Oral history of Islamic Revolution in Bushehr (4)

Toward the victory, December 1978

Mohammad Jamiri
Translated by: Mohammad Bagher Khoshnevisan

2015-10-27

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, second and third parts were presented to you and now here is the fourth part.

As the mourning month of Moharram come, like other parts of the country, the atmosphere of Bushehr changes dramatically. The people are waiting for Moharram to make utmost use of it. Thus, the people and clergies of Bushehr make countdown to Moharram.

On the other hand, a number of the dispatched clergies have come to Bushehr in order to inform the people of what is going on in their country. Ayatollah Hossaini has recently returned from Mecca, arranging special ceremonies for Attar Jameh Mosque. On the other hand, two of the oldest activists of Bushehr Abdullah Fatehi and Alireza Muzaffari have just been released from prison and come to Bushehr. Martyr Ashouri went immediately to meet Fatehi.

Two days before the Moharram of the year 1357 SH (December 1978), martyr Ashouri went to Sedaqat’s house and told him, “SAVAK is going to assassinate both of us and we should be very careful more than ever.” In response, Sedaqat says, “This year, we have informed all of the clergies who have been dispatched to Bushehr not to go anywhere without our coordination. We have organized a timetable for the mosques of Attar, Towhid and Amir al-Mo’menin (PBUH), therefore, the concentration will be on the campaign and we cannot be watchful fully and that we should be present at the scene.”

However, according to Sedaqat, “Mr. Hosseini did not agree with the timetable for Attar Mosque which was supposed to be held in the mornings. At any rate, in the first night of Moharram, all the clergies dispatched to Bushehr along with Sedaqat, Hosseini and others attended Attar Mosque to arrange the plans. Meanwhile, many people also took part in the gathering. When the gathering ended and while the people were going out of the mosque, the security forces clashed with the people as a result of which a number of people were martyred or injured.”

An eyewitness of the event, Hossein Honardoust quotes, “The air forces officers along with police forces had surrounded the mosque. Major Rahbari, the commander of police operation was responsible for the forces. Rahbari addressed Mr. Hosseini with a loudspeaker and said, “Separate yourself from them!” In response, Mr. Hosseini says, “These are my gusts.” Suddenly, the security forces started shooting, and a number of clergies were arrested and transferred to an air base. Abdolrasoul Zahedi who was a tradesman was shot in the head and martyred while he was putting on his shoes. I along with another person were injured. The next day, I went to the hospital for treatment, and since I was a navy officer, if I said how I was injured, it was not clear what I was treated. Finally, by saying a fake story, they took the bullet out of shoulder and released me.”

After this incident, the city’s atmosphere including martyr Ashouri were kept under constant surveillance of SAVAK and military forces. On the third day of Moharram 1357 (December 1978), an incident happened which both made the burden of the regime’s crimes heavier, and fanned the flames of the revolution in Bushehr. That was the martyrdom of Ashouri by the police in the house of his brother while taking ablution. With the martyrdom of Ashouri who was the main campaigning clergy in Bushehr, a police climate was created in the city annoyingly, in a way that no major measure was carried out and the process of the revolution came to a halt to a great extent. No tangible and serious measure was carried out in the city except the sporadic setting fire of tires or in other words nobody dared to do anything. On the other hand, the clergies had gone out of the city and there was no specific leader for following up the revolution’s affairs and the gathering of revolutionary forces.

