Memoirs of Marzieh Hadidchi (Dabbagh) (Part 62)

2018-10-23

Memoirs of Marzieh Hadidchi (Dabbagh) (Part 62)

Edited by: Mohsen Kazemi

Tehran, Sooreh Mehr Publications Company

‎2002 (Persian Version)‎

Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

C: About Vida Hajibi

Mrs. Mirkhani: "Although Vida was a leftist, it's not fair that we turn a blind eye on her positive characteristics. I myself respect her. I owe my bachelor in French to Vida Hajibi. My relationship with her was only for learning French and it did not go further. In prison, everyone taught others anything they knew. Vida knew French, English, and Spanish, so she held French class. We were seven or eight people, who attended in her class, but gradually it decreased, and finally, we were only two or three ones. To compensate, I taught Arabic to Vida.

About Vida, I should say that she was a communist, but we never heard that she insulted Islam; maybe she encountered with me in this way and did otherwise with the rest."

Mrs. Haddad Adel: "Vida Hajibi loved me a lot and considered me as her kid, which faded by Mrs. Dabbagh's warnings. Vida dominated about six or seven languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, etc.). She and Simin Nahavandi were the leader of leftists."

Mrs. Khayyer: "Vida was the most important person among non-religious prisoners. She was against Mrs. Dabbagh; two opposing poles. Sometimes I felt like she competed with me, because I met this type of persons in the university and also I had some Marxist information; and some of their young members were attracted to us, and Vida was worried that I made distance between them; therefore, she was in intellectual competition with me. She had advised one of girls not to put her heart into what I was saying.

She had planned and held language classes for prisoners, and wanted to attract them by her actions and kindness. She was a very affectionate and caring person. As long as I was there, I did not see any anti-moral action of her; of course, we followed somethings they did not. They did not consider toward us in dressing, bathing and something like that. Perhaps something happened, but it did not date back to the time I was there; I was released sooner than Mrs. Dabbagh and she was in prison longer, so she definitely remembers more about Vida.

One of the prisoners, who was a member of the leftists like Vida, was Sedigheh Sirefinejad. She was very interested in Mrs. Dabbagh’s character and seemed as if she was in conversion process.

Vida Hajibi was a seasoned woman about forty years old; a composed person who knew six or seven languages. One day, I asked her: ‘Vida, have you ever prayed? She replied, ‘Yes, I prayed until fourteen. Once my grandmother told me if I perform a thousand rakat prayer in Laylat al-Qadr, I’ll be the top student or, for example, I’ll be granted my wish. I performed fifty rakats prayer and then I gave it up. Now, I don’t say my son to be a religious person or a communist; he should choose whatever he wants.’"

Attachment 2

Mr. Hadi Ghaffari is one of the militants who left the country on September 8^th 1978 and went Syria passing through Turkey, after a lot of activities and being pursued by SAVAK and according to the recommendation and insistence of martyr Beheshti.

Ghaffari went to the shrine of Hazrat Zaynab to find familiar faces and made contact with militants who were there. He first met martyr Montazeri and then Ali Janati, Seyyed Mohammad Gharazi and Mrs. Dabbagh. Then, he began cooperation with them. He said:

"Then a woman came and said hello. She spoke very gently and calm. She said to me, "My name is Tahereh Dabbagh"[1].

Hadi Ghaffari faced with and connected to various people in Lebanon and Syria, and he was filled in on some issues about militants outside the country. In the following days, Jalal al-Din Farsi invited him to participate in a press conference. He said about that interview:

"... I had just left Iran and did not know what the interview was; I was not familiar with journalists until then [...] Mr. Jalal al-Din Farsi, Mrs. Dabbagh, martyr Mohammad Montazeri, Ahmad Hejazi, and some other friends had sat around a table. Many questions were raised about Iran's situation and the conditions of fighting and Iran’s future. They particularly questioned very much about the role of Marxists in Islamic rule. As my speech finished, I saw Mr. Farsi became angry. ‘Mr. Ghaffari, it went badly!’ he said. I asked, ‘Why?’ He replied: ‘Mr. Ghaffari, don’t you know that here is Lebanon? Why did you speak ill of Russia? Many of those who support us are also supporter of Russia.’ [...] I said: ‘We are as opposed to the US as we are against the Soviet Union and China, but our main enemy is the United States.

As I said these, the Palestinians, who were fans of Russia, collected their things and went out. On that day, Mrs. Dabbagh was the only one who strongly encouraged me to speak clearly and frankly."[2]