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When my family and I went to Iran in the
summer of 1978 the wind of change was blowing across the country. In Tabriz
the people talked about the upheaval in February 1978 and explained, with a
sense of pride, how the police and SAVAK systems had been paralysed and the
city was out of their control. Although the city had fallen into the hands
of the people they rarely indulged in physical attacks on individual or
private property.
The upheaval continued for three days during which time police stations,
Resurgence Party offices, banks, and cinemas specializing in foreign “X” –
rated films were attacked. The people set upon police stations and
Resurgence Partyoffices because they they represented the Pahlavi state, and
on banks because they were owned by the royal family, the state and foreign
investors who helpd the rich and discriminated against the poor and the
small businessmen. Many eye – witnesses told that no one attempted to steal
anything. They set fire to the banks but did not touch the money. They
attacked cimenas because of foreign “pornographic” films. The banks
symbolised the physical exploitation and the cinemas symbolized the cultural
exploitation and negative influence of the West. Neither in Tabriz nor in
other cities were the people opposed to Western technology modernization as
such; they were against the exploitation and negative aspects of the West.
Later on, the ayatollahs exploited this anti – foreign and particularly anti
– Western feeling of the people. Thus they managed to rally the people
behind them. In this way they negan to hi – jack the revolution of 1979:
using anti – West and anti – American propaganda as camouflage, the
ayatollahs developed relations with the Common Market countries and
maintained secret links with the United States (Irangate can be seen as an
example of it).
When I met some members of the Iranian Writer’s Association in Tehran, I
learned more about the influence of writers and poets on the political
atmosphere in the country. Poets and writers played an extremely important
role during 1977 through their popular gatherings in Tehran, in which over
10,000 intellectuals and students participated. During the Shah's rule this
sort of gathering was rare and was paid for with people's lives. In the face
of SA V AK's intimidation by threats, physical attacks and even death, this
action by the Iranian Writers' Association was a daring move against the
Pahlavi regime. Lawyers, teachers, doctors, especially women students and
teachers, were secretly and wholeheartedly supporting the opposition. Almost
all female students I met during my stay in Iran, from whichever walk of
life, expressed views and revolutionary vision which I found encouraging. I
became very optimistic about the prospects for change because I believed
that without the participation of the women of Iran the Revolution would not
be successful.
I could clearly feel the wind of change and the current of revolution
underneath the "island of stability" (a phrase used by President Carter to
describe Iran when welcoming the Shah at the White House about a year before
the Revolution of 1979). I thus decided to stay a few months in Iran and
witness the outcome. I was, fortunately, on sabbatical leave for the
following two terms (October 1978-AprilI979). I took my family back to
Britain and returned to Tehran on 7 September 1978 (one day before "Black
Friday").
My brother Mohsen had come from Tabriz to meet me at Tehran airport.
(Following my arrest by the SAVAK at Tehran airport in the summer of 1977,
Mohsen always anxiously travelled from Tabriz to meet me.) When I arrived
the SA V AK did not ask their usual questions: What do you teach in Britain?
What are your political activities? Do you support anti-Iran groups and
organisations? and so on.
The SAVAK had arrested me in March 1977 partly because I had read three
papers - one was on "The concept of 'Devil' in Persian mythology" (Ann
Arbor, Michigan 1967) at an international conference on the Middle East, at
which I had also voiced my criticisms of the Shah and Israel's occupation of
Arab lands; the second was on the works of Jalal-Al-e Ahmad and Samad
Behranghi, in Brussels in September 1970, and the third on the works of Dr
Ghulam-Hussein Sa'idi, in Paris in August 1973. The SAVAK informed me that
both Samad Behranghi and Ghulam-Hussein Sa'idi were threats to the security
of the state.
I remember one amusing incident that happened while I was under arrest. I
had been locked in a very hot room and the heat soon melted the chocolates
that I was carrying in my pockets to give to my sister's children when I
arrived at her house in Tehran. I realised this when I wanted to find a
tissue to wipe the perspiration from my forehead, which was starting to
trickle onto my glasses. I inadvertently dipped my right hand in the melted
chocolate. I then, without thinking, tried to find a tissue in another
pocket to clean my dirty hand. My left hand then became sticky with the
melted chocolate in my
Tabriz, November 1978.
other pocket. I did not know what to do, lost my temper and banged on the
door. A policeman opened the door. He told me off, in an Azerbaijani accent,
and ordered me to stop making a noise. When he saw the brown-stained stuff
on my hands and on my jacket, he asked me what was the matter. Realising
that he was from Azerbaijan, I |