Transfer to the Ward-6

Translated by Zahra Hosseinian

2023-01-24

After two weeks [being in prison in 1979], I was transferred from the cell to Ward-6. The ward-6 of the Committee had three rooms, each having the area of approximately 12 square meters. There were four or five people in each room. In this section, coming and going from cell to the ward was permitted, although the door of the ward was closed, but we were allowed to walk in the ward’s ground. No one could come to this ward from other wards and we could not go to the other wards either. The ward had not have a very big area; it was about two by ten meters. Anyway, more freedom was felt in ward-6 than in cell, and we could walk inside the ward or stop by the other cells.

Mr. Rahmani Hamdani, who died, and Mr. Hosseini Hamdani were my cellmates. I and a tall Seyyed, and Abbas were in the same cell. The late Seyyed Abbas Abu Tarabi Qazvini, the late martyr Sheikh Mahdi Shahabadi, and the late Seyyed Saleh Taheri Khorramabadi, who was the first Imam of Friday Prayer in Ahvaz, were in the next cell. All of them were accused of speaking against the regime and the Shah. Although people like Abu Torabi and Shahabadi did not themselves preach from the pulpit; but they were arrested because of inviting the preachers and organizing the associations. So some of them were imprisoned in the committee and some were in other places. We didn't have any special things to do; and sometimes scientific topics were discussed and friends expressed their opinions. Once we agreed to perform a theater inside the ward. Mr. Seyyed Saleh Taheri Khorramabadi assumed to arrange it. The theme of the theater was a court session. Mr. Taheri Khorramabadi played the role of the investigator. We had a small table. We put it in the middle and threw a blanket over it. People came as defendants, stood in front of the table on a blanket, and Mr. Taheri questioned them all as an investigator. He asked many questions and defendants answered them. During this interrogation, another person pulled the blanket from under the accused's feet and he fell to the ground. Of course, excluding I and Mr. Abu Torabi and the late Shahid Shahabadi. We did not play because it was inappropriate for our age; but, we sat and watched them. In one of these plays, another cleric, named Mr. Fakaki, stood on the blanket as an accused. Mr. Taheri Khorramabadi asked: "We heard that you’ve gone to Egypt and Cairo." (Egypt's relationship with the regime was not bad at that time). "Yes, but what happened?" He answered, "The world’s not ruined." Then Mr. Taheri Khorramabadi asked: "I’ve heard that you brought a surface-to-air missile with you when you returned from Cairo." At this moment, I commented: "perhaps it’s been an air-to-ground missile together with two grenades." All laughed. At this moment, they pulled the blanket from under Mr. Fakaki's feet. He fell down to the ground and unfortunately broke his arm. A loud noise rose. An officer entered the ward and shouted what is going on? We answered that nothing has happened; and even the broken-arm man said that nothing has happened. We are playing and laughing. Shortly after the officer was told that Mr. Fakaki’s arm was broken. They took him to the clinic and bandaged his arm.

Source: Memoirs of Ayatollah Abdullah Mohammadi, edited by Mohammad Reza Ahmadi, Tehran, Islamic Revolution Records Center, 1^st edition, 2013, pp. 79-81.