Clashes in the Paramount Dormitory and the Arrest and Torture of Students of University

Complied by: Islamic Revolution Website
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2022-04-19

The Paramount was one of the dormitories where about 20 to 30 religious students such as Engineer Vahdati, Ali Dost-Hosseini, Mohammad Dost-Hosseini (who were two brothers) Reza Kashani, Ali Asghar Soltani, and his friend and roommate Mr. Naqibi, my friend and roommate Mr. Habibzadeh and a few numbers of Yazd and Isfahan provincesۥ religious students lived in that dormitory.

SAVAK attacked the dormitory twice. It was about 11 or midnight or about one in the morning when one of the students shouted; he was being arrested and taken away. We all went downstairs when the sound was raised. In the exit corridor that led to the exit door of the dormitory, one of the students was grabbed and killed. The student had stuck himself on the ground so that he would not be able to reach the door at the moment when he was about eight meters away. We, who were about 30 students, reached the corridor. The SAVAK officer released the student when he saw that everyone had attacked and the student returned to his dormitory. On the one hand, we were very happy that we were able to free this student from SAVAK, and on the other hand, we were upset about how they attacked to arrest a student. Because we knew they might attack again, we embedded our important books so that they would not be found.

I had a book written by [Dr. Ali] Shariati that was forbidden one. Dr. Shariati had oppression in his speeches, although he did not speak very clearly against the regime, he always spoke sarcastically, and that was enough to ban his books. His books were printed in the form of white-cover books without a name, and the name of the book was inside. I also had the book Velayat-e Faqih[1] by Imam Khomeini. These were two books that would be severely punished if taken from anyone. People were very afraid that one day they would take the book Velayat-e-Faqih or the books of Shariati or the proclamations of the Imam [Khomeini] from them. There was a cartoon on our balcony with onions, potatoes, carrots, and household items inside; I had put these two books under these items in the cartoon. Four or five days after the University of Literature protests, Paramount was attacked. I thought they had come for me and wanted to go to the next room. I was on the fourth and fifth floors of the dormitory, there was a meter or 90 cm between our balcony and the balcony of the next dormitory, and the traffic was very dangerous, but I thought if I went to the next room I would be safe from being caught because they were kicking hard. When I wanted to go to the other side, I looked and saw that the officers went into the next room and his side was fleeing. When I wanted to go that way, I looked and saw that the officers went into the next room and he was running away, I looked to one side and saw that this site is in the same situation, I looked straight ahead and saw the same way facing me.

To see what was going on, they broke the door of my room and kicked me in. They started punching and kicking me, then they lifted me upstairs and I stood against the wall. They laid the sheets on the floor and gathered all my books, which were about 150-200 volumes, and threw them on the sheets and tied them. They took all my friends and closed their eyes and took them to the ground floor and put them in our car and took them to SAVAK.

In the SAVAKۥs hall, as our eyes were closed, they told us to kneel and lower our heads. We all sat like this until morning and one by one they would come and take the students to the SAVAKۥs compound and talk to them. They released some who knew they were not active or that they were working and active but did not know about them or were not familiar with them. By morning, there were about twenty of the students, me and a few of my friends, who had spent the night there. We were taken to the torture chamber, there was a place in the SAVAKۥs compound where he climbed stairs and then entered a room that had a basement with no windows at all, had only one entrance, and a lamp hanging from the ceiling. When it was closed, no one could hear them. First, they said, "Take off your clothes." I took off my shirt ... Then they tied my hands and feet to the bed in the room and started whipping me. They did not say what they wanted, they just did it.

      I was there for about five days and nights, for a few minutes, for example, 5 minutes, 8 minutes, a quarter of them would whip me on the soles of my feet as much as they could, and then they would open them and tell me to run around the room. This was to prevent the soles of the feet from blistering so that they would not be able to open. Running after being whipped was hardly the same as being whipped, and one despaired of wanting to walk, and after running they have tied to the bed again. They did this several times, the wounds were so deep that for almost three years the blisters remained on the soles of my feet. They also had a baton-like device that was about 50-60 cm long. Inside was a battery or rechargeable object from which electricity was coming out. When they hit the body, it made the whole body vibrate and it was in a very horrible state ... It had a thin skin under the throat, which when the electric baton was put under the throat, the neck contracted and the muscles contracted as well, then the human voice sounded like an animal and very strident and loud; they were enjoying the sound. During these five days and nights, I was not allowed to sleep at all, and for only a few minutes I put my head on both sides of the corner of the wall, leaning against the wall, and sleeping for a while. A soldier was there, guarding me so that I could not sleep, and whenever I closed my eyes, he kicked his foot firmly and said: "get up, get up captain!" The word "captain" was very frightening for me and would not let me sleep again. I was in a lot of hardships, unhappiness, and stress because I had not slept, and it was really upsetting like those lashes.

