A plateau between prison and exile

Ayatollah Khamenei
A plateau between prison and exile

On August 25, 1975, Mr. Khamenei arrived in Mashhad one day after his release from the Joint Anti-Sabotage Committee prison. The SAVAK in Mashhad was unhappy to see him in his hometown. Sheykhan hoped that he would not see his names in the reports of Mashhad security officials for several years. The first limitation which thte SAVAK of Mashhad imposed on him was that he did not have the right to lead the congregational prayers. The next step was tapping his phone calls “until further notice.” It was also decided that his correspondence would be censored for six months from September 18, 1975, until the end of the year; the messages or letters he received or sent. These actions had been taken before the emphasis of Parviz Sabeti, the director-general of the third office of SAVAK.

Mr. Khamenei continued his activities in Mashhad. After he was not allowed to speak and lead the congregation prayer, he held meetings at his house. SAVAK ordered the Shahrbani to prevent him from holding teaching sessions in his house. One of Mr. Khamenei’s teaching methods was setting up private lessons for a small number of seminarians. He had private classes for those seminarians with special talents, hoping that these sessions will be fruitful in the future. Although being away from Mashhad for eight months, has distracted him from the affairs of religious funds, but after returning, again he began managing the affairs. During his imprisonment, some of his friends and followers took action with respect to the religious funds which caused them to pay a high price. Javad Khojasteh, his wife’s brother, sought permission to give khums (Imam’s share) to the students who did not join the Rastakhiz Party and did not received financial aids from the university. He was allowed to spend one-third of that Imam’s share.” Javad Khojasteh’s activities caused him trouble. He was arrested and after being tortured was sent to Tehran.

In addition to these efforts, Mr. Khamenei managed to publish the book entitled “The General Outline of Islamic Thought in the Quran” that year. When the SAVAK of Mashhad found out about the publication of the book, it asked the headquarters of SAVAK to analyze the content of the book, since it may be “harmful” which is true “action should be taken to stop its publication and distribution.” He refrained from mentioning his famous surname on the front cover of the book and published the book under the name “Sayyed Ali Hoseyni” as the author.

This time, Mr. Khamenei entrusted the process of printing his book to the Islamic Culture Publishing House. This cultural institute was established in 1973 by the efforts of his long-time friend Dr. Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and a group of like-minded people.

Tapping Mr. Khamenei’s phone calls and other restrictions imposed on him in the second half of the year1975 did not provide SAVAK with any tangible evidence. 

Clerics banned from leaving the city.

It was at the end of 1975 that a number of clerics, whom SAVAK called “extremist clerics,” were banned from leaving their cities. Four people from Khorasan were included in this sentence, two of whom were exiles. Mr. Ali-Akbar Feyz-Meshkini, who had been deported to Kashmar, and Mr. Mohammad-Mahdi Rabbani-Rankouhi, who had been deported to Kashmar, and Sayyed Ali Khamenei and Mohsen Doagou from Mashhad, were among the 61 clerics banned from leaving. The reason for this was to prevent them from travelling to Iraq and visiting Ayatollah Khomeini.

Officials at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad realized that “almost all of these pilgrims, after visiting Karbala and Najaf, express their devotion to Imam [Khomeini] by paying religious funds and bringing or taking messages.” They knew that “each month millions of tomans are given to Imam Khomeini’s office by the same Iranians who came to Iraq, and thousands of seminarians, both in Iran and Iraq, receive this money, and each, in turn, propagates the ideas of Imam Khomeini’s movement.” The security service wanted to prevent the expansion of Imam Khomeini’s financial network as a marja’. On the other hand, the connection between his followers and his contacts had to be observed. Prohibiting the clerics following Imam Khomeini from leaving their hometowns was one of these ways.

Surrounded by SAVAK

Mr. Khamenei began the year 1976 while he was banned from all social activities. He was not allowed to give lectures, teach, hold meetings in the house, or lead the congregational prayers. SAVAK cut off all his public relations and, through its spies, monitored all his personal communications, like what it did to him during the second half of the last year. SAVAK was somehow surrounding him. Most of his students were either in prison and under interrogation or were not allowed to speak in public. His close friends, such as Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, were behind bars.

Reunion of the Friends

In the summer of 1976, all the like-minded friends of Mr. Khamenei gathered in Mashhad; even Najafi and Lebanese friends came to Mashhad. Talking to Mohammad-Javad Hojjati-Kermani, Mohammad-Ali Movahedi-Kermani and Mahdi Rabbani-Amlishi and analyzing current issues, he reiterated the need to develop an Islamic charter and explained the need to study topics such as creation and life from an Islamic perspective.

Confirming his remarks, the audience agreed on establishing an active and small organization and that responsibilities should be distributed as soon as possible. A list of influential people was also prepared in which Dr. Beheshti’s name was mentioned. Mr. Beheshti was also in Mashhad that summer. They decided to visit him the day after the meeting and inform him of the decisions made.

The next day’s meeting was at Mr. Khamenei’s house. From the very beginning, Mr. Beheshti managed to lead the discussion driving it towards practical issues. His operational thinking required this; he ought to implement an idea very quickly. He said that there is no need to talk about the necessity of such a group action; what matters is reaching an agreement on the names of the individuals. He said that there should be a criterion for selecting individuals and that the main criterion is the person’s ability to overcome personal characteristics and his engagement in teamwork.

Ali Meshkini, Mohammad Momen, Sayyed Hasan Taheri, Abbas Vaez-Tabarsi, Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Sayyed Mohammad Khamenei, Hoseyn-Ali Montazeri, Ahmad Jannati, Sayyed AbdolKarim Mousavi-Ardabili, Mohammad-Javad Kermani were among the names mentioned in the meeting. Subsequent meetings were held in Tehran at Mr. Bahonar’s house. In the early fall of 1977, four or five sessions were being held before the demise of Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini, after which great events occurred such that those meetings could not deal with them.

