Keep the Frame Right

Compiled by: Iranian Islamic Revolution Website
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2023-12-28

My friends and I [Mohammad Hossein Matiei] was involved in the reproduction of the declaration. According to the anti-Savak pamphlets that Mr. Gholamreza Malik, one of the employees of the [Arak] machine factory, gave us to study, the number of people to do this work should be limited so that if one person was exposed, he would not have the ability to expose the others. For this reason, I worked with Samad, Abbas Ali Hashemi (Humafar of the Air Force)[1] and Mahmoud Sofian from the end of 1977 and the beginning of 1978. Mahmoud Sufian was one year older than me and he was born on Eid al-Adha, that's why we called him "Hajji". He was a chemistry teacher at that time. I was the one who planned and coordinated the work, and the others did not know the details of the activities. At this time, my father died and grandmother was taken to his son. I was alone at home, so my house was suitable for doing activities. As a precaution, I had given my friends like Haji and Samad the key to the house so that if something happened to one of us, the other would come quickly and clean the house.

According to the instructions from Tehran, we prepared the printing machine, which included the frame, muslin cloth, paper, stencil pen, etc., and from then on, we printed and reproduced the leaflets. Most of the announcements belonged to the Imam. We used to kiss them and rub them on our heads and faces during reproduction. We used to get leaflets and tapes from reliable channels; For example, some were given to us by Mr. Vafai who used to come to Arak with Master Al-Ishaq. At home, Haji and I copied the leaflets one by one from 10:00 am to 2:00 am. One of us would hold the frame and the other would turn over the stencil sheet and apply the ink with a card. We used to print about 50 leaflets every night because it was tiring to have to hit them one by one, and then we had to spread the leaflets on the floor to dry. The size of the leaflets was white A4. We used to get the papers in a package from the bookstore and our inks were also black.

One night when we were making leaflets, my friends said to Haji: "Keep the frame right!" A moving particle would become two lines and could no longer be read. Because once Savak had taken Haji and tortured him physically and mentally, he got angry quickly, so he said angrily: "I kept him well!"

I said: "No, you didn't hold it right!"

He said: "Keep it to yourself" and we argued together. Haji got angry and said: "I want to go!"

I said: "Go away!" I didn't think he would leave at two midnight. There was a sound in the yard. I thought he slammed the door to make me think he was gone! I kept saying: "Haji come, Haji come let's finish the work," but there was no news of Haji. I went looking for him, I didn't see him! I was stunned. Haji was gone. I didn't dare to open the door and look at the street! In front of our house, there was an export bank that was attacked and its windows were broken, so during these nights, two officers on motorcycles stood guard in front of our neighbor Mr. Mohammadi's house. I was saying to myself that Haji left and they followed him, now they are asking Haji and coming to me too, I thought a thousand thoughts. We had a metal sink that was installed in the corridor, near the entrance door, and the water from its pipe poured into the alley. I wanted to wash my hand, which was black, but I didn't dare, I told myself that if I wash my hand, which is a bit black, and the water passes through the air, the motorcyclists will see it and come to me. I hastily packed the things and cleaned the place. I also placed the duplicator, which was the size of an A4 sheet, in the basement next to my school books, which were all in wooden boxes. I was tired that night until morning. Haji came a few days later and we started the reproduction work again.

The story of Haji's arrest dates back to early 1978. Sometimes the newspapers falsely wrote that famous speakers are speaking in a certain place at a certain time. This was the trick of the regime to make revolutionary people go to the announced place and then arrest them. Once they had made such a trick, Abbas Ali and Mahmoud went to the same place in Tehran that the newspapers had written about and got caught. When the officers ask them: "What are you doing here?" Because before that they went to the house of Mahmoud's family named Nematullah, they say: "We went to uncle Nemat's house. We wanted to go to the mosque to pray when they caught us." They ask Abbas Ali: "What are you doing?" He says: "Humafar." They ask him for an identification card and Abbas Ali shows his card. They ask Mahmoud: "What are you doing?" He says: "Student." They take him and leave the rest. Abbas was explaining until I saw that they took Mahmoud because we had already bought some books from University Street, including the books of Ayatollah Motahari and Dr. Shariati, and put them in Mahmoud's bag. And I took the bag from him. Samad gave me the news of Haji's arrest, and I immediately emptied my house of all the materials related to our activities, including sprays, leaflets, etc. Jafar Agha, Haji's older brother, and his father also took his books out of their house, but thankfully nothing happened. After Mahmoud was released, it was difficult for him to do activities for a while, but then he started again. He told me bitter memories of the prison and the mental torture of the prisoners. For example, he said: "They tied our hands and feet and beat religious women in front of us. They said: help brothers! But there was nothing we could do. Then the Savakis would sarcastically tell us to help them. When someone showed a reaction, they hit him on the head with a baton. The prisoners were taken to the bathroom in pairs. There was no water tap and a bucket of water and a small container were placed in the corner of the bathroom to torture the prisoners. When Haji told his memories, we both cried.

Sometimes we wrote the announcements with our own handwriting with a stencil pen and reproduced them. When I got a job at the conservatory, copying was easier because we used the printing machine there. We also listened to the tapes and copied them. The duplicating tapes belonged to the imam, Dr. Ali Shariati, and the speeches that were given in support of the imam, such as the speeches of Mr. Khalkhali and Sheikh Gulsarkhi; Of course, the most interesting and hottest speeches belonged to Mr. Golsarkhi and Mr. Khalkhali.[2]