A Section of Mullah Saleh Memoirs
Congress of Arab Poets in War
Compiled by: Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad
2023-1-17
The poisonous propaganda of the Iraqi radio to discourage the fighting forces and the people remaining in the cities and villages, which was carried out by its mercenaries, had reached such a point that it made me think of doing something big, whose voice would reach outside the borders and the advocates of the defense of Arabism and Khuzestan's people
The best thing was to hold a conference and congress of Arabic poetry and invite Arab poets and heads of war-torn and scattered tribes all over the country.
This thought occupied me. I was looking for a suitable opportunity to let Saddamian know that the people whose women and children you displaced and whose men you killed are the same Arab people that you put stones on their chests to defend them. Those who love their soil and homeland.
By calling and writing a letter to Mr. Abbas Doz Dozani, Minister of Guidance and Islamic Culture at the time, who was one of the political fighters and my friend and fellow prisoner in the Shah's prison, I presented my proposal. Mr. Doz Dozani was very pleased and promised cooperation, budget, travel expenses and necessary reception for the conference.
After receiving a favorable promise from the Minister of Guidance and preparing the budget, I started traveling to the cities where the war dead lived and invited poets, nobles, elders, and Arab sheikhs for this important work.
It was very important news; On the day of the opening of the congress, about a thousand guests gathered in the amphitheater of a large cinema in Shiraz and a very magnificent ceremony was held in which poets, poets, nobles and elders of Arab tribes defended the revolution and the movement of Imam Khomeini and condemned the Baathist regime and Saddam. They read poems and articles.
Holding this magnificent poetry congress, which was broadcast on TV for a week in Shiraz and had a wide coverage in domestic and foreign newspapers, was very effective in neutralizing Saddam's propaganda about supporting the Arab people. I was happy and I did not know him. I had dedicated my whole being to the goals of the revolution and with this move I once again blackened Saddam's face. The only thing that bothered me and occupied my mind did not know about my family, I didn't know where and in what condition they were.[1]
[1] Ghobeyshi, Marziyyah, Mullah Saleh, Biography of Mullah Saleh Qari: Iranian POWs Interpreter, Qum: Shahid Kazemi Pub. Co., 1395 (2016), p. 115.
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