"Boycott"

The Tactic of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization against the Opposition

Malihe Kamaledin
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2021-2-9

Note: The 321st Night of Memory was held online on the Aparat website on January 21, 2017. On this night, "Mohammad Reza Ali Hosseini" and "Davood Asadi Khameneh" shared their memories. In this program, which was dedicated to the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Davood Salehi was present as the host.

The first guest of this program was Mohammad Reza Ali Hosseini, one of the fighters of the years before the revolution. He, first, introduced himself as the secretary-general of the Association of Muslim Political Prisoners before the revolution and said: "This association consists of loved ones who spent difficult and exhausting conditions in the torture chambers of the Pahlavi regime for at least six months before the revolution."

He said that many of these friends went to the fronts at the beginning of the revolution because of their love for the people and the revolution, and were martyred or became veterans. Today, this organization continues to work, and what bothers us the most is the heavy cultural neglect after the revolution, which unfortunately has caused us to forget the hardships and tortures that the fighters endured before the revolution. This negligence has progressed to the point that Reza Pahlavi claims freedom in the country and spread the claims among the youth.

He said: "This is one of the most obvious reasons that, after the revolution, those sacrifices for the roots of the revolution were not addressed and naturally the young generation, today, does not know that: " What fevers melted our suffering body / What lips became sad instead of laughter".[1] If these became clear, those who are the enemies of this country could no longer claim freedom.

Ali Hosseini continued his speech about how he was arrested by SAVAK: I was arrested in 1974 because of my membership in the revolutionary group Abu Dharr. In 1973, a large number of members of this group were arrested and six persons of the Iranian nation, aged 18 to 20, were handed over to execution squads by the Pahlavi regime. When the first trial of these people ended, the three of them did not even appeal the decision. These people all loved martyrdom. These six people were executed with the personal signature of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. On the anniversary of the martyrdom of these six people, we decided to execute one of their main elements in revenge for SAVAK. Earlier, my friends and I were arrested. SAVAK took some weapons and ammunition from me and a considerable amount of bomb-making tools; But because there was no murder, we were not executed, but maybe it would have been better for us if we had been executed too, because according to my sister, "Jamileh Bupasha"[2]:" Revolutions are designed by philosophers, lovers end it and opportunists take advantage of them." In any case, we hope that many of the ideals of the revolution that have been neglected will be realized, because the result of this neglect is the claim of the former torturers to lead the people.

He went on to say that the circumstances of the person who was arrested for leaflets were very different from when a person who was arrested for having weapon and ammunition. SAVAK used the most severe torture on a gunman for an armed person to reveal the secrets; therefore, people under torture could survive for a short time because SAVAK knew that in order to maintain its speed of action, it had to inflict the most torture on the individual so that his teammates could be identified.

Ali Hosseini continued: "A few days after the end of my severe torture, one day someone was brought into our cell and he stayed there for 24 or 48 hours, and we found out that he was a member of SAVAK and he had come to make a friendship plan, and then receive information that We did not let SAVAK get out from under our tongues. I was imprisoned in cell number one of the Joint Committee Prison (now the Museum of Lessons). One day the prison guard opened the cell door and ordered me to come out. I came out slowly and painfully. He opened the door of cell number 20 and I was taken there. Since the cells were almost dark and there was very little light, I saw someone sitting in that cell. When the prisoner left, he asked me what my name was, and I replied that I was Ali Hosseini. He also said that I am Ali Hosseini! I was surprised and when he saw my surprise, he asked, "What is your first name?" And I answered Mohammad Reza. He said: "I am also Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei."

He continued: "Two months before my arrest, he was giving a speech at the Javid Mosque[3], where I also went to hear what he was saying; But he was not allowed to speak. Since there were a few clergymen who fought seriously, we all knew and loved them all. After that, I was fascinated by Ayatollah Khamenei and it made me proud to be with him in a cell. My physical condition was very bad and he took care of me. Whenever we were not tortured, he would hold classes for us and interpreted the Qur'an and Nahj al-Balaghah.

Ali Hosseini continued his speech as follows: "One day the interrogator discovered something from me that I had not stated in my statement. He had told the guards to go and get Ali Hosseini out of cell 20, beat him up, and when he was ready, let me know so that I could come to interrogate him. When the guards opened the cell door, they told that Ali Hosseini to come out. My cellmate said I am Ali Hosseini. They were taken out of the cell and tortured along the way. When the interrogator is informed that a prisoner is ready, when the interrogator sees him, he starts insulting the guards for mistakenly torturing a cleric who is the prisoner of another interrogator and bringing him there!

The narrator of the program continued his memories in trial and said: "I did not get a lawyer in court and because the military court was trying us, the government itself hired a lawyer from the army." In the first court, my charges included six cases, including armed struggle and attempting to overthrow the government, robbery, explosion, and so on.

The lawyer started saying that these people were young and ignorant, and all this was done because of their ignorance, and we ask the court to pardon these people. The president of the court asked me to defend myself if I had to. I also told the president of the court that while rejecting all the professions of my lawyer, I would accept all six charges. I was a little over 18 at the time and was sentenced to life in prison in that court.

Ali Hosseini continued his memories in Qasr Prison and said: "When I was in Wards 4, 5 and 6 of Qasr Prison, I realized that it was under the control of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization and that there was a complex secret system. Before my arrest, the organization had issued announcements that it would like the Abu Dharr group to be recruited, and we replied that we would cooperate but would not be recruited. When I entered the prison, someone came up to me and said that I was in charge of you and that he was teaching me and arguing. After a month, we disagreed and another person started working as my manager. After two months, he also changed, and after him, Yaghoubi[4] played this role. He argued with me for a while, and when he could not do anything, I was boycotted in prison.

The narrator continued: One of the important issues of the prison is the boycott. This was one of the heavy means used by the hypocrites in prison to break a person's character. That is, the prisoner was put under the pressure, and they tried to make him surrender and then announce to everyone that whoever was not with us couldn't continue on the path of his beliefs. Until 1976, I was on a boycott. Many others were boycotted, but none of us knew about it. People like Javad Mansouri, Reza Mansouri, Ahmad Nasri, etc. were among these people who were all boycotted but thought that only they were alone and the rest of the people were with the organization. During the month of Ramadan in 1976, we were initially allowed to sleep in the yard at night and set the table at dawn, but after a few days, we were told that no one had the right to wake up before dawn and set the table. Because it was a disgrace for us, we talked for a few days to conclude, and it was there that we just realized that about two-thirds of us had been boycotted by the organization.

Ali Hosseini continued his speech: "It was in that year that some clerics in Evin prison issued a fatwa (prescription) stating the impurity of the communists." Before that, when meat or fruit and food were brought by the visitors, one person would take them all and we would all eat them together, but then the Muslims didn’t share their table with the communists and the members of the Mujahedin-e-Khal Organization; and the Communists and Mujahedin-e-Khalq were together and the Muslims separated themselves from them.

The narrator ended his speech with a memory from the first night of February 1979. He said: "By that time, political prisoners had been almost released and only 180 of these political prisoners remained in the whole country." The guards opened the cell door shortly after the evening prayer, and we reached behind the large prison door. Many people had climbed over the walls from outside the prison, and perhaps if they had not released us in half an hour, they would have taken over the prison. It was difficult anyway, and despite the pressure of the crowd, we were able to get out of prison.