Memoirs of Marzieh Hadidchi (Dabbagh) (Part 61)

2018-10-16

Memoirs of Marzieh Hadidchi (Dabbagh) (Part 61)

Edited by: Mohsen Kazemi

Tehran, Sooreh Mehr Publications Company

‎2002 (Persian Version)‎

Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

The most similar and the closest person to Mrs. Dabbagh was Mrs. Esmat al-Sadat Nasri[1]. Later, we realized that Mrs. Nasri had been probably among the first members in MKO, and therefore she knew Mrs. Dabbagh more. The two did not speak at all about their duty and past, and with whom they cooperated. They did not even say anything about tortures they had suffered. It was common that we spoke about our past, interrogations, and tortures briefly, when we sat together; but these two did not. Although I was in jail for a year, I did not know that Mrs. Dabbagh has worked with Ayatollah Saeedi and had been his student. She did not speak about her history at all.

During the interrogations, they told me that a woman wearing black burka has brought me leaflets. ‘No!’ I said. They asked, ‘so, where have you brought these leaflets?’ I replied, ‘From different places.’ and really we had not gotten them from her. Later, I found out that the woman with black burka, whom the interrogator spoke about, had been Mrs. Dabbagh. The interrogators tried hard to find anything about Mrs. Dabbagh, but she acted so good that they could not."

Mrs. Haddad Adel: ‘... when I was taken for interrogation, they opened a box file in front of me and asked, ‘Do you know who’s written these?’ I knew that box file, the same brown one, belonged to Rezvaneh Dabbagh. But I did not know who has written them and what their content was. I thought a little and replied, ‘I don’t know whose those are. How should I know?’ they tormented me very much to discover to whom it belonged. ‘Aren't yours?’ they asked. I said, ‘No. They're not mine.’ They asked again, ‘who’s the owner?’ I answered, ‘I don’t know.’ That day Manouchehri was the interrogator, who tried very hard to figure out who’s the owner of those papers, but he failed.

... Finally, I was sent to the Qasr prison. After a while, Rezvaneh also was sent there. I did not see her at the committee, but we met each other in the Qasr... In school, we were very intimate. I had gone to their house (I think it was in Ghiasi Street) and had gotten acquainted with Mrs. Dabbagh and her daughters. She had very good girls; one more ladylike than the other one. I remember Razieh very well. She was older than us, but still she was warm and friendly. Rezvaneh and I studied together. I remember the night that I stayed at their home. We girls talked and laughed very much that night; we were our age of twelve or thirteen years old. Mrs. Dabbagh went to roof to put her little baby to sleep. When we made a lot of noise, she shouted in awesome way (still she is awesome!), ‘be quiet kids!’ so, we cringed and silently did our works. At the same time, I felt that there is something in her voice which indicated that she can do a lot, she can manage, guide... Of course, the children respected their mother very much, and I also respected her; I always was respectful of her. In brief, I had been acquainted with and interested in Mrs. Dabbagh and her family in this way.

Mrs. Dabbagh was very sick in prison. She pretended she is illiterate, and then asked one of the Communists to teach her reading and writing. She wanted to prove she was really illiterate and did not know how to read or write.

Also, I remember that the religious ones were socialized, appeased, always together, and exercised and ate together, and etc. But Mrs. Dabbagh did not show tolerance with leftists. She had a very special position. At that time I intended to cozy up with them, perhaps I could influence them. They also thought that they could make use of my little age and influence on and attract me by telling their stories. They showed so much affection to me that aroused Mrs. Dabbagh’s sensitivity; so that, she said to one of the fellow prisoners, "Take care of Susan, she is very young. And the extreme kindness of the leftists is not without reason, they want to attract her.’

A woman named Vida Hajibi, who had a fourteen years old boy, wanted to show me her motherliness and affection. She supposed me as her own child and showed me such affection as if she did for her son; and hereby she compensated for her emotional vacuums. Similarly, Atefeh Golsorkhi (Golsorkhi’s wife) who had a kid in my age also showed so much affection to me. I was petite and weighed only 53 kg. And as I trusted in myself, did not escape from communicating with them. I thought that I was enough experienced and thoughtful that would not be influenced by them; but perhaps I had an effect on them. Mrs. Dabbagh was very worried about me. The last night when she was supposed to be released, we all stood by our beds for farewell. After listening to her speech, she kissed everyone goodbye, and when she kissed me, had a word in my ear, ‘have your mind on them [the leftists], lest they influence you.’ and then she said goodbye and went. I was surprised and felt that Mrs. Dabbagh's concern was serious. It was her timely alert and foresight which made me to watch myself all the time and I listened to her, and thanks God I passed the precipice safely. Since then their kindness lots its color.

One day, Mrs. Dabbagh got into problem and I did not know if it continued after releasing from prison or not. She suffered from a state like epileptic attack; her hands muscles went into spasms, her legs twisted, her eyes moved rapidly, and she was snoring in the center of room. She was in agony. Rezvaneh was next to her and asked us not to be worry, her mother got well after a few minutes. As I saw this scene, I cried and said, ‘Ah! What the matter with Mrs. Dabbagh?’ Rezvaneh said, ‘I was beside her when it happened. Don’t get upset. She’ll recover. It’s a transitory state.’ I guess it was the result of tortures in the joint committee.

One of Mrs. Dabbagh's obvious qualities in prison was that she was good in keeping secrets; so that, everyone first thought that she was a housewife and has been arrested wrong. And we later knew that she had been the martyr Ayatollah Saeedi’s student and had been taken part in his class. She did not speak about their organization, related people and cases at all. At the very beginning, she misled interrogators and prisoners and said she was an illiterate woman. But she was really a militant woman whose determination, leadership, and attraction arose from her great spirit.

Once, after Mrs. Dabbagh was released, they sprayed poison and locked the door to punish the prisoners. The prisoners fell ill and became almost poisoned. One of them, named Shahla, fluttered like a fish out of water. The only one who was very resistant and survived was Mrs. Nasri, who was a very stout and vigorous woman and remained safe and sound among others. The prisoners screamed and cried out and knocked the door so much that the guards felt pity for them. They went to ask the prison warden to open the doors. When the doors opened, they all vomited and had convulsions. I remember Mrs. Nasri held their arms to help them walk and went to the yard. I thanked God and said how good it was that Mrs. Dabbagh was not there. I recall I said to Mrs. Khayyer, ‘If Mrs. Dabbagh was here, how ill she would feel.’ I said this with particular concern.

Mrs. Dabbagh's night prayers, her fasting, being uncompromising with leftists, Hijab, decisiveness, and way of managing have remained in my mind from those days.

Rezvaneh was really a lady and expressed so much patience and calmness. She was truly the daughter of such a woman; but I was very naughty and my naughtiness was proverbial."

To be continued…