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Mousavi's Children Forsaken
09-Mar-2011
A few minutes ago, on Jonbash Rahe Sabz web site, I was reading a letter written by the children of Mir-Hussein Mousavi. It was a letter that made me upset and drove me to thinking. I told myself that I had never wished anyone becoming a pariah. However, I couldn’t help thinking of our own parents and families during the reign of Khomeini when Mr. Mousavi was the prime minister; I couldn’t refrain from sighing.
In their letter, Mir-Hussein Mousavi’s children write:
“We thought whether it is possible to stand behind a door for thirteen days, waiting for a sign or sound that our parents are still there, still alive, still unharmed. Behind a door or gates that never open, lights that never again are turned on.”
“We went to see them one week ago. A van was parked in the alley such that nothing could pass by. The men who came out of the vehicle wore masks. They chewed gum and in answer to our question that what and who gave them the authority to keep us from seeing our parents, they replied harshly, “It is none of your business from where and whom the order has come.” We asked that how many people there were in the van. Again, they answered harshly, “What business of yours is it?” We asked that why their vehicle had such dark, tainted windows. They replied, “What business of yours is it?”
“Wasn’t it really any business of ours where our mother and father were? In the span of seventy two hours, we had become in so many ways strangers!”
And I remembered the summer of 1981. It was the golden years of Khomeini’s reign, and Mir-Hussein Mousavi was his prime minister; Mehdi Karroubi was the head of the Mostazafen Foundation of Islamic Revolution [Bonyad-e Mostazafen va Janbazan]. And I was in prison. My brother, Aref, had been martyred in peaceful demonstrations held on the 30th of Khordad [June 20, 1981]. My husband, Mahmoud, had been arrested and tortured such that for his execution, he had to be carried on a stretcher. While the family mourned the death of my brother and held a memorial service for him in our home, the Revolutionary Guard attacked the house, forcing my parents and the rest of the family to flee.
The family house had been confiscated, and according to the neighbors, a grenade was thrown into the yard every day just for the sake of it. The family even didn’t have a place to sleep for months. My father had suffered a heart attack and had developed heart problems after hearing the news of Aref’s martyrdom. My mother was beside herself. My two little sisters innocently were left out of school and became homeless.
Our mother used to say that my sisters always looked at other school children with such envy that broke her heart, but she couldn’t send them to school because the Revolutionary Guard had even gone there to arrest them. Wasn’t it the thirteen year old Fatima Misbah who was executed together with the rest of her family? Has this regime shown mercy to anyone to expect that they would have any compassion on us?
I continued to read the letter written by Mousavi’s children. I noted their words, “In that vast street, it seemed as if even leafless trees shouted, ‘For which crime?’ ”
And I recalled once more the time when our mother told us about the nights they had to sleep in a car in order to avoid arrest; when day after day, they traveled from city to city, merely driving in fear of losing their remaining children or dreading my execution in captivity.
I remembered the time when my sister talked about Mahmoud. My heart still aches for him whenever I think of him. My sister, Efat, used to say, “Together with my husband and two little daughters, I was in a car at an intersection in Tehran. We didn’t have anywhere to go. Recently, we had returned from the northern regions of the country and were searching for a place to stay, but no one was anywhere to be found. All of a sudden, at the intersection, we saw your husband, Mahmoud. He was with a friend and appeared pale. They came into the car, and Mahmoud told us that they had been sleeping on the streets for a while and hadn’t eaten for days.”
My sister added, “Mahmoud suffered from an acute migraine and with empty stomach had taken pain killers.” That night, two friends had gone to a restaurant with my sister and the rest of her family. This was the last time that my family had seen him. Mahmoud was arrested in a few days in the streets of Tehran. Despite being tortured, he had confessed to nothing and remained silent. For this very reason, he was carried on a stretcher to be shot to death by the orders of his executioner, Lajevardi [Asadollah Lajevardi, the warden of Evin from 1981 to 1985].
How lost I was when I heard the news of his execution in prison, when the news of my brother’s murder reached me, when I heard the news of my father’s heart attack but couldn’t do anything for him from prison, when the news of my family’s wandering reached my ears and when I heard about the execution of young relatives one by one in prison.
How abandoned and alone we all felt every night in Evin, counting every finishing shot we heard, reaching as many as three hundred bullets and screaming in our hearts, “For which crime?”
