Being Arrested for no Logical Reason

Compiled by: Islamic Revolution Website
Translated: Fazel Shirzad

2021-8-24

Religious prisoners often recited verses from the Qur'an to boost their morale and that of others, and recounted the resistance of the early elders of Islam. But the communists were alien to this habits and deprived of this treasure of knowledge. Several of these people were in a cell next to ours. Their hobby was often singing the vulgar songs of the time. One of them, who had a beautiful voice, constantly sang an especial song so that we also memorized it.

My cellmate and I, who was arrested in the street, were talking about the Qur'an and history. I asked him, "Do you know the story of Prophet Yusuf?" He said:" no." I told him this historical story.

It was the night of the thirteenth of Rajab and the birth of the Imam Ali (PBUH). After dinner, two of us prayed evening and night prayers in congregation. After the prayer, we asked God to make us free from this prison with dignity. Because in those circumstances, everyone was worried that he might show weakness during the interrogation. There was no pillows, blankets or mattresses. We slept on a rug. After finally dealing with the disturbing thoughts caused by the interrogations of the past days and worrying about the plans for the days to come, we finally fell asleep. We had just fallen asleep when we suddenly jumped in the iron of the cell with a terrible sound. We found that the prison guard attacked us with his boots, and we were like chickens under his feet, wondering what had happened. Finally, it's good that he kicked us and made us feel bad, knocked on the cell door and left, and we stared at each other with horrified eyes. There was still the sound of knocking in our cell in space when the sound of opening the door of the adjacent cell came and the same story was repeated there and again in the third cell.

My vague situation and waiting for interrogation lasted for fifteen days. No one came to see me during this time and I felt that maybe the agents had forgotten me. It was July and the weather was very hot, we were about to be cooked like meat in a pot, so our clothes were just shorts. When someone opened the cell door, we would pick up our fringe and hold it in front of our body. So, in the evening I told one of the interrogators who had come to the other cells of the prison: "I have been in a state of uncertainty for fifteen days and I want to know what the matter is."

The next day I was summoned for questioning and interrogated until around noon. I was summoned again the next evening, but they unbelievably handed over my clothes and personal belongings and then released me. I returned home too. In fact, they released me after realizing that no leaflets, pamphlets or guns had been found in our house, and that it turned out that our house was neither a team house nor important people who came there.

Reference

Javadani ‌ Moghaddam, M. (2010). Memoirs of Ahmad Mansouri. Islamic Revolutionary Documentation Center, Tehran. pp. 139-140.