have been killed.
At any rate, the ceremony was held and we starting moving in the streets. After a while, we couldn't stop the people not to chant slogans against the regime. But Rahbari fulfilled his promise.
Another gathering was supposed to be held in Attar Mosque for commemoration two other martyrs and the population move toward the cemetery from there. Martyr Majid Beshkouh, Javad Nabavi and Ahmad Verdiani had organized the gathering. The ceremony was held. Like the previous one, Rahabri came again and asked us to guide the people toward the cemetery from Solh Abad path. Everything was held well."

The people were in relation with the revolution's issues directly and witnessed the decline of the regime increasingly, thus they continued to take to the streets more and more. The Pahlavi regime was using every trick to stop the movement. The regular replacement of the prime ministers was among the measures the Pahlavi regime did to allure the revolutionaries. Among the persons who were appointed as Prime Minister was General Azhari. He tried to appoint military governors in most provinces. In the beginning of his job, Hojjat al-Eslam Sedaqat and martyr Ashouri were preparing a big rally to make familiar the people with Bushehr's revolutionary atmosphere. The demonstration was held very well and many people took part. The people stopped in front of Bushehr's governorship and chanted slogans against the Pahlavi regime.