Memoirs of Marzieh Hadidchi (Part 31)
2018-02-21
Memoirs of Marzieh Hadidchi (Dabbagh) (Part 31)
Edited by: Mohsen Kazemi
Tehran, Sooreh Mehr Publications Company
2002 (Persian Version)
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian
Decease of Dr. Shariati
During June 1978, Dr. Ali Shariati[1], university professor and well-known speaker in Hosseinieh Ershad, died of heart attack in London. It was a bit ambiguous and sorrowful. He, as a person who had been able to persuade many young people and students to struggle and to oppose the regime and the one who had awakened their religious thoughts by his fiery and fascinating speech, was merit of praise and his absence was tangible.
The supplementary news was that his wife wanted to travel to Europe to join Dr. Shariati, but SAVAK agents prevented her from leaving, and Dr. Shariati suffered heart attack after hearing that.
It was predicted that the death of Dr. Shariati led to combatants’ movement, especially university students’ movement. And it was true, many street protest and meetings were held both inside and outside the country, and his funeral ceremony turned into a protest against the regime. After some necessary preliminaries, the body of Dr. Shariati was transferred to Damascus for burial service. The combatants held a great funeral for him, and chanted slogans against the Shah's regime during the ceremony. His body was buried in a tomb behind the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque, which later turned into a safe place for combatant friends and acquaintances in abroad.
On the anniversary of Dr. Shariati’s decease, we were in Syria and his family came from France to Syria. Also, a number of Freedom Movement members participated. The ceremony was held in Shariati's tomb and participants were served by tea and dates.
In the summer of 1977, Muslim students in Europe prepared a street protest in London on the occasion of the late Dr. Shariati's commemoration. We were supposed to be present there as well. The martyr Montazeri had some facilities in London, like a rental house where he had put a stencil device and a typewriter in its attic. In this house a lot of leaflets and statements were typed and duplicated by our friends. My role was shopping and outdoor affairs. It seems that before protest rallies of Muslim students, my coming and goings made the police doubted me and they watched and kept an eye on me for a while.
In London, I was not wearing manteau and trousers, but I was wearing men parka and hat and sunglasses. On the day of rally, I distributed leaflets with this disguise. During the rally there was a clash between police and demonstrators, and eventually the police could disperse students and protesters.
To be continued…
[1]. Dr. Ali Shariati Mazinani was born on November 23rd 1933 in Mazinan, a village of Sabzevar and he was raised in a religious and scholar family. His father Muhammad Taqi Shariati, the founder of the Quran's facts publication center, was his first teacher. He completed his high school in Mashhad, and then went to the preliminary school of Mashhad and after receiving his diploma, he became a teacher. In 1954, he received a bachelor's degree in Persian literature from Mashhad University. During this period, he was interested in the movement of socialist monotheists and became a member of the National Resistance Movement. In 1956, he considered Islam's social and economic regime as scientific socialism, with the publication of his first book, Intermediate School of Islam. He married Pouran Shariat Razavi (sister of martyr Mehdi Shariat Razavi). In 1958, along with his father, he was arrested for membership in the National Resistance Movement and spent twenty nine days in Ghezelqala prison. Using the scholarship, he went to France and joined the "the youth Iranian National Movement" group in 1960, and played a role in the formation of the second national front in Europe. After achieving PhD in two fields of history and sociology from the Sorbonne University, Shariati returned to Iran in 1965. But he was arrested and imprisoned by the SAVAK agents in the Bazargan border and spent one month in prison. Dr. Shariati lectured in Mashhad Literature School since 1967, and joined the speakers of Hosseinieh Ershad with martyr Motahhari’s invitation. He was arrested and imprisoned on September 27th 1973 and he was released on March 20th 1975. After the closure of Hosseinieh Ershad and the increase in SAVAK’s pressure, he had to leave the country on May 16th 1976 under the name of Ali Mazinani. Finally, on June 19th 1976, Dr. Ali Shariati suffered a heart attack after he heard his wife was refused to travel to Europe, and died in Southampton, England. His body was transported to the Syria in accordance with his will and was buried in Damascus. Dr. Shariati left behind valuable works because of his lectures in Mashhad, Hosseinieh Ershad, various universities in Tehran and other cities, and also because of the power of his pen.
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