This frightening atmosphere continued until January 1979 and near the fortieth day of the martyrdom of Ashouri. The people dared to take part in the rallies and demonstrations. For instance, it can be referred to the presence of a number of revolutionaries in other parts of the province including in Borazjan and Khour Mowj. As the fortieth day of Ashouri’s martyrdom was approaching, the revolutionary forces were preparing themselves to make utmost use of the ceremony. Thus, some of the prominent figures in Qom were invited to take part in the ceremony in order to break the frightening police atmosphere and repressive climate and pave the way for continuation of the revolution. About the holding of the fortieth day of martyr Ashouri, Sheikh Salman Bahrani, Ashouri’s brother-in-law and a revolutionary activist says, “We were supposed to arrange a plan in a way that both to hold a glorious ceremony for martyr Ashouri and to break the repressive climate in the province especially in Bushehr. So, four or five days before the fortieth day of Ashouri’s martyrdom, we left for Qom and came back to Bushehr along with misters Sheikh Mohammad Yazdi, Seyed Hassan Taheri, Seyed Mohammad Saleh Taheri, Azari Qomi, and Mirza Ebrahim Dashti. In Shiraz, Mr. Yazdi asked Mirza Ebrahim Dashti and Ayatollah Ha’eri Shirazi to take Mr. Hosseini who had left Bushehr for Shiraz after the martyrdom of Ashouri to Bushehr for the ceremony, and the same happened.

In this trip, we for the first time managed to print a significant number of Imam Khomeini’s photos and to bring them to Bushehr and along with the books Al-salat, Velayat Faqih and the epistle of Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul), distribute among the people in an exhibition held alongside the tomb of martyr Ashouri in the fortieth day of his martyrdom. It should be noted that the Imam’s epistle was not printed in his name. At any rate, a good ceremony was held and the climate changed.”

After the ceremony held on the occasion of the fortieth day of the martyrdom of Ashouri, Seyed Saleh Taheri was commissioned on behalf of the Council of Revolution to stay in Bushehr. Thus, he was commissioned to continue the campaign. The main point of Taheri’s leadership was that he along with a number of others held demonstrations in other cities of the province. He selected Amir al-Mo’menin Mosque as the campaign center.

Regarding non-local clergies, it should be said that before these days, a number of clergies from Bushehr were either on exile or imprisoned. Ayatollah Yazdi had been exiled to Nowshahr and was teaching Islamic materials. Ayatollah Seyed Taheri Khorram Abadi had been exiled to Borazjan and Ayatollah Madani to Kangan. Ayatollah Yazdi was more popular and active than other expatriates who came to Bushehr and spent more time in prison. In responding to religious questions and debates, martyr Ashouri led them toward Ayatollah Yazdi in order to introduce him to the people of Bushehr and make them familiar with the thinking of Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul) by him.

In this connection, Ayatollah Yazdi says, “Publicity plans was well-ordered in the mosque of martyr Ashouri and his mosque had a library and religious meetings were held, and upon the recommendation martyr Ashouri, I was responsible as the prayer leader and connected to many activists.”

Ayatollah Yazdi in Bushehr used every opportunity to make familiar the people and clergies of Bushehr with Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul) and his thoughts. He says in this regard, “One day, the late Ashouri told me that one of the wealthy people of the city arranged a party and I would like you to take part in it. He said that the landlord had given him full authority to invite everyone he liked. After taking part in the get-together, I saw a number of Bushher’s ulema who raised scientific debates. One of the debates had a response in Tafsir Al-Miza or exegesis of the holy Quran. But when I wanted to answer I found out that they did not know anything about the Tafsir Al-Miza.

“At noon, a scholar who was an ayatollah stood up to take ablution. I went to him, asking to talk about an issue. First he denied but later when he saw my insistence, agreed. I asked him to explain about the views of religious authorities as well as the Imam about a jurisprudential issue. He said, “I have no information about Ayatollah Khomeini’s view.”  I asked permission to express his view as his disciple. After hearing Imam Khomeini’s view, he told me, “If this is Imam’s view, it is logical and reasonable. But what we are said that his view is doomed to failure.” With my presence, I could influence the individuals and ulema as well as the landlord in that party. Thus, a number of clergies from Bushehr and Borazjan got familiar with Imam’s views, moving toward the revolution, including a clergy named Shiekh Abdolhossain who was teaching in Bushehr’s seminary, and was immediately attracted by the revolutionary climate.”

