Gol Mohammad Shekari’s Memory

Translated by Mandana Karimi

2025-4-2

During the revolution days, I worked in the village bathhouse. I would hear the news of people’s demonstrations on the radio. Sometimes, I or someone else from the village would go to the city and witness the marches there. At that time, a teacher from the village was martyred in the city, and a large number of people went to Bojnourd to attend his funeral. My cousin was a revolutionist living in Bojnourd. After some time, he suggested that I cooperate with him in distributing Imam’s leaflets. He would get the leaflets from Hajj Agha Ahmad Yahouian’s house in Bojnourd and give them to me to deliver to Gholaman county. I would come to Bojnourd once or twice a week to buy bathroom supplies such as soap, shampoo, and cleaning products. We would put the leaflets, which were two or three sheets, inside these items and put them in the minibus. At night, we would take the leaflets containing Imam Khomeini’s messages and speeches to the doors of the local confidants, and they would give the leaflets to the literate youth to transcribe and distribute to more people. The next morning, all the people of Gholaman would gather to read the leaflets, and the Imam’s message would reach everyone. Another person who would deliver the leaflets to us was Colonel Masoud Vahidi’s father, who would give me the leaflets. The company commander, Second Lieutenant Ashegheh, was fully aware of the distribution of the leaflets; but he did not hinder our work, but often cooperated with us. For example, he would tell me: “Instead of delivering the leaflets to the doors of houses in the middle of the night, bring them to the public bathhouse and put them inside people’s clothes.” In contrast, the head of the checkpoint was very strict and repeatedly threatened us that “if I took a leaflet from you, I would hand you over to the court.” Once, he arrested my cousin for having leaflets and severely beat her to make her reveal the people and where she had obtained them. My cousin never confessed and said that she found these papers in the alley. Every time I brought leaflets from Bojnourd, they would stop the minibus in front of the checkpoint to search suspicious people. But I would escape them with subtle tricks. I would try to hide the leaflets among the cleaning products so that the gendarmes would not become suspicious. Once, they suspected my luggage; but the driver, in the utmost chivalry, said: “This luggage is not about Gol-Mohammad.” At the same time, I pretended to be intoxicated and moved away from the car and began to vomit forcefully to dispel the suspicions of the Shah’s agents. Thank God, the leaflets reached the village and were distributed without any problems.

Source: Amini, Abolhassan, Ba javanmardan-e marzban: Abolhassan Amini, Farhad Forouzan, (With the Young Men of the Border Guard, Abolhassan Amini, Farhad Forouzan,) by order of the North Khorasan Border Guard Command and the General Directorate for Preservation of Works and Publication of the Values ​​of the Sacred Defense of North Khorasan, Tehran, Sarir, 2016, pp. 37-39.