363rd Night of Memory – 1

Compiled by: Leila Rostami
Translated by: M.B. Khoshnevisan

2025-1-22

363rd show of Night of Memory titled "lovely war" was held on Monday 1st of Azar 1403 (November 21, 2024) in Sooreh Hall of the Art Center of Islamic Revolution. During the show, Mrs. Maryam Katebi and Mr. Davood Amirian recounted their memoirs. Davood Salehi hosted the show.

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The first narrator of the show was Mrs. Katebi. He was the comrade of Motevaselian and martyrs Fayaz Bakhsh and Boroujerdi and was active in titles such as “Logistic Force in Kurdistan” and “Relief-working”.
At the beginning, she said, “Believe me, I didn’t have the courage to participate in the war at all, considering the activities of the Komeleh grouplet. If Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh was not present, I wouldn’t have met such a fate! It was towards the end of the revolution, after the 17th of Shahrivar (September 8, 1978) incident, it was decided that Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh would hold first aid classes for women in the mosques of Shemiranat; since Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh’s office was on 17th of Shahrivar Street and was also involved in the events of the 17th of Shahrivar rally, he would say: “If the families, especially the women, knew first aid, many of the wounded who were shot on 17th of Shahrivar would have been saved.” This didn’t happen until the revolution was victorious. It was decided that we would all go to the mosques and take first aid classes. Ladies for ladies, gentlemen for gentlemen. My sister and I would go to Qoba Mosque in the Hosseiniyeh Ershad. Once a month, we would come to the Hosseiniyeh of the Azerbaijanis in Shohada [Martyrs] Square. There, we would have a series of conversations about what plans you should have and we would explain our work and plans.
After the revolution, the Kurdistan movement began, which was supposed to create a country called Kurdistan that would start at the end of Turkey, then come to Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk in Iraq, then to the south of the country, Khuzestan, and the entire Masjed Sulayman, and finally end up in the Persian Gulf. All the oil and gas in the Middle East is in this region. The president was Bani Sadr, who was not in harmony with the IRGC or the army, or anywhere else, and he also had problems with the parliament. You can imagine that Madani , who was his closest friend, was sent to the south and made him the governor. Madani said very easily: "I as an army officer am, for example, an RPG man in the 77th Division, and I only have to be in Mashhad, or I am from Sanandaj and live in Sanandaj, and have to go to the garrison every morning. That garrison also wants RPG men, wants tank drivers, and... they use the same person. Why should we embarrass our families and go to another city and serve?” Madani evacuated the entire garrison and told all the soldiers to leave. The law did not allow the governor to say such a thing! In other words, when Iraq attacked Khuzestan, the Dezh Garrison had everything, but no one knew how to work with it. If you read the biography of martyr “Jahanara,” you will realize that the guys said that there were T-72 tanks, but no one knew how to drive them.
Mrs. Katabi continued, “The counter-revolution had spread rumors; just as Saddam expelled Shiite Iranians living in Iraq in (1353) 1974, Imam Khomeini also wants to expel the Sunnis of Kurdistan from Iran, and they created discord in Kurdistan. The enemy in Kurdistan supported Komeleh and Democrat grouplets, who were worse, more ruthless, and more violent than ISIS, and they brought up issues in Kurdistan where Komeleh and Democrat would flay people, pour boiling water over them, and it would take three or four days to flay them. They would cut off the heads of the combatants with broken glass; they would cut off every part, pour salted water over them. They would do the things that no one would do to animals, let alone to a human being who was his subordinate and was moaning and carrying out these programs!
We taught these events in class. The house of one of the fugitive tyrants was in the current Pasdaran district and former Saltanatabad, which we had converted into a hospital to care for those who had had their spinal cords amputated during the revolution.
She continued; One night, I went to the Azerbaijanis Mosque to give Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh a report on my seven-month work. The doctor said: "Mrs. Katebi! Please come and go to Kurdistan." I had heard that the situation in Kurdistan was very bad. Ayatollah Taleghani, Ayatollah Beheshti, Mr. Bahonar and many others had gone to Kurdistan but to no avail. Kurdistan was falling and separating from Iran.
My mother had scared me of Kurdistan; we had bought a Lubitel camera that developed photos on its own, and my mother would constantly go back and forth to Behesht Zahra (SA) Cemetery, secretly giving this camera to men and telling them to take pictures of the martyrs, and she would always see the pictures and cry. Having these cameras during the revolution meant that there was a firing order. I was mostly afraid and terrified of Komeleh and Democrat because of the things my mother would tell me after returning from Behesht Zahra.