When two of my brother’s friends, Mohammad Haj Hassani and Bijan Kamyab Sharifi, were executed in prison at the age of sixteen; when little Mohammad had called his mother on the night of his execution to ask, “Mother, my entire body is soaked in blood. Is it permissible for me to utter the last prayer covered in blood?” Alas, how lost the parents of Mohammad and Bijan were that night. Yes, how lonesome and forsaken our families were during those times, the era shamelessly remembered by some as the golden years, not the bloody crimson age.
At the present time, the children of Mousavi, the prime minister of “Imam’s golden era,” are the forsaken ones, but I want this for no one. I wish imprisonment and house arrest for no one. I want Mousavi, Karroubi and the rest of them to be set free from the claws of Khamenei’s supporters so that their children don’t feel lost and abandoned.
However, I also wish the day comes that not only Mousavi, Karroubi and those who ruled during the dark ages of Valiayat-e Faqih [Guardianship of Islamic Jurist] but also everyone else, one by one, all of the groups and parties, even those who fought for freedom, will account for the good and the bad they have done. Even if they don’t respond to our questions, they answer to people: What happened during the last thirty three years and how did everyone contribute to what conspired?
Tonight, my heart aches remembering the past. I want a shoulder upon which to cry. The memory of my husband, Mahmoud, whose open arms were mine for no more than six months weighs heavily on my heart. I ask myself, “Who are the forsaken ones?”
The times are peculiar, my dear…
Original article here.
Translated by Laleh Gillani.
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I do support vildemose's
by Raoul1955 on Thu Mar 10, 2011 07:22 AM PSTPosting that if there are such victims that perhaps they will benefit from a cyber support group.
I am still learning about the violent and savage cult of islam and what some folks have endured in Iran as posted here. I have also read many stories about people in Pakistan, Iraq, and other muslim-majority societies. Unfortunately, liberals are helping the islamic growth in America, as well as in Europe. :-)
deleted
by vildemose on Thu Mar 10, 2011 07:48 AM PSTdeleted
There should be a support
by vildemose on Thu Mar 10, 2011 06:56 AM PSTThere should be a support group a virtual one for all the vicitms of the Islamic republic of Rapists where they can share their stories and find resources that can help them heal emotionally or even give them finanacial assistance. Is there such a website on the Interet?
where oh where
by fussygorilla on Thu Mar 10, 2011 06:52 AM PSTare the "Greens" supporters who fill up this site day after day?
Painful to read Atefeh's account which hopefully will teach these damned idiots who support Mousavi and his ilk as if they are "liberators' or "democrats" rather than foreign tools determiend to agitate and create instability to serve their bosses.
After she gave birth, they hanged her ...
by Mona 19 on Thu Mar 10, 2011 06:37 AM PSTDear Ms. Eghbal thank you so much for writing your story.
In my family three of my cousins were in prison. The youngest one was just 15 yrs old when they arrested her. Her crime was reading a newspaper that was published by Mojahedin. God knows what my aunt family endured. When they were imprisoned once in a while these thugs called my aunt family to come and pick up their bodies just to harras and abuse them emotionally. Two of them were executed later on.
In my husband's family, there're also many who have lost their loved ones . Their only crime was to be believers of a faith that was/is being persecuted in the hands of these monsters. Among them was a young mother that was pregnant at the time when they arrested her and according to their laws since she was pregnant they couldn't kill her so they waited untill she gave birth and then they hanged her the same day and gave the baby to a haji family.
As you said I hope one day"not only Mousavi, Karroubi and those who ruled during the dark ages of Valiayat-e Faqih [Guardianship of Islamic Jurist] but also everyone else, one by one, all of the groups and parties, even those who fought for freedom, will account for the good and the bad they have done. Even if they don’t respond to our questions, they answer to people: What happened during the last thirty three years and how did everyone contribute to what conspired?"
May your beloved husband & brother rest in peace.
Mona
children forsaken
by shamsi on Thu Mar 10, 2011 06:21 AM PSTSome Greens Still Support Mousavi
by JavoonDeerooz on Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:07 AM PSTClaiming that as the head of the Executive branch , he had no control over the judiciary branch and Paasdaran who committed these crimes. While there may be some truth to this, he still could have resigned , or at the very least, refrain from mentioning "The Golden Era under Khomeini" today. He was an opportunist back then and now he is an apologist. Is this the best we can do?
