374th Night of Remembrance - 2

Machine translation edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-8-31

The 374th Night of Remembrance program was held on Thursday, November 25, 2025, with the focus on reciting the memories of active military personnel during the victory of the Islamic Revolution from the prisons of the Pahlavi regime in the Soura Hall of the Hozeh Honari. The program began with the broadcast of a clip of Martyr Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and then Bahram Ali Taheri, Mohammad Hassan Pourjumeh, and Qanbar Rasek shared their memories. The performance of this Night of Remembrance was led by Davud Salehi.

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The host then introduced the second narrator of the program and said, “He was among the first groups that held demonstrations with about a thousand soldiers and people in Isfahan's Naghsh-e Jahan Square. On the same day, Ayatollah Taheri (the Friday prayer imam of Isfahan at the time) came to the people and said that he had a message from the Imam. The next day, this crowd of one thousand people grew to about four thousand people. When these troops return to the barracks, they close the doors on them, arrest them, and torture them. The second narrator of our program is one of these people who, on the way to exile to Khash Island, escapes in an incident and goes through strange adventures.

Colonel Mohammad Hassan Pourjoumeh, the second narrator of the program, said at the beginning of his speech, “I was recruited into the army in 1977 and retired in 2002 after 31 years of service. I joined the army from a very poor family. Our society was very poor before the revolution. Not as some people imagine today. When I remember those days, I am truly moved. It was rare that we could eat bread and cheese for breakfast. God is our witness that our breakfast was at most a piece of bread with a sweet tea. We lived in houses with rooms around the courtyard, and in each of these rooms, a family of five or six lived. In the mornings, we had to stand in line to perform ablution. My father was a laborer and my mother was a homemaker. I worked during the day and studied at night until I received my diploma.

He explained how he entered the army: When they announced that the army was accepting “Homafars,” I decided to register. Before leaving, I consulted with Martyr [Mohammad Sadeq] Eslami, who was familiar with our family. He discussed the matter with Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani and the Supreme Leader, and then he told me, “Go, on the condition that you come and inform us of anything that happens there, because we have no information about the inside of the army.” With this advice, I entered the army. I completed general Chinook helicopter courses in the United States. I worked in the Air Force and later was transferred to the Ministry of Defense and the Panha Helicopter Factory.

Referring to the religious atmosphere of the army corps, the narrator said, “When we entered the army, on the advice of Martyr Beheshti, who knew me and I attended his Quranic school meetings, we began to identify believers. Unlike the upper ranks and the admirals, the lower ranks and classes of the army were generally religious. They prayed, fasted, and were circumcised. Many of them had not come because of the Shah, but rather had worn military uniforms to protect the homeland and the independence of the country. At that time, I myself was a follower of Imam Khomeini (RA) and had his treatise at home. We spent most of our idle time in mosques and met young army men there, but due to the severe suffocation and the strong presence of counter-intelligence, no one dared to speak out. In this section, the host of the program pointed out that the Pahlavi regime intended to exploit this devotion and devotion to the homeland of religious forces, unaware that one day these religious children would twist the regime's scroll.” Then he asked the narrator to tell the story of the Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan.

Before entering the story of Isfahan, the narrator mentioned a dangerous and secret mission and said, “I was the first military man who went to Najaf through the army at the height of the Shah's power in 1353 and reached the service of the Imam. It was almost impossible for the military to leave the country. We went to Baghdad by helicopter and created a technical defect in the helicopter with a trick so that we were forced to stay. We reached Najaf from Baghdad in eight to nine hours at night. In that strange country, only the dome of the Imam (AS) was our landmark. When we arrived at the Imam's old and imposing house, the first question he asked me was, "What are the soldiers doing?" I explained the situation and said that the army is pro-Islamic. When saying goodbye, the Imam said, "Give my greetings to the soldiers." He then went on to tell the shocking story of smuggling the Imam's leaflets: The Imam gave me some leaflets, books, and tracts to bring to Tehran. In Karbala, I bought a shroud and hid the leaflets inside it and put them in a nylon bag. The next morning at the Baghdad airport, Iraqi agents and even our own intelligence officers who were with the helicopter began to carefully inspect the belongings. They were going through all the bags. When my turn approached, I saw that I had no way to escape. In my heart, I appealed to the Commander of the Faithful (AS) and said, "Sir, I have a wife and children, help me pass this package." The Iraqi officer came to me, pointed at the nylon and asked: “What is this?” I said, “It’s a shroud.” To my surprise, the officer only cursed and didn’t even look inside the nylon! While everyone’s bags were carefully searched, I was able to bring those leaflets safely to Isfahan and distribute them among comrades and dignitaries such as the late Parvaresh.”

The narrator said about the formation of the military demonstrations in Isfahan, “When it was announced during the Imam’s presence in Paris that the military would leave the barracks, we came to Tehran and consulted with Martyr Beheshti.” He said, “Now that you want to leave the army, do something effective before you leave. We returned to Isfahan and, with a core of 15 of our friends, decided to gather the military in Sabzeh Square in Isfahan. We also wrote a placard with the text: “We, the Air Force, declare solidarity with the Muslim people of Iran.” He added, “On the promised day, we gathered in Sabzeh Square in military uniform. People were looking on in surprise. Suddenly, we unfurled the placard and chanted the slogans of “Death to the Shah” and “Long live Khomeini.” A huge crowd, perhaps close to a hundred thousand people, joined us and we moved towards Naqsh-e Jahan Square. The news reached Major General Naji (the military governor of Isfahan) and he ordered the martial law guard to take action to arrest us. At that critical moment, Ayatollah Taheri (the Friday prayer imam of Isfahan) came to the crowd with a loudspeaker and said, “The imam called me from Paris and asked me to investigate the veracity of the military demonstration. I saw this movement and I will testify to the imam. Now you disperse quickly so that you will not be arrested.” The people of Isfahan sheltered the military with open arms and did not let us be arrested.” He said about the events of the next day at the Havaniruz barracks, “The day after we went to the barracks, Deputy Major General Khosrodad came to give a speech to the personnel and say that we must preserve the system and the Shah. I stood up and shouted: “How long will you deceive the people? The grave of the Shah’s father! We are the servants of the people.” Suddenly, about four thousand military personnel erupted in a riot. One of the children placed the Imam’s photo on a tree branch and the crowd moved towards the Shiraz-Esfahan Gate and the Seyyed Mosque. There, they read a proclamation and Mr. Abedi gave a powerful speech against capitulation and servitude to foreigners.”

Referring to his miraculous escape, the narrator said, “The next day, they closed the barracks doors to arrest the main perpetrators. A friend saw me on the street and warned me not to go in. (After the revolution, we saw his documents that they wanted to have a field trial and execute us there).However, we were surrounded and arrested on the street. They put us in military trucks to deport us to Khash prison, but I managed to escape halfway through with the help of the people and then I started serving in the Imam's house.

At the end of his speech, the narrator said to the youth, “My dears! Appreciate this system. I swear by the split head of the Commander of the Faithful (AS), if this system is lost, we will again become the same nation of beggars that we were before the revolution. Before the revolution, only one family and the regime used everything and the rest of the people were nothing. Do not be fooled by false propaganda. Today, the world has counted on us. Today, we have achieved great achievements in the military industry. We build helicopters and produce "self-sealing" fuel tanks that do not leak even when hit by a bullet. There are problems and high prices, but we did not make a revolution for these reasons. We made a revolution to have independence and to be human. Appreciate this independence and humanity.”

To be continued …