Therefore, the revolutionary climate was returned to the city with the presence of Taheri Khorram Abadi, and other clergies especially Mr. Hosseini. The trend continued until the victory of the Islamic revolution in February 11, 1979.  Demonstartions and revolutionary movements reached its peak in the whole province of Bushehr under Taheri, and the passionate people were involved in the revolution. Concurrently, a very revolutionary man named Andalib came to Bushehr upon the invitation of the members of Hosseinieh Ershad and delivered speeches in Amir al-Mo’menin Mosque. Reza Qaderian says, “After the ceremony held on the occasion of the fortieth day of the martyrdom of Ashouri and concurrent with the presence of Seyed Mohammad Saleh Taheri Khorram Abadi in Bushehr, we invited a person named Andalib, a campaigner from Isfahan to deliver speeches in Amir al-Mo’menin Mosque for ten nights, he did this very well and fiery. Although Andalib was not a clergy, he discussed about ideological and revolutionary issues very strongly, and was warmly welcomed by the people.”

Concurrently, different movements were happening in the city by the revolutionaries including the pulling down of the Shah’s statue. It was pulled down by a number of revolutionaries in Bushehr including martyr Abdol Rasoul Qaderian and then attached to behind a pickup and rolled out inside the city and the people chanted the slogan “Down with American”.

Ten days before the victory of the Islamic revolution on February 11, 1979, important events took place including the seizure of SAVAK’s headquarters led by martyr Hendi Zadeh. SAVAK was stationed in the present site of Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasting (IRIB) and when the victory of Islamic revolution became almost definite, their members had collected all their equipment and had gone out of there. There was nobody except a few soldiers and guards.

At this time, revolutionary forces launched popular forces spontaneously to control and establish security in the city. In this regard, Abdullah Fatehi says, “Another important event happened in the winter of 1979 was the setting up of resistance groups. There was no concentrated management at that time and police forces had lost their discipline. The security forces did not attend at their posts and the barracks were almost empty. Therefore, revolutionary forces felt that the popular forces needed to be set up in the form of resistance cells for defending the people and establishing security, and in view of people’s access to the existing weapons and ammunitions in military warehouses, they should not allow the opportunists to misuse them.”

Thus, Fatehi and his revolutionary friends under the supervision of Taheri and Hosseini set up these groups the activities of which continued until after the victory of the Islamic revolution.

Basically, military forces are considered as the most loyal ones for every state which is in power. Therefore, the army as a strong base and reliable base for the Pahlavi regime was trusted by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi strongly. Hence, it was almost impossible to carry out religious and revolutionary moves in this atmosphere. Nevertheless, few measures were carried out in the army clandestinely regarding ideological and political issues. Bushehr which was considered since old times as one of the most important air and navy bases in the country was the hub for a large number of army forces. Hossein Honardideh who was both an army officer and a close companion of martyr Ashuori and Mr. Hosseini says in this regard, “Although the army had a closed space, we were connected with those military forces who had religious spirit of course secretly and clandestinely.  We had tapes from the late Kaffi in our dressers, exchanging between each other. Our revolutionary and religious forces were martyr Abdol Rahman Faramarzi, Alireza Abadi, Hossain Ma’mouli and others. We had also a very small praying house in a way that just two persons could pray. Outside the garrison, we along with a number of military colleagues attended in religious rituals and exchanged views.”

In this regard, Reza Qaderian also says, “Since the army was considered as the strongest base supporting the Shah, the smallest measure against the Shah was followed by the worst consequence. Therefore, one of the army officers named Major Sepidmou who was supporting the revolution was in contact with us, giving political and ideological books to us and we kept them in the house.”

Air force officers were among the first groups who joined the revolution across the country. The extreme dependence of the air force on the foreigners had caused the officers of this military body to join the revolution sooner than other ones. On February 8, 1979, the air force personnel in a move coordinated across the country came to the streets with their uniforms and along with the people took part in a rally in Bushehr’s Imam Khomeini Square. The people welcomed them with flowers. Hence, the people of Bushehr welcomed February 11, shared themselves in the nation’s sweet victory.