I neither forget, nor forgive...
by abc123 on Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:38 PM PSTMy Dear friend Atefeh, I feel your situation, because I was in your shoes. I probably met you before, like thousands that I met and many of them were executed or hanged with the worst situation. I can totally see how it feels wondering around on the streets, hungry, pregnant, worrying about hostage husband...There are scenes that I could never forget, torturing my husband in front of me while pregnant. Delivering baby in companion with two guards, while unconscious trying to make me confess instead of having my husband next to me...it's hard to forget, it's always somewhere hiding in your unconscious. It's hard to forget face of babies who were brought to Evin clinic from homes in fire with murdered parents bare in a fabric to protect them from fire (don't know the word). I will never ever forget the face of 6-7 months baby boy strong with hair on top of his lips and how scared he was with his whole body shaking.I hugged him to give him a little bit of my milk to comfort him...I'm sure each of us have tragic stories to tell and can't forget, that's why we don't want the same thing for anybody. Yes when the time comes by, we want power for people to bring all the criminals to justice.
To my friend Nasser Shirakbari: Unfortunately, I don't see whatyou see. "compassionate Iranians here in the United States whom offertheir shoulder of support" After all those sufferings and trying hard toreconstruct a broken life for myself and my baby, I experienced the hardestlife in the US, thanks to a crazy family (Please advise them to find their SoorakhDoaa and leave us alone), I want neither support nor harm. But, I appreciateyour support.
Sorry for the broken English and fragments. When heart aches, brainstops working...
My Dear Atefeh: Your story took me to the past. I've learnt not tolive in the past, calm yourself down and enjoy what you have. I'm sure you havea lot to appreciate. Let's put all our hands together and stop what is going onfor over 33 years now.
........
by yolanda on Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:17 PM PSTWhat a sad story! IRI's trademark is executions in the name of God! I hope we don't see another IRI style of government on this planet!
Thank you Laleh for the translation!
THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST ....!
by Everybody Loves Somebody ... on Wed Mar 09, 2011 05:32 PM PSTThese barbaric animals and I mean all of them deserve what they are going to get! I hope Khamenei and the gang won't spare anybody from the family of these criminals. Once these so-called reformists are taken care of then it will be the hard-liners turn. For that, the 82-airborne will be ready to take care of business...
mrx....
by shushtari on Wed Mar 09, 2011 03:22 PM PSTright on the money.
i remember those days as well......EVERYONE suffered at the hands of these lunatics
the shah had his issues, but he was a patriot.....and savak was keep loonies like these guys in prison....
compare the time of the pahlavi era to that of the mullas...
Those who feel deltangi for
by vildemose on Wed Mar 09, 2011 01:48 PM PSTThose who feel deltangi for Mousavi/Kahroubi and praise for Faeze, should ponder and wonder.
Oktaby
There is a God...Thank you for pointing that out.
Shoulders upon which to cry
by NASSER SHIRAKBARI on Wed Mar 09, 2011 01:46 PM PSTDear Atefeh Eghbal:
I offer you my condolence for the loss of your brother Aref and your husband Mahmoud. We read about Islamic Republic's crimes practically every day to a point of numbness. But hearing from someone who has experienced it first hand, your description, brings a true feeling of pain in my heart for you and other brothers and sisters who has suffered agonizing tortures and death by the cruel hands of the Evil government. I can assuredly tell you that there are many compassionate Iranians here in the United States whom offers their shoulder of support to you in which to cry. Please humbly accept my deepest sympathy to you and your family for the pain and suffering you have endured
Atefeh's question
by oktaby on Wed Mar 09, 2011 01:45 PM PSTis poignant, rhetorical and profound. What have we forsaken? is a complementary question I would add.
Those who feel deltangi for Mousavi/Kahroubi and praise for Faeze, should ponder and wonder.
Oktaby
Thank you for speaking up.
by vildemose on Wed Mar 09, 2011 01:43 PM PSTThank you for speaking up. Thank you. I don't have words to describe how I feel. Laleh jan, thank you for translating. I'm sure there are hundreds of Atefh's whose story should be told over and over so we won't forget.
I SAY the Same MRX1
by Maryam Hojjat on Wed Mar 09, 2011 01:21 PM PSTI never trust any Islamist or any one who has been with this regime since all have bloody hands with crimes against innocent IRANIANS.
I say
by MRX1 on Wed Mar 09, 2011 01:03 PM PSTF* opimum fested mosavi , karoubi and the rest of these islamic cockroaches out there. I mean it!!!I wish they join their late beloved imam as soon as possible. These followeres of islam nab mohammadi have no compassion what so ever for any one, teen agers, old men, pregnant women you name it. under their watch thousend were tortured and excuted. Do you hear any remorse from them? not at all! in fact they keep saying they yearnfor the years of khomeini. Well screw them. I hope they rott in hell.
A muslim man
by Raoul1955 on Wed Mar 09, 2011 01:32 PM PSTWith his four legal wives. They seem to be ready for the Halloween. :-)