Part of memoirs of Mamoosta Molla Qader Qaderi, Paveh’s Friday Prayer Leader

The trip of Ahmad Moftizadeh & Mamoosta Sheikh Jalal Hosseini to Paveh

Selected by Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2024-5-7

After the victory of the Islamic revolution, the people of Oramanat area and the Sunni people of Kermanshah Province, unlike most cities in northern Kurdistan were alongside the Islamic Republic system in major national issues and supported religious Ulema and at the top of them Kack Ahmad Moftizadeh in regional issues. Unlike the clergies like Sheikh Jalal, he invited the people to vote for the Islamic Republic.
On the 12th of Ordibehesht 1358 (May 2, 1979), Mr. Seyed Moussa Mousavi along with Kack Ahmad Moftizadeh entered the city of Paveh from Sanandaj to meet the people of Oramanat area. They received an unprecedented welcome from the people and gave a speech to the people in the Jame Mosque. In those days, I was busy with final high school exams. I had an exam on the 12th of Ordibehesht (May 2), and I missed the exam and was banned due to participating in the welcome ceremony.
Misters Moftizadeh and Mousavi spent the night in Helal-e Ahmar Hill[1]. The next night, we accompanied them to Javanrud along with about 30 cars. Before entering Javanrud, in the village of Sar Roud[2], an old woman who had never seen so many cars and people in her life, approached the convoy of cars and asked one of our friends in surprise: "What happened, what's going on?"
One of our friends, who was a humorous person, said: "Nothing happened, mother. The Shah is back."
The simple-hearted old woman raised her hand to the sky and said: "Thank God!"
Kack Ahmad Moftizadeh and Sheikh Ezzeddin Hosseini were fierce rivals in the Kurdistan area. The reflection of Mr. Moftizadeh's welcome in Oramanat caused the reaction and confusion of political groups in Kurdistan, Paveh and Javanrud. A few days later, His Excellency Mamoosta Sheikh Jalaleddin Hosseini, the younger brother of Sheikh Ezzeddin Hosseini, traveled to Oramanat to thwart the trip of Kack Ahmad and his companions; a planned, organized and calculated trip. They first entered Ravansar and then Javanrud. In Javanrud, the people's welcome and their happiness was accompanied by random shootings, and their happiness turned into wailing when one person was killed and several others were injured.
The members of the Qur'an school, with prior knowledge, organized a regular program to prevent an unfortunate incident, such as the one in Javanrud. To prevent the abuse of sick people, we entered Paveh with all our strength to welcome their trip. Mamoosta Sheikh Jalal and her companions entered the city calmly and without any incident. We took them to Paveh Jame Mosque. All people, regardless of their political views, came to welcome him and his speech. At the beginning of the ceremony, a member of the Qur'an community greeted the Sheikh. Then, Mr. Hossein Shiyani from the Paveh Democratic Party read an article about the autonomy of Kurdistan. Mr. Sheikh Jalal was a free and nationalist cleric. He was not affiliated with the Democratic Party, nor did he claim to lead and accompany the Komoleh Party like his brother Sheikh Ezzeddin. He was apparently not affiliated with any group or party, but in his speech he said that I have come to meet you on the order of my brother.
Mr. Sheikh Ezzeddin Hosseini, the Friday Prayer Leader of Mahabad, considered himself the spiritual leader of Komoleh Party. He was a rival of Mr. Moftizadeh and every day he gave interviews to justify his plan, and the left parties also promoted him warmly in order to advance their work. Mr. Sheikh Jalal Hosseini was my teacher during my rigorous studies and at the end of my studies at the seminary in 1355 (1976), which led to the turban ceremony and my permit, he was my support, encourager, good guide and a reliable shelter and I always felt indebted to him and saw him as a tireless fighter against the Shah's regime. Mamoosta was a respected person among the people of Baneh and had a special status in the surrounding areas and Kurdish regions, and for this reason, we all attended his welcoming ceremony and before his arrival, we issued a notice while welcoming him and invited all the people to participate in his welcoming ceremony. After the end of the welcoming ceremony and the moment he was busy renewing his ablution, I went to him and embarrassingly informed him of some things. I said: “Mr. Maoosta, you are beholden to me and I consider myself indebted to your efforts and would like your honor to be preserved in this city. Your Excellency, you are different from other people. I will not forget your campaigns against the Shah's regime, but you should know that the city of Paveh is not like Saqqez, Baneh and Mahabad. Here, even more than Tehran and Qom, the people have voted for the Islamic Republic, and they have hope for the fledgling Islamic Republic. I request you to pay attention to two things in your speech; one is that you should not speak against the leader of this movement, that is, Imam Khomeini. Secondly, our people know you as a religious scholar and are interested that most of your speech is about religious, moral and educational issues. Because Paveh and Oramanat, despite sharing culture, religion and language, are different from the northern cities of Kurdistan, and most of its people care more about religious issues than ethnic and national ones”.
He apparently accepted my words and in his speech not only he did not say anything to undermine the leadership of the revolution, but praised him and mentioned the name of Imam Khomeini several times. But the wide presence and warm welcome of the people in the Jame Mosque stimulated his feelings and he forgot my second request and said to the people: "O people of Paveh, if I have these mountains of yours, I will all the cattle, goats and sheep that I have, and use the money for weapons and I will not allow the Islamic Republic to enter this region." After the ceremony, while leaving the Jame Mosque, he asked me about the state of the city and the composition of the factions and their location, to which I replied that we only have two famous places; one is the Quran School, which is now known as the "Quran Fan Community" and the other is the office of the Democratic Party. "I'd like you to accompany me to both offices," said the Mamoosta.
