SABAH (6)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2020-4-21

SABAH (6)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami

Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

Published by Soore Mehr Publishing Co.

Persian Version 2019

My first friend in high school was Mitra Mousavi. She was calm and beautiful and had a delicate spirit. She was a poet. They visited a place called “Esmatieh” regularly along with her two friends, Amireh Mohammadi and Farah Mahini. Esmatieh was a place like Hosseinieh where children learned Quoran. It was in a building near Falakeh Ahmadzadeh. Amireh and her family lived in Kout Sheikh. Her grandfather was a clergy and her family were religious. Contrary to Amireh’s family, Mitra’s family were not very religious and Mitra was the most devoted among them. They were wealthy. Farah Mahini had only one sister coming from a middle-class family and his father was an officer in municipality.

We had been friends for a while that we decided to have a Quoran class in high school under the influence of Esmatieh. They were studying Quoran in Esmatieh and I learned it from Shahnaz at home. Shahnaz had got her diploma and was attending college in Abadan. She was studying Quoran under the guidance of her professor, Mr. Kiavash, and was very interested and improved each day.

Fouziyeh had got her diploma in math and was accepted in Tabriz university to study Agricultural Engineering but my father did not allow her to go. He did not accept the fact that his daughter is away from home. Fouziyeh who was in love with studying and university did everything to persuade him but my father did not change his decision. At the end Fouziyeh gave up and decided to give it a try the next year.

In our Quoran class, we started reading the verses and its meanings. We had our classes during breaks, sport classes, lunch breaks and … we did not let anybody know what we were up too. Sometimes we had lunch at school saying that our houses were far. We ate our lunch fast and studied. As time passed, Farah’s sister, whose name I do not recall, joined us. We also accepted our classmates who were eager to learn about religious thoughts and beliefs and was trustable, to join our group. One of them was a girl named Iran. Iran did not have hejab but was very noble; she was not like other students who were thinking about their boyfriends and their appearances. After a while, she changed and started wearing hejab and observing religious things.

After studying and focusing more on the verses of Quoran, I started having a new approach to the issue of hejab. Until that date hejab was a belief from my father and had no other meaning for me, but my participation in this group and among those who hunted one minute to study one verse of Quoran, changed me to a woman who was attracted to hejab herself.

I was on the verge of sixteen years of age and I could think more about being fashionable and without hejab, but my psychology had changed and I wanted to hide myself more and more from impure eyes. A good thing was happening inside me.

I started by wearing two socks over each other. Until that day, my father, my mom and Shahnaz always argued with me to wear a thicker sock but I did not listen to them.

The school uniform was grey with long sleeves and under the knees. Scarves were optional. Those who wanted wore it. I used to wear a see-through scarf. Little by little I started wearing a bigger cotton scarf and later I fixed it better under my chin instead of having it knotted loosely. I chose longer and looser clothing to cover myself more. Shahnaz encouraged me and this encouragement kept me going. There were changes in all members of the group, changes in different aspects.

Our high school principal was a lady called Samar who focused her curriculum on dance and singing until the birthday of Shah which was on 4^th of Aban. Her sister was an opera singer in Austria and Shah invited her to have a concert in Vahdat hall each year. She liked to have make up and was famous among all students as “coloring canvas”!

After celebrating the birthday of Shah on 4^th of Aban, the concentration of some teachers, not all of them, returned to our studies. Many of them were busy with their make ups and having their hairs done and took no responsibility towards our education. Only a few had commitment and taught us well.

Little by little a few books and training materials entered our Quoran class. Small books such as biography of clergy men and Imams, books from late Jalal Al Ahmad and books about the constitution and tobacco movement. These books, along with other pamphlets such as “how to form special groups” or “communism” and some revolutionary poem books reached us through different channels. Shahnaz brought some of them for us and others also brought some.

One of the other good students who had recently joined our Quoran class was Leyloun Norouzi. Leyloun wanted to wear hejab but was afraid of her father. He dropped Leyloun to school each morning and picked her up after school. Poor Leyloun wore her hejab at school and then hided it in her bag after leaving school.

One day, Mitra wore a special scarf called Maghnae to school. Mitra became very attractive when she wore hejab because she was very beautiful and attractive. She came from a wealthy family but never wore expensive clothes to show off her wealth.

We had sport class in the morning. We were waiting for Ms. Jafari to come to yard to start the class. She was coming out of the stairs very slowly but all of a sudden noticed Mitra’s Maghnae and attacked her and started pulling it out of her head and said with a disrespecting tone: “what is this garbage?!”

Mitra’s maghnae was torn! We were looking at each other with surprise. We did not know that Ms. Jafari could have so many complexes towards our hejab. Ms. Samar, our principal’s assistant, Ms. Sohrabi, came into the yard. Ms. Jafari, proud of what she had done, said: “arrogant girl! Now she is wearing hejab. I tore her Maghnae on her head!”

She turned her back and walked towards the office and did not come back. Ms. Samar also stood by her side and told Mitra: “What stupid thing is this that you are doing!” Other students who were shocked by the reaction of Ms. Jafari, were crying quietly. That day went by, but the next day our principal announced that Mitra, Farah and Amireh are fired from the school for ignoring school regulation!” Farah and Amireh were wearing hejab like me and they were confused that why they should be fired too?! They had assumptions that somebody had spied on them when they went to Esmatieh.

Girls did not come to school for three days. I shared this event with Shahnaz. She went to Mr. Kiavash to see if anything can be done for them or not. Mr. Kiavash was a well-known college professor and he talked about religious celebration in the radio of Abadan. He came to school and talked to Ms. Samar. Girls could come back to school after his mediation.

The situation with our teachers was not good. You had to see our Religion teacher, Ms. Marashi. She always wore shirt and trousers and had a wig on her head. She believed that she had hejab because her wig hided her hair from the impure eyes. She said that my sleeves are long, and I have trousers on so I am wearing hejab. She constantly advised us to be placid and behave in the society.

One day, in Quoran session, Farah Mahini gave me a pamphlet from “in the path of right” institute. When I saw this pamphlet, I wrote a letter to the institute and requested to become a member. After a while, I received the answer. I had been accepted as a member and I started receiving one pamphlet monthly through courier. As far as I remember, this institute was working under the supervision of Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi and the target was to fight with Bahaism and recognition of this unaccepted religion. During those years, Bahaism had had a great chance to advocate its beliefs since Amir Abbas Hoveyda was a Bahai and had been Vice President for 13 years. Bahais who were mostly greedy individuals, spent a lot of money for their advocations. That was why you could see them mostly in rural and poor populations in remote border villages.

The pamphlets of institute were exchanged between members of our group. Beside these pamphlets, Shahnaz was bringing home a few books from Professor Motahari and Dr. Shariati. She had neatly made a wooden book shelf for herself and organized her books. I was in dire interest of reading these books like a dry desert looking for rain drops.

As Farah high school was only for those studying Literature, I moved to Iran Dokht high school in Milanian street. We kept our activities there too. It was 1356 and anti-regime movements had become more vivid. Our group wanted to have a share in these movements.

The first step we took was to help political prisoners’ families. Those attending Quoran school informed us that their Quoran teacher, Ms. Abedi, and her friends have identified the families of political prisoner in Khorramshahr and visit them. They said that those families were not in good shape due to the absence of their spouses or sons and need help. We collected food and money for them. I told my mom and Shahnaz about this. Shahnaz was receiving money from college as study allowance also contributed to our charity and never refused our request.

To be continued...