Dr. Fayyaz Bakhsh told me, "Come and go to Kurdistan." I said, "No." He said, "Mrs. Katebi! You are useful to Kurdistan. You are big, you can do it, you are brave, so and so..." I said, "No, doctor. My mother won't let me. I don't have a father, my mother, my brother won't let me. Don’t ask me to do this at all." He said, "Come and go. Please go to Kurdistan for a week." I said, "No." I came home immediately. As soon as I rang the doorbell and my mother opened the door, I said, "Mom! If Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh ever calls, say no." She said, "Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh called, I said Maryam is coming. Come, and go to Kurdistan." I argued and a lot with my mother and cried. I even beat myself; in short, my mother forced me to go to Kurdistan for "a week."
Ms. Katabi continued; I went to the West Bus Terminal. The West Bus Terminal was near Azadi Square. Anyone who came to Tehran would circle around Azadi Square. It was the most famous place. At that time, there were no buildings in the terminal, they had set up tents, there were TBT buses, Iranpeima and etc. no WS, no water, it was a barren desert. Mr. Momeni was there. His head was down, he said: “Mrs. Katebi!” I had never seen a man lower his head so much before. I was taller than him, I bent my head and looked into his face. He closed his eyes. He said, "Mrs. Katebi! I have come on behalf of brother Ahmad and brother Mammad. We are going to Kurdistan with you, another lady, and two gentlemen, five of us." We stopped. After a few seconds, a lady came with145-150 cm tall came. I looked at her and said, "Madam, what is your name?" She said, "Sadeghian." I said, "Mrs. Sadeghian! Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh saw you and told you to go to Kurdistan!" She said, "Yes, he said you are only useful to Kurdistan; anyone who is small and short is tougher and smarter than those who are big, lanky, and tall. They will get shot if they move around." I said, "Did Dr. Fayaz Bakhsh tell you this?" She said, "Yes." I said in my heart, "Well, I'll see him in a week..."
We arrived at the city of Sahneh . The two of us regretted why we had come. When we got off, they said, “The women must not go [to Kurdistan].” We said, “Let these Kermanshahi people go, they won’t let us go.” The faithful boy said, “No, these two sisters must come.” The defending forces there kept saying, “My brother! We have expelled the women and most of the people who were in Sahneh [city]. Do you want to take these people and take them away?”
We would also go to those defenders of the city of Sahneh and say: “For God’s sake, make them not take us.” In short, this faithful boy took us with force and difficulty. He took us to the 22 Bahman Garrison in Kermanshah. We knocked on the door there. The commander and the person in charge there, who was one of those tall and imposing men, shouted when he saw us: “My brother...! Why did you bring the woman?!” We said: “We die this man.” Then we said: “For God’s sake, this gentleman brought us by force.” He shouted again: “What do you mean?! Why did you bring the woman?! We forced the women out!” He said: “Mammad and Ahmad said.” We said, "Who are these Mammad and Ahmad who want to kill us?" The commander said, "Mammad and Ahmad should say..., don't they know that we expelled all the women, Mamed himself expelled all the women from the city, then Mammad should say, bring this to...?" He said, "Call Ahmad and Mammad should come." The commander said again, "Women should not go to war, where in the Quran does it say that women should go to war?" I thought there was a verse in the Quran that said that women should not go to the front. I didn't understand much about the Quran. I went and secretly said to the commander, "Sir! Where in the Quran does it say so that to show this faithful boy that please for God’s sake don’t take us to the front." He said, "God has said, don't go, madam, leave me alone! The clerics say it; we will say it too. "God has said that women should not go to the front, now I don't know where in the Quran it is written." Finally, they called and said, "Mammad and Ahmad have said that they should come."
The day we were saying goodbye to go to Kamyaran and Sanandaj, the same commander came and said: "Ladies! Yesterday and the day before yesterday, we killed the commander of the Komeleh of the Kamyaran Road. If they catch you, they will tear you to pieces. Take this grenade in your hand, if they catch you, don't waste it, bring your face forward, when four or five members of the Komeleh and Democrat are near you, pull the trigger of the grenade in your face, explode it so that you and three or four of them are killed."
We said, “O God! What does he say!” We were shaking like a leaf. We sat inside the minibus. I held the grenade for 5 minutes, then gave it to Sedigheh for 5 minutes. It was as if I thought that if I gave the grenade to Sedigheh, I would rest assured. I was looking at that road, and I didn't understand that if this is exploded, I would die, Sedigheh would die, and the driver would die, and ...

To be continued…