The office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party was located opposite the gas station in Mr. Eliasi's house. First, he went to the office of the Democratic Party. I accompanied him to the entrance of the building, but did not enter the headquarters and office of the Democratic Party. Although I often greeted members and supporters of the party outside the party office and sometimes we talked about political issues, we did not go to each other's offices. Mr. Sheikh Jalal's insistence to take me inside the party office was useless. I waited for him by the door for about half an hour until his meeting with the members of the Democratic Party ended, and then we went together to the office of the Qur'an school in Mr. Sharifi's house behind Khalesi Tekiyeh. About twenty activists of the Qur'an School, which was renamed to the group of fans of the Qur'an government, were waiting for the Sheikh's arrival in the office. We had written a slogan on a big screen and installed it in the office, which drew people's attention upon entering the building: "One God, One Leader, One Homeland."
As soon as Mr. Sheikh entered our office, he looked at this slogan and angrily said: "Who said God is one? Who said that the leader and the country are one?
I calmly said: "Mamoosta, do you mean we have more than one God, one homeland and one leader?!"
He said: "In no way, our God, our homeland, and the non-Muslims are not the same."
Unfortunately, he mentioned something else, but since he was my professor, I refrain from mentioning it. When Mamoosta Sheikh Jalal Hosseini entered our office, just as no one from our group entered the Democratic Party office with him, no party supporters accompanied him when he entered our office. The meeting between the sides and rivals of the city of Paveh came to an end. He was planning to go to Marivan. When saying goodbye, he said: "Molla Qader, I want to visit Nowsood on the way to Marivan."
He wanted to go from Dalani to Dezli and from there to Marivan after giving a speech in Nowsood. I planned to accompany him to the exit of Paveh, that is, the village of Nooryab. I offered him to rest at night in our house in Nooryab. He said: "I can't. We have promised to go to Nowsood."
I said: "I am at your service until Nooryab."
He was a little upset by my words and said: "It is not honorable for you to leave me by your house and leave me alone."
My modesty and loyalty forced me to surrender and I had to accompany him to the end of the protection area of the city. We left for Nowsood in the evening. On the way to the Nowsood road, when we were passing through the village of Komdarreh[3], we encountered a group of guerrillas from the communist branch of the Patriotic Union of Iraqi Kurdistan, who were going to Paveh. Mr. Mamoosta got out of the car perhaps with previous preparation and shook hands with them one by one and kissed them warmly. I knew that he knows that the faces of the guerrillas, their faces and their mustaches tell that they are communists. When I got back into the car, I got angry with him and said to him in surprise: "You are a religious man. Why did you kiss the mustache of these communists?"
Mamoosta Sheikh laughed and justified the issue by saying, "Take it easy, we have a common goal with them, currently, the issue of Kurdish rights has priority over other ones."
Around Isha prayer, we reached Nowsood. The inhabitants of the small town of Nowsood had gathered at the Ahmad Sultan Mosque and welcomed us. Before Mr. Sheikh Jalal's speech, a person named Sheikh Mukhtar from the Naqshbandi sheikhs got up and made a harsh speech against the founder of the Islamic Republic and made the meeting tense by saying impolite words in such a way that most of the attendees were upset by his words. People like me did nothing to create feelings among that crowd. I was sitting next to the Mamoosta and could only convey my sadness to him: "Mr. Mamoosta, I was supposed to accompany you to the border of Dezli. I was not satisfied with your speech in Paveh, and here you also made me unable to take a step with you, and despite the fact that I owe you a lot as my professor, I am saying goodbye to you."
Before the speech of Mr. Sheikh Jalal, I got up among the crowd and left the mosque. I barely rented a car and returned to Nooryab. In spite of these comings and goings in Paveh city and Oramanat area, as well as the existence of various concerns, a good atmosphere of free thinking prevailed in the city and no one attacked the rights of others, and everyone was free to express his or her political opinions, and respect for each other was reserved and insulting the people were not tolerable.
In those days, I came to Paveh during the day and stayed there until the evening, and then I returned to my hometown, Nooryab village. I didn't have a car of my own, and usually walked this several-kilometer route every day. Once, I was going to the village. At Helal-e Ahmar Square, a jeep stopped next to me. His driver, Mohammad Amin Naderi, was a member of the Democratic Party and a resident of Nouab village and my next-door neighbor. A train of cartridges strapped to his waist and armed with a Kalashnikov was sitting behind the wheel of his car and without speaking a word he offered me to get into his car. At first, I didn't accept, but I considered his long-term stop as a form of insistence and agreed to get in. No greetings or words were exchanged between him and me until the village of Nooryab. We each went home and parted without saying goodbye. A few days before this meeting, he had come to me and complained that: "Mamoosta, I did not expect you. You are Jaff. We expected that you would cooperate with the Jaff committee in Varaa village or Shamshir village."
The only answer I had for him was: "Before I think in Kurdish dialect and language, Islam is important to me. I respect everyone; Whether it is Jaff or Hoorami. I am the Friday prayer leader and the prayer leader of the village which both Jaff and Hoorami are my brothers".
In addition to being armed, the supporters of the Democratic Party were freely engaged in cultural and political activities in the city and were openly involved in attracting young people to military training and arming them. The book and magazine market was hot, just like the arms and ammunition market. In addition to the Democratic Party, other groups were abusing the dusty atmosphere and the lack of government and collective power, promoting socialist and communist ideals and chanting the slogan of supporting the peasants. Contrary to all these people and parties and all this massive influx of propaganda to attract young people, on behalf of the members of the Qur'an school, we monitored the events of the region day and night and by holding ceremonies, printing leaflets and publications, we tried to neutralize their poisonous propaganda. 

Source: Rostami, Ali, Mamoosta, Memoirs of Mamoosta Molla Qader Qadri, The Friday Prayer Leader of Paveh, V. 1, 1396 (2017), Sooreh Mehr, P. 205