Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Unique Movement (2)

Iran’s Islamic Revolution without depending on the east and west gained victory on February 11, 1979 and disrupted political equations in the bipolar system ruling over the world.

Although 38 years have passed since the turbulent life of the Islamic revolution, there are many untold stories on how the Islamic revolution triumphed. One of the important and prominent characteristics of the Islamic revolution is its religious nature at all levels. The Leader of the revolution is a high religious source of emulation. The revolution’s mottos are independence, freedom and revival of Islamic values. Those who gathered around Imam Khomeini (God’s mercy upon him) either had studied at seminaries or had strong religious tendencies. Therefore, irreligious individuals very soon separated their rank from the religious mass and stood against the fledgling Islamic Republic system. 

The dual array existed even before the Islamic revolution. In the prisons of the despotic Pahlavi regime, religious prisoners were separate from the irreligious or anti-religious ones. Of course they debated with each other but their common motive against the dictatorial regime caused them to tolerate each other in prisons despite their differences. In order to become familiar with the political situation ruling over Iran and the situation of prisons before the revolution, the inmates of those days have a lot to say. Almost all friends and companions of Imam Khomeini, who were active in struggling against the Shah’s regime, were either persecuted, imprisoned or exiled for a while. First, SAVAK arrested Imam Khomeini and exiled him to Turkey and Iraq and then they persecuted his friends and companions.

Those who had been in prison of Pahlavi regime have very bitter memories of the gory tortures of SAVAK, one of the most horrific spying agencies in those days. Most of its agents had spent training courses with the Israeli terrorist apparatus Mossad or the US spying agency CIA. Shah had set up SAVAK after the 1953 US-British coup against the national government of Mohammad Mosaddeq with the aim of monitoring the activities of opponents and arresting them. The Shah regime, despite its claims of non-existence of political prisoners in the country, had filled the jails with such people.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was one of the combatants and students of Imam Khomeini in the struggles against shah. The political campaigns of Ayatollah Khamenei started in 1962 in Qom and continued despite all ups and downs, imprisonment, torture and exile. During his struggle against the corrupt and despotic regime, Ayatollah Khamenei was arrested and imprisoned 6 times. He was detained for alleged disrupting of national security, stirring riot and provoking people to struggle against the shah regime. The accounts of his arrests, imprisonment and struggles against the regime make a bitter chapter; yet it is enlightening and constructive for next generations. At the 5^th time, Ayatollah Khamenei was arrested and tortured due to his opposition to the ultra-extravagant celebrations commemorating the 2500 year of royal rule in Iran. SAVAK was seeking to omit any obstacle on the way of celebrations.

In his diaries of those bitter days, Ayatollah Khamenei says: “SAVAK tied my legs to the bed. In the opposite side, whips were hanging on the wall. A man picked up a whip and started flogging me. The other man came, took the whip and started flogging till he was tired. The third man took the whip and he too got tired and the 4^th person came. All agents would rest for a while. Some of them used to wet the whip and flog the bare body of the prisoners.” Ayatollah Khamenei adds: “One of them came to me and asked me to abstain from Imam Khomeini and Islamic movement. I did not accept and they beat me until I lost my consciousness.” On his 6^th time arrest by SAVAK, the Leader explains: “I spent difficult days in the cell and no one can understand except those who have experienced it. Day and night we were tortured physically and psychologically. The screaming of prisoners being tortured was so horrible and some nights it continued till morning. The way of torturers was very calculated and skillful. All tortures had aimed at crushing the morale and personality of the prisoner.”

Description of Manouchehri, the cruelest interrogator of SAVAK, is very worthy of pondering. In his tough interrogation of Ayatollah Khamenei, the cruel interrogator said: “I know you well. You are slippery like a fish, slipping through the fingers of interrogator. What you have done is not significant individually but when you add them up God knows!”

Ayatollah Khamenei was denied all social activities two years before the victory of the Islamic revolution. As a matter of fact he could neither deliver speech, nor teach, or even hold home meetings. SAVAK was trying to cut all of his relations with people. They had even put his personal relations under surveillance.

Another prominent figure of the Islamic revolution who was exposed to heinous tortures in the horrific prisons of the dictatorial Pahlavi regime was martyr Mohammad Ali Rajaee the second president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Martyr Rajaee was one of the resolute, tireless and steadfast figures during the anti-despotic and anti-colonialist struggles. He had gained special repute among the combatants of 1950s to 1970s to the extent that his resistance, steadfastness, dignity, tolerance and honesty had turned him to a "role model".

Especially in the field of teaching, he was illuminating in words and deeds. Explaining the initial days of his arrest, martyr Rajaee writes: “The year I spent in the spying committee, I actually saw the hell. The inmates were somehow dead since the prisoner was beaten to death and then torture was stopped and he was sent to clinic for recovery; then they began again.”

Martyr Rajaee continues on those days: “Among the tortures done on me was the torture which the SAVAK referred to as my share. My share was 20 days. It means that every time they beat me for 20 days and forced me to speak, or every day they tied my head to my knees for several hours. They crossed me and hanged me and said: confess!”

After the victory of the Islamic revolution, martyr Rajaee was appointed as minister of education and then as premier. As the premier, martyr Rajaee went to New York to attend the UN General Assembly meeting. The trip was taken at a sensitive juncture of Iran’s history, i.e. the outbreak of the Iraqi imposed war and the seizure of US supposed embassy – better called den of espionage - by the revolutionary students. The world was eagerly waiting for hearing the words of a representative of an unknown system. Martyr Rajaee delivered a detailed and moving speech at the UN meeting and while condemning the invasion of the Iraqi Baathist regime and its supporters, he stressed the righteousness and truthfulness of the Islamic Republic. But what made this trip everlasting was the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s minister on the sidelines of the meeting. While expressing the Islamic Republic’s stances on foreign policy and American hostages, he put his bare foot on the table and said: “For two years I was the prisoner of Jimmy Carter and the US in the prison of deposed shah regime. The impacts of torture can still be seen on my body. For two years, I felt that Carter flogged my feet and this comes as we have shown fully human behavior towards hostages of the US den of espionage.”

FK/RM/ME