Ayatollah Motazeri and Ayatollah Taleghani in Evin Prison

Ayatollah Montazeri, Ayatollah Modarressifar and I were in the same cell. Mr. Montazeri's had a special kind of personality and behavior. He had been misbehaved and tolerated a lot of tortures in prison. Since we were in the same room I would witness the miserable behavior they had with him. Mr. Montazeri had a simple earnest personality. There were sometimes people who would make conversations with him to have fun. He would talk to them a sweet Najafabadi accent. He would take the religious commands easy for others and hard for himself. He had shown a great resistance to tortures. I saw that he would answer the questions patiently even if they were aimless. His spiritual personality would make us warmhearted.

He would try to obey Islamic rules strictly, although it would sometimes result in many troubles and temptations. Mr. Montazeri was a pioneer in obeying Islamic rules in prison. Since I had problems with my legs to do some Islamic rules and also handling my personal affairs like washing the clothes, I remember that the late Hojjatuleslam Lahooti was a great help to me and most of the times it was him the one who would take my clothes by force to wash them with his own. I remember right at that time among the secular groups and organizations the leader would order their followers to do their personal affairs. Mr. Montazeri, despite of the old age and lack of enough body power, would never let others to wash his clothes.

I remember in our rooms; the lower parts of the walls were bloody and infectious because of our tortured feet but the upper parts of them were clean and white. Since it was public prison we had hung a rope on the upper part of the wall to hang and dry our clothes. We had made the ropes from the rug threads we had in the rooms. The palls had no problem to take the water out of their clothes by twisting them together; however, Mr. Montazeri despite being old and weak would not let others to help him in hanging his clothes. He would put a bowl under his clothes to collect the dropping water. Sometimes the wind would force the clothes to touch the wall and at the time that we were resting Haj Agha (Mr. Montazeri) would go and take them and clean them with water again. He would spend part of his time doing such strict affairs. One day I told him: “Haj Agha! What kind of task is it that you are doing?” Why you go and wash the clothes again when the wind makes them touch the wall?” He gave me a very good answer: “Do you want to know what Islam says about it or what Montazeri says?” I said: “Ok. First, Islam.” He said: “Islam says it is clean. And you should not be worried about me. It is my problem.” Sometimes I would put my clothes on the toilet to get dried but he would keep it in hand to be dried. Once he got badly sick. We tried hard to make