324th Night of Memory -3

Unveiling the book “Salam Agha Seyyed”

Adjusted by: Iranian Oral History Website
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2021-7-6

The 324^th Night of Memory session was held in person in the open area of Hozeh Honari on Thursday, May 27, 2021. In this program, Engineer Mehdi Chamran, Mr. Bijan Kiani, and Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Hasan Abu Torabifard expressed their memories. This night of memory was organized by Davood Salehi.

In the third part of this Night of Memory program, the book “Salam Agha Seyyed”, a memoir by proud Azadeh (freedman) “Alireza Mahmoudi Mozaffar”, was unveiled. Prior to the book’s unveiling, Mahmoudi Mozaffar narrated a memory of his captivity: his captivity was full of memories, memories of miss for family, concern for loved ones, and waiting for visit them again.

He saluted the women who escorted their husbands to the fronts and continued: “I suffered very hard, but all of it was very little in comparison to hardships that wives of the freedmen suffered. Please read Daughter of Sheena[1] to hear the true narrative of love of warriors and their wives and understand it better.”

The narrator also mentioned the late father of Abu Torabifard (Ayatollah Sayyid Abbas Abu Torabifard) and said: “The late Abu Torabi loved people of Bojnurd very much, and helped by his efforts, we had opened a cultural scientific forum for Azadegan (freedmen) and Quran center of Azadegan in Bojnurd.”

Mahmoodi Mozaffar continued to narrate memories from the Tikrit Camp 17 in Iraq and said: “One of the torturers in this camp was named Hashem, who was bony and swarthy. He would tell us early I am responsible for breaking your head, but after a short time, he would say with humility about the late Abu Torabi, in Arabic: “Hudha Rajol Tayyib Nafs” (this is a good man).” The late Abu Torabi had such an impact on this violent person that later we saw him with a prayer rug under his arms and very calmly. In my opinion, this was issuance of religion, knowledge, manhood, and high culture over the late Abu Torabi.

In his remarks, the narrator likened Azadegan’s bodies to canvases on which Iraqis, instead of brush, caused injuries with batons and torture cables. He said: “No one has seen these paintings except Azadegan and their mahrams, paintings shaped with blood of freedmen on their yellow clothes, but in the meantime, the only thing that caused us to resist was the holy verse; therefore stand firm.”[2] We will not sell this dignity at a trivial price.

The narrator continued: “During my captivity, I read this verse of Sa’di a lot to my friends:

Only You give dearness and despise/so nobody despises your dear.

The meaning of that is verse of “You will give honor to whomever you want, and you will despise whomever you want”[3].” The late Abu Torabi, was interpretation of this holy verse, he was example of this great concept that we all saw.

Mahmoudi Mozaffar continued: “When I went to propose my wife at the beginning of the revolution, I told her I am a revolutionary person and because of my duties, I might not even come home for five years. She agreed too, and interestingly, my captivity lasted exactly five years.”

He continued: “My father narrated during my captivity, he had one day attended Friday prayers in Bojnord, where they had also brought a number of Iraqi prisoners to Friday prayers. My father reminds me when he sees them and to be so impressed; since he misses me so much, he insistently begs the guards to let him hug and kiss one of them instead of his captive son.”

At the end of his remarks, the narrator mentioned the oppressed martyrs in captivity and thanked his family and others who helped him collect his memories in this book and prayed for them. Following the program, the unveiling ceremony of the book “Salam Agha Seyyed” was held with presence of the narrator, his wife, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Hasan Abu Torabifard, Mr. Dadman, the head of Hozeh Honari, Khoobnejad in charge of Payam Azadi Publications, Ghasemipour in charge of provinces affairs of Office of Resistance Literature, Ghadami in charge of Night of Memory program, and Ms. Seddiqi, the head of North Khorasan’s Hozeh Honari.