     It was the second or third day that I was taken upstairs to write something, and I was aware of a series of things; For example, in the mosque, I prayed in congregation, gave lectures, and wrote down the names of my friends, such as Ahmad Jalali, Ahmad Tavakoli, and Reza Kashani, who were with us and who were arrested. At that time, Engineer Rajabali Taheri, who was one of the political activists in Shiraz, Ayatollah Mohieddin Haeri, and Hujjat al-Islam Majdaldin Mahallati was suspicious that I was in contact with them, and I did not write that I was related to them at all. He folded, tore, and discarded what I had written on the paper; That is, we know something about the subject but you did not write it and go down again. They took me down again and started torturing, beating, and flogging me. They kept me in the torture chamber for hours, and after a few hours, one by one, he would come down the stairs, take my hand, put his hand firmly on my pulse, and raise it sharply so that Mr. Colonel wanted to see me. It's as if something is late, something had happened or they understood something very important and they wanted me to answer in a second. The situation of this guard of SAVAK prison was very horrible and a kind of torture.

There were two officers, an officer named Arman, who was fatter and kinder, and another, a peasant captain, who was thin and tall. The peasant was very violent and was beaten and flogged, for example, Arman was kind enough to speak out. He would say why do you play, he's a good kid and they talk, open your hand, as if a kind person came and if someone was very desperate, he would have to trust him and talk. One of the most dangerous and painful things they did was to bring their hands behind their backs and handcuff them. The distance here is about 30 cm, one person would take one hand and the other hand, and they would forcefully pull it up and down from the back of the neck and the side, then they would tie it with a handcuff, which was very painful. The shoulders, elbows, and wrists ached and all the claws turned black. I was shouting and Arman came down and said to them why they closed me, I was a good guy. they were talking, and [Arman] said them what do they annoy this poor man and they should open his hand, so they opened my hand. He said: "Tell me, whom did you communicate with?" He was trying to talk to me. Several times, about 10 to 15 times, I was handcuffed, and my whole body, i.e. shoulder, wrist, and fingers, was severely pressed. There was no hygiene, washing, bathing, changing clothes, and going to the bathroom was very difficult, and I could not brush my teeth, and most of my teeth were decaying and falling out. All my hands and feet and clothes were bloody and dirty. The wall I was leaning on was full of blood stains the size of a human, and the heads of the children leaning against the wall were lying there. There was a whip left on the wall because it was not a whip, but the cable was very strong. They wanted to go and hit the wall and left it, which was very scary for me. I was praying but I do not know-how. There were a lot of insults, and when they whipped us, they kept cursing and insulting us. The first thing they did to me was to say that my name was Fartoukzadeh. The word "Fartuk" was a little unfamiliar to them, but they pretended that it was a familiar name and said, "You are a Hebrew." I was wearing an agate ring, I had a beard and they knew   I was at Imam of prayer at University I said, "I am not trying." They said, "so, why is your name Fartuk?" "What are you doing?" One of the torturers mockingly asked. "I am a fifth-year medical student," I said. "He wants to be the head of a health center," he said. He thought that I was a medical student and that my goal in being busy and on strike in Shiraz and opposing the regime was that I wanted to become the head of the health department. He thought that my great dream was to become the head of a health center. Once I was standing in the torture chamber when a friend of mine named Dost-Hosseini (the younger brother of the two brothers) was brought to the torture chamber and beaten me in front of him. Mr. Captain started slapping, kicking, whipping, cursing, and according to the training I received from the Mojahedin Radio, as soon as they hit me, I shouted very loudly, which means that I was in a lot of pain so that they would reduce the intensity of their torture. After the captain and the soldier went out, I saw that poor Dost-Hosseini had turned pale and white. I said, "Do not be afraid, Dost-Hosseini! Do not worry and do not panic!" Although the tortures were real and the pain was real, I did not want him to be terrified and do something wrong; For example, cooperate with SAVAK. On the fifth day, they took me upstairs again, I wrote again and repeated the same to them. On the same day, I was sent to Adilabad Prison in Shiraz, and from there, after a while, I was temporarily released, by receiving a bail from a resident of Shiraz until a court was hold.

This was the first time I was seriously arrested and taken to Adilabad Prison, where I was held in solitary confinement. There were about 30 to 34 cells on the ground floor, all of which were filled with students, each in a cell. Because I was familiar with most of them, I did not feel very upset, but I finally knew that what I was doing had these consequences and was not far from my mind. But, at that time, some came to our group and they were not ready for such tortures and did not think that they would receive these tortures, so they were very upset and cried. They were sad, they did not talk and they did not eat, but we - i.e. me, Kashani, and my Dost-Hosseini, were not very upset at this stage, and it seems that this is one of the scenes in our lives. A few days passed and Engineer Taheri, Mr. Haeri, and their comrades were captured, and I saw that all the comrades of our Friday morning meeting were among them. Mr. Mohieddin Haeri and Engineer Taheri were brought in, along with some of the students. Despite the fact that we were acquainted and friendly with Mr. Haeri, we did not pretend that we were familiar together. Of course, they said that we should not contact each other. During the twenty days I was in solitary confinement, I did not call Mr. Haeri at all, neither he spoke to me nor I spoke to him to say that we did not know each other. Some time passed and his brother, Ayatollah Agha Sadr al-Din Haeri, was arrested and taken to prison. After a while, they said that anyone could come out with an appointment or a guarantee to have a trial. One of the residents of the city brought a real estate document and left a document for some of us and released them all, so we went out and went about our life activities.[2]

 
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