Tasua Day March in Paveh

Compiled by: Islamic Revolutionary Website
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2025-1-15

The Tasua Day march, on December 10 of 1978, which was held in Tehran and all the cities of the country at the invitation of Ayatollah Taleghani, was a turning point in the history of the revolution. The people of Paveh also publicly announced their readiness to participate in this march, which, according to Imam Khomeini, was a public referendum of the people to end the Shah's reign, and responded to the nationwide call. The fact that the Tasua march coincided with the fortieth day of the martyrdom of the martyrs of November 8 of 1978, at the hands of the ruler's agents, brought the gathering and presence of the people to the highest level and led to the expansion of the population and their unity. On the other hand, the days of Ashura and Tasua were the most precious and greatest opportunity to attend and protest against the rule of the Pahlavi regime in Iran, and the Iranian people used this opportunity in the best way.

In Paveh, the five-member decision-making committee for this major movement included two clerics - Banda and Mullah Nasser Sobhani - and two Paveh educators - Mr. Kamal Zardashtian and Seyyedragheb Ahmadi, and a student named Mr. Masoud Sabeqi. The day before the march, we decided to gather at Hazrat Abdullah Mosque and start the march at 10:00 AM and end at Molavi Square and the former mosque.

After gathering at Hazrat Abdullah Mosque and listening to the speeches of Mr. Ahmad Hakimi and Abdul Karim Farhadi, the people of Paveh prepared themselves for the march from in front of this mosque to Molavi Square. Mr. Hakimi and Farhadi were revolutionary secretaries of Paveh who gave speeches about the Islamic movement in Iran and the duties of Muslims in developing and expanding the movement. In the meantime, news reached the mosque that gendarmerie forces had set up an ambush in the municipal garden (now: the Islamic Guidance Office building) and had sworn that anyone who set out on the street with the intention of marching would be killed. Of course, this ridiculous threat did not have the slightest effect on the people's morale. On this day, Kaveh Bahrami, a youth from Paveh, for the first time took out a pile of photos of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, which he had hidden inside his coat, with special courage and distributed them among the people present in the mosque and the gathering. Most of the people who had not seen the image of the Imam so freely that day, this brave act of Kaveh Bahrami had a great impact on their morale.

The march began at ten in the morning. In previous marches and gatherings, our slogans were calm, but on this day, harsh slogans such as Death to the Shah and Peace be upon Khomeini resonated in the city. Mr. Rostam Bahrami, Kaveh's father, was so excited by the presence of the crowd that when we reached the Paveh gas station, he shouted loudly: "My dear Khomeini! Tell me so that I can shed blood."

It is worth noting that a resident of Kangavar had been living in Paveh for several years and had a photography shop near Husseinyeh Khalisi. He was highly respected by the people and apparently had a revolutionary disposition. In addition to participating in the marches, he took pictures of the youth. After a while, when the participants in the march were summoned to the police and SAVAK, people almost certainly suspected the photographer. People thought that he was a SAVAK agent. Rumors of the famous city photographer’s collaboration with SAVAK spread from mouth to mouth and angered people. They believed that the photos taken by the photographer were ordered and recommended by SAVAK to identify revolutionaries. Therefore, on Tasua’a Day, when the marchers approached his shop, they broke into the photographer’s shop, chanting harsh slogans of “Death to SAVAK,” and caused great damage to his shop, which was next to the tomb of the late Khalifa Mohammad Tawfiq. After the Tasua march, SAVAK, in coordination with the police and gendarmerie, arrested a number of people influential in the awakening movement of the people of Paveh on the night of Ashura, 11th of December; Among them were Mr. Kamal Zardashtian, Mullah Abdul Qadir Azizi, Mullah Abdul Rahman Yaqoubi, Yousef Rasoulabadi, Abdullah Rostami Dorisani, Feyzollah Saadollahi, and Fattah Naderi, who were sent to Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah after their arrest.[1]