Prison No. 3

After about 4 months, they sent me to Prison No. 3 where the other INP members were held as political prisoners. There, we had fewer problems because of being beside other friends who were all political. Something that I should narrate here are the stories of honoring resistance of our palls.

Days and nights at prison were the same. In order to flee from this condition, we had scheduled our time. I dare to say that we had no misused time. From dawn to sunset, we had filled our time by worship, prayers, classes, discussions, news analysis, cleaning and … Mr. Anvari had two kinds of classes; a public one and a professional one. And Mr. Hojjati Kermani had Koran interpretation classes.

Our public prayers ceremonies held in Ayatollah Anvari Mr. Hojjati Kermani rooms were among the most the beautiful scenes on those days. The other religious and national ceremonies and worshiping circles were held in their own place. Dua Kumayl and Tawassul (literally the Supplication of Kumayl and resort) ceremonies were held every week by the eulogy of Mr. Akbar Salahmand and Mohammad Baqer Senoubari and Mohsen Haji Mehdi and also Mr. Hojjati Kermani speeches.

In Nowruz celebrations, they had appointed particular days for the visit of prisoners and their families. They let them to bring under 12 years old kids with themselves. Though, I was not married then and had no kids, but I could see my nieces and nephews. We could not wait for this day. A week earlier we would clean all the building and decorate it with color papers and balloons to welcome Nowruz. We even would prepare good food for the guests. That one week was full of liveliness happiness and enthusiasm. That day, the unforgettable day for all prisoners, Dr. Reza Mansouri[1] who was 16 at that time, could manage to show himself as a twelve-years-old boy because of his small and slim body and visit his brothers (Javad and Ahmad). He could also cleverly manage to bring in a real camera as a toy with himself and could take pictures from a big number of prisoners specially INP members.[2]

Something which was quite notable at that day was the presence of prisoners’ daughters. The children of Muslim prisoners were all wearing Hijab, but the Marxists’ would not.

The food quality in Prison No. 3 was not good. Its size was something to make the prisoner satiated. Some would pretend to be sick to get more food because they would give the sick people more food. So, the ones who would eat less were more adorable to others. For example, there was a competition between me, Ali Reza Sepasi and Ashtiani to sit beside Mohammad Piran who would not eat so much.

In this prison we would cook food by ourselves. Haj Mehdi Araqi was the leading figure in this case. He would buy the needed material from outside the prison and then by the help of others he would cook the food. The money of this job was afforded by the 360 Rials that they would give each of us monthly instead of food. I remember Haj Hashem Amani and Haj Habibollah Asgar Owladi would make the oil hot in zinc dishes and fry potatoes and onions. We would also clean beans and rice and other grains and cereals. Mr. Abolghasem Sarhaddizadeh[3] would help them despite it was not his turn most of the time and work and chat to each other till 1 o’clock in the morning.

The prison officials had not appointed anyone as a person in charge of cleaning the toilets and different parts of the rows. So, the palls would participate in cleaning the prison. Sport was also a permanent part of daily life.

Scheduled sport programs had a big role in impeding laziness among our palls and sometimes they would change to political fights.

Though being weak in table tennis, one day I played with Parviz Nik Khah. He was professional and could defeat me in three successive games. Marxists became happy of his win very much. However, in another game he was defeated hardly by Mr. Sarhaddi Zadeh. Nobody was professional as him in the prison in table tennis. I remember Sarhaddi Zadeh told Nik Khah: “whenever you could achieve 5 points in 3 games, you are the winner.” But Nik Khah could not achieve that goal in 3 games.  This defeat was a hard one for the Marxists and this way my defeat was compensated. Wrestling was also done by using the mattresses in the rooms and under the direction of Mr. Seyfian who was an engineer.

A Marxist named Amoo’ee and Mr. Sarhaddi Zadeh and I from Muslims were good at volleyball among the prisoners. Whenever we both were in one team, the Muslim team would be the winner. Sometimes we would show great enthusiasm as if it was the fight between the believers and non-believers.

Prison was a place for growth and construction in this period for some of prisoners and they could finish their seminary school to some good levels. Mr. Javad Mansouri and Ahmad Mansouri[4] could finish their high school and get their diploma.