Memories of a Mazandaran woman

The Memory of Voting on April 1st of 1979

Narrator: Nasrin Faryabi - Ramsar
Compiled by: Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2024-4-3

The country in the fire of sedition!

The famous voting was on April 1^st, 1979. The governor gave us a mission to take a ballot box to "Javaherdeh" village. As many as qualified, they also gave us a ballot to take to the country with the box. We put the papers in the bag and left. Then, like now, there was no car to easily go to the villages. No matter how difficult it was, we got a car and finally reached Javaherdeh. The people of the country saw the box and the white cloth that was supposed to be placed on the box and they understood that we are among the agents of the election. More than people are in the country, travelers were there. As a precaution, my father took the box to the house of Martyr Mehmatchi's father, so that he could take the box from there to the polling place tomorrow during the voting. We wanted to leave the ballot bag at Mr. Mehmatchi's house, so we said to ourselves, we will take this with us to Ramsar city and when we return tomorrow, we would bring it again with us. My father and I returned the way we came. Our house was being repaired and we had to rent a house for ourselves until it was repaired. At half past two in the night, the owner of our house shouted: "Sir! Stand up! The cottage is on fire."

My father did not hesitate until he heard this from the owner of the house and immediately went to the villa. Everyone tried their best to put out the flames.

There was no phone in the village to call Ramsar for help. The shop where the ballot box was inside was completely burnt.

A few hours after the fire was contained by the campers and travelers, my father returned. We, who were waiting for news from the villa, ran to our father to find out about the incident. The father, who was not in a good mood, said: "These damned hypocrites did their work and when they found out that we put the cash register inside the shop, they came and vandalized; I wish when we were leaving, we would hide the fund so that no one would know that we are among the agents of the election."

The hypocrites thought that the ballot papers were inside the shop and if they set fire to the shop, nothing would be left of the ballot papers except ashes, and the people of the village would no longer be able to participate in the April 12th voting and vote "yes" for the Islamic Republic. Unaware that we didn't leave the ballot paper bag there and took it with us.

We reached the mosque where the people of Javaherdeh voted. We immediately took an initiative and with the help of a few people, instead of the box that caught fire, we made a box with the help of cardboard and wrapped a white cloth around it and got ready to vote from the people. A few security guards were armed to protect the election site due to yesterday's vandalism by the hypocrites, but despite all this, the hypocrites did not stop their intrigues. One of the guards was the father of martyr Gohar Rostami. He was attentive so that no one would break into the voting.

At the same time, three sisters who had hypocritical tendencies came to the polling place. The martyr's father, who knew that those three people did not have benevolent intentions and had come to disturb the security of the election by creating a conflict, stood in front of them and while pulled his gun’s breechblock; He threatened him and said: "Don't delay and put your vote in the box and leave here soon."[1]