374th Night of Remembrance - 1

Compiled by: Iranian Oral History Website
Machine translation edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-7-2

The 374th Night of Remembrance program was held on Thursday - November 27, 2025, focusing on reciting the memories of active military personnel during the victory of the Islamic Revolution from the prisons of the Pahlavi regime in the Soura Hall of the Hozeh Honari. The program began with the broadcast of images of martyr Amir Ali Hajizadeh. Bahram Ali Taheri, Mohammad Hassan Pourjumeh, and Qanbar Rasek shared their memories. The performance of this Night of Remembrance was led by Davoud Salehi.

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At the beginning of the program, the host referred to the history of the establishment of the Basij Mostazafan on November 26, 1979, by order of the Imam (may Allah have mercy on him), and said: The roots of all the successes of the years after the revolution and the 8 years of sacred defense must be sought in the victory of the Islamic Revolution of 1979.He added that the program will retell the memories of three narrators; military men who, before the victory of the revolution, made great efforts to unite the army with the people and suffered severe captivity and torture along the way.

The presenter then introduced the first narrator and said: He was born on May 23, 1956, and is from Zanjan. He began his political activities when he was working in a factory affiliated with the Ministry of War. He was arrested for these activities and was imprisoned for months in the torture chambers of the Pahlavi regime. After the victory of the revolution, he returned to the defense industries and played a role during the Sacred Defense era. Then, he invited engineer Bahram Ali Taheri, a freedman from political prisons before the revolution, to share his memories. While paying tribute to the martyrs, warriors, and veterans of the 8 years of sacred defense, the narrator began his speech by saying: To examine the roots of the revolution, we must go back a little. It is true that the main spark was struck among the people on June 5, 1963, but the same awakening and movement was also taking place within the armed forces. We were working in some of the current defense industries factories (which were called military industries at that time). Given our religious and cultural roots, we could not remain silent in the face of the events in society. Of course, before entering this field, we consulted with high-ranking authorities such as the late Ayatollah Milani as to whether it was at all permissible for us to enter this organization and be active? He said that Muslim children should be present and active everywhere. He explained about the beginning of his activities at the age of 20: From the very first days, with appropriate behavior and methods, we planned friendship with the workers and engineers and provided religious and missionary grounds. In 1975, I entered the University of Elm o San’at (Science and Technology); I worked in the mornings and went to university in the second shift. At that time, a magazine called Maktab al-Islam was published in the seminary. As I was in contact with the seminary, as a representative, I subscribed to this magazine for the factory personnel so that it would reach them monthly. We also invited them to religious gatherings in Tehran. All of this was done completely secretly, because an organization called "Counterintelligence" was stationed in all parts of the army and monitored the smallest movements. For example, on the days we took leave for the marches leading up to the victory of the Islamic Revolution, copies of our traffic cards were sent directly to counterintelligence.

The narrator went on to mention the incident of his arrest in 1976 and said: One day, we gave a note to several military colleagues to attend a meeting that was being held on Friday. One of these people was arrested by SAVAK on the street while carrying a book by Dr. Shariati, and the meeting note was in his pocket. When I arrived at the factory early in the morning, the entrance door was crowded. When I tried to sign in, they stopped me. They searched all my belongings and my student binder and found propaganda pamphlets. They immediately threw me in the back seat of a 2002 BMW (which had no back door), put a blanket over my head, and took me to the detention center with all outward respect!

The two colleagues who had been arrested on the street had also been brought to the same detention center. We met in the bathroom by chance and quickly arranged not to give any information and to say that they had found the books by chance on the street. The beatings, torture, and beatings began. We were in prison for more than 3 months. But they could not find any evidence against me because on the very day of my arrest, my friends had gone to our house and informed my family. My parents had emptied my entire library and thrown it in a sack. There were books in our house like the "Islamic State" of the Imam (may Allah be pleased with him) published in Baghdad, and at that time, finding this book in anyone's house was an unconditional death sentence. The family and neighbors had hidden these dangerous books underground at night in the deserts around Naziabad so that they would not fall into the hands of SAVAK.

Emphasizing the deep roots of the revolutionary movement among the armed forces, the narrator said: The regime did not expect anyone in the army to work against the Shah with all the censorship and strict selection (even for a soldier to marry, they would check his wife’s family tree to make sure she did not have communist tendencies). But the core of the army was made up of these people. That is why on the night of February 12, you saw the air force personnel rise up in unison and the army quickly join the people. Great figures such as Lieutenant General Qarani, Martyr Aqarebparast, Martyr Sayyad Shirazi, Martyr Kolahdouz, and Martyr Namjoo were among these soldiers who had extensive activities within the army before the revolution. In this segment, the host asked if being a military man made the crime of sabotage more serious. The narrator replied: Yes, our crime was double. During interrogations or so-called “reception” sessions, they kept saying, “You eat the king’s bread, so are you betraying the king?” It was unbelievable to them that a military man would rebel against the king.

The narrator then described the torture chambers of the Pahlavi regime and said: The Joint Committee for Anti-Sabotage (which has now become the Ebret Museum) was actually the entrance for the arrested; people were first brought there and after the interrogations were completed, they were transferred to Qasr or Evin prisons. Describing one of the most horrific torture devices in this detention center called “Apollo,” he said: This device was in the form of a small metal cage. The prisoner was placed inside it, squeezed and crushed. Then a torturer named Hosseini would turn on electric heaters under the prisoner's feet to slowly burn the feet. At the same time, they would whip him from above. The prisoner would be burned like a roast chicken, and when he was taken out of the machine, he would be completely unconscious for several days and unable to move.

Referring to the suffocating atmosphere prevailing during the interrogations, he added: In the prison, they used black ten-millimeter cables for whipping. It was interesting that all the interrogators and torturers were given the title "Doctor"! Some of these interrogators would say with complete impudence: Just recite the Quran and pass. Don't bother translating and interpreting it. Also, reading the book Nahj u-Balagha, especially for a military person, was completely forbidden and considered a crime. At the end of his speech, the narrator referred to the strange fate of these revolutionary soldiers and said: We have formed a center for Muslim political prisoners of the armed forces, which has about 130 to 140 members. The strange thing about history is that many of these children, after the victory of the revolution and their release from the Shah's prisons, put on combat uniforms again, went to the front and were captured; that is, those who were imprisoned by the Shah in their youth, were also imprisoned and captured by Saddam for four or five years during the Holy Defense. They endured double suffering for this land and water, and many of them were martyred along the way.

To be Continued …