According to Shahrbani reports, Mr. Khamenei began teaching in the seminary in September 1976. In addition, he used to provide seminarians with financial aids on behalf of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Mr. Khamenei’s teaching continued in the second half of the year 1976. According to the Shahrbani reports, in February 1976, he was teaching the Soleyman Khan Seminary.

According to the available evidence, the idea of ​​establishing a school of religious studies by Mr. Khamenei and his associates was still alive at the time. When in early December 1976 they bought an old house located on Shokat al-Molk Alley, Khosrovi Street, and rebuilt it, SAVAK tried to stop the Khomeini’s supporters with the excuse that they do not have the legal permission to do so.

Travelling to Tehran

Mr. Khamenei travelled to Tehran in January 1976. The month of Muharram had arrived. On the day of Tasu’a, January 10, 1976, Mr. Khamenei along with a number of his friends attended the meeting held in Mr. Tahririan’s house. Mr. Mortaza Motahhari, Mr. Ali Shariati and Mr. Mohammad Mofteh were among them. Sayyed Abolfazl Mousavi-Zanjani and others were also present.

Mr. Hoseyn Sobhdel recited the Quran; Dr. Shariati recited passionate poems about Imam al-Husayn and Ashura; Mr. Khamenei spoke about the prophets’ movement, struggle, and the two groups of oppressed and arrogant people; Mr. Motahhari talked about the words Tudeh and uprising from a Quranic perspective. The meeting continued until sunset. Mr. Khamenei led the congregational prayer. Before that, Dr. Shariati spoke and then Surah al-Saff was interpreted by Mr. Khamenei. Mr. Motahhari, Mr. Mofteh and Mr. Mousavi-Zanjani left the meeting before sunset.

The next day, the same people gathered together in the house of Mr. Mohammad Homayoun, and also on the 11th day of Muharram they held another meeting in the house of Mr. Mofidi. In the last meeting, after discussing the translation of the Quran, Dr. Shariati spoke about the enemy of Islam: colonialism and Marxism as a rival for Islam. Criticizing Shariati’s remarks, Mr. Motahhari called Marxism an enemy of Islam, not its rival, “because if they are rivals it means they are not enemies, and just compete with each other for gaining something,” and this is not true regarding the relationship between Islam and Marxism.

June 5, 1977

At that time, Mr. Khamenei had held teaching sessions at the Rezaei Mosque, in front of the Soleyman Khan Seminary. He cancelled his classes from June 10, in commemoration of the leader of the movement, his uprising fourteen years ago and also for sympathizing with those who have been martyred in different cities during that event. 

Announcements were distributed in higher education centers during the days before and after June 15. Mashhad Security Organization, which has always considered the formation of Mr. Khamenei’s classes as being troublesome, this time was worried about the closure of his teaching classes. After leaving Iran on May 26, Dr. Shariati died at his residence in the United Kingdom on June 29.

Dr. Shariati’s Demise 

The absence of Dr. Ali Shariati in Mashhad did not end with just holding a few funeral ceremonies and offering condolences to his father. On June 24, students at Mashhad’s Faculty of Literature and Humanities began their uprising. Two days later, a group of people in the city protested in Sarshour Bazaar. On June 27, about seventy young people in Mashhad gathered in Eidgah Alley, chanting slogans and making statements against the government. On the same day, about 100 young people held a demonstration in Tabarsi Street. On July 3, a number of students gathered in the Sahib al-Zaman Mosque in Mashhad chanting slogans against the ruling regime. The Mashhad academic community had not seen such political movements before.

On June 26, Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Vaez-Tabasi went to Mr. Mohammad-Taqi Shariati’s house and expressed their sympathy. The next day, a funeral ceremony was held at the Keramat Mosque in honour of Dr. Shariati. The ceremony was held and organized by Mr. Khamenei. The memorial ceremony, which took place on the 40th day of Dr. Shariati’s death in his father’s house, was attended by people such as Mahdi Bazargan, Sayyed Gholamreza Sa’idi, Mohammad Shanehchi, Mohammad-Mahdi Jafari, and Nemat Mirzazadeh from Tehran. Moreover, leading seminarians from Mashhad, academics and clerics such as Khamenei, Vaez-Tabasi and Hasheminejad also attended the ceremony. Mr. Bazargan gave a speech in honour of Dr. Shariati. 

The days of the summer of 1977 were difficult and sad for Mr. Khamenei due to the death of Dr. Ali Shariati. Even the agents who were watching his activities said that he is staying in the house and groups of people, especially students, come to his house to offer condolences. The protests held in Mashhad in June were held in July as well.

Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini’s Demise

The sudden death of Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini was a shock to Iran. In Mashhad, seminaries were closed for two days. The first ceremony, organized by Mr. Khamenei and his like-minded friends, was held in the Malahasham Mosque. Mr. Sayyed Abdollah Shirazi was the main supporter of the ceremony. A lot of people attended the ceremony.

In the meantime, the seminarians expressed their feelings about the incident sometimes by going to the house of Mr. Vaez-Tabasi and sometimes by gathering in the house of Mr. Hasheminejad; and what was gradually becoming apparent was the public’s inclination towards and attachment to the leader of the Islamic Movement, Imam Khomeini. Significant telegrams were sent from Mashhad to Najaf, mostly by clerics. On October 29, Mr. Khamenei sent a text to his master from Khorasan Telecommunications Department which SAVAK found out about its content.

Archive of Ayatollah Khamenei

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