SABAH (8)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2020-5-5

SABAH (8)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami

Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

Published by Soore Mehr Publishing Co.

Persian Version 2019

We had placed posters from Vali-asr verse of Quran and some lines from Jihad and Martyrdom on the walls of our classroom. The classroom had turned to a conflict zone between the anti-religion advocate of Shah. Some of our teachers who were in favor of Shah and its dynasty, inspected the classrooms and would say: “Do you think this classroom is a mosque that you have placed such religious things on the walls?” we would answer: “is there any difference between school and mosque? Mosque is a sacred place for worshiping God and school is a place where you learn science and both places are to be respected! So it is better to decorate them with the best and most beautiful objects such as verses from Quran.” This helped us to give them a bitter answer and also to prevent them from tearing the posters down.

When they heard our answers, they would keep silent.

I remember that each year on the sixth of Bahman, the anniversary of white revolution of Shah, students used to collect money to buy decoration for classrooms. Students in our class never contributed.

In 1356, the state commander of navy, who was located in Khorramshahr, was replaced. Our principle brought his daughter and another girl who had just come from Tehran to our classroom. We were surprised. Normally she should have taken them both to class “A”. We did not know what was in her mind. Maybe she wanted to crack the religious atmosphere in our class or she wanted to have somebody among us to spy for her.

Their appearance and actions was not consistent with us. We had long arguments with the daughter of navy commander. She used to say:” why are you against colonization? It results in development. Every location which is colonized is equipped with mansions and buildings and road. Pay attention to the root and meaning of colonization. It comes from mansion. We should not resist it!”

We argued with her saying that we pay a high price for this development?! This development destroys our religion and culture?! She used to say which culture and belief? We are under developed and what kind of a thought or belief can we have?! We had long arguments especially with the daughter of commander. This girl interfered in everything. She had a high image of herself and wanted to know everything we did or talked about.

On 17th of Dey of 1356 an article was published in Ettela’at newspaper signed by and individual called Ahmad Rashidi Motlagh. In this article, hejab had been interpreted as an old fashioned style and non-hejab had been considered as virtue! Besides this interpretation, Imam Khomeini had been also offended in this article and the 15 khordad uprising had been introduced as black and red colonization conspiracy. The first city to react to this article was Qom. The Clergy school of Qom announced 18 of Dey as public holiday. The traders of Qom followed the clergy and announced 19 of Dey as public holiday and kept their businesses closed.

As soon as they closed their businesses, Shah started to slaughter people. At the same time, there were riots in other cities. We heard the news on the Farsi language programmer broadcasted from Cologne in Germany and Moscow radio stations.

After hearing the riots of 19 Dey and the martyrdom of our citizens, I did not attend school for three days to show compassion. I had no motivation to go to school or study. I felt like a depressed person. I just wanted to cry. I wore black clothes to school for a few days. On the fortieth day of martyrdom of Qom citizens, people in Tabriz had an uprising and many were killed.

The TV programs were not as before. They had to sensor the news. The same was with radio and newspapers. Public uprising had started in different parts of the country. On the fortieth day of martyrdom of citizens of one city, citizens in other cities had an uprising and were martyred. There were curfews in big cities.

I had a bad feeling that all other cities were with the martyrs of Qom but there was no sign of uprising in Khorramshahr. Khorramshahr was a small sea-side city and the royal navy forces were stationed there. There was also an army base. Although it was a small city but due to its important port, it was considered a strategic area. For this reason there was always an unnoticed curfew even if there was no political movement going on.

On the other side, Khorramshahr had a neighbor called Iraq which was waiting for a small change to create riots. For all the above reasons, no revolutionary movement could be formed. Despite knowing all of these facts, I was not happy with this situation. I felt bad that we had kept silent but did not know what to do about it.

When I was not attending school, Shahnaz brought the declarations of Imam Khomeini from college and read for us. The first declaration was about the crimes Shah had committed in the uprising of citizens in Qom. Imam’s wording made their way into my heart. Until that date, I had not heard the saying of a clergy other than Mr. Kafi and master Hejazi. I had another vision of clergies. I thought that they concentrate more on religion and its rituals. I never thought that the vision of thought of Imam Khomeini could be so political and enlightening.

After a while, Shahnaz was appointed to copy some of the declarations. I used to read the declarations and Shahnaz and Fouziyeh wrote them since my handwriting was not good. Then we took them to a shop which had stencil machine. This shop had been introduced by Mr. Kiavash to Shahnaz. We repeated this action once in a while.

We kept this action hidden from our mother. When my father was away, she was responsible for us and we did not want to put her in stress and fear. We (Fouziyeh, Saleheh and Ali and I) used to listen to the cassettes of Mr. Hejazi in which he gave description about Quran. Sometimes, Elaheh, daughter of auntie Maryam, would join us. Elaheh was three years younger than me. She was attending Esmatieh and was like us.

I did not study well. I used to go to school but did not like to study algebra, geometry and Farsi. One day I summarized the book of Dr. Shariat called “commitments of being Shi’a” and wrote an essay on it and read it for the class. During that school year, essay writing and geography teachers were against the regime and we could be easy during their classes. Mr. Jafari, our geography teacher, was of a member of Tudeh Party and had criticism to the regime; especially economic criticisms. One day he took us to the school lab and showed us some photos on the projector. The photos were from an opium poppy cultivation farms in Lorestan which he had taken himself.

Mr. Jafari looked at the photos and waited for us to react. We used this opportunity and asked: “Can any other plant be cultivated in these farms? Like grain and barely?” Mr. Jafari said: “yes, of course?” then we were surprised that why do we import everything; even onions and potatoes?”

Mr. Jafari had a meaningful silence and did not say much. He was very expedient and did not bother himself and did not want to jeopardize his position.

The second year of high school passed. I spent my summer holidays reading books or with my friends. We were attracted to religious books of Dr. Shariati. One of his books, called “Yeah! It was like this, brother!” had the most effect on me. Owning his books was a big crime and if SAVAK caught you with those books, your destiny was not clear. His books moved us. His epic spirit moved my spirit especially when he talked about government and revolution. You could not rest still after reading his books.

I read other books too. I read the book plague from Albert Camus. One day my aunt’s spouse, uncle hijab, saw me reading the book and said: “don’t read such things! It is not good for you. It will have bad effect on you.”

I read a few books from Franz Kafka too. Kafka’s writing was similar to Albert Camus’s writings and humanist and human oriented thoughts were reflected in them. Kafka believed in Nihilism. I read Sadeq Hedayat’s Three drops of blood. This book included eleven stories. Sadeq Hedayat had psychological approach and his writings were very similar to Kafka’s writings. Youth were very attracted to Sadeq Hedayat’s book on those days. The dark and hopeless atmosphere of his books resulted in suicidal actions among youth. I heard from my school mates or neighbors that the son of a family, who were wealthy and had no financial problems, had committed suicide after reading his books. The atmosphere in his books was filled with vulgarity. I detested his writings and finished reading them out of curiosity.

We also read Samad Behrangi’s books too. One of his most famous and most influencing books was Little Black Fish. I liked this method of writing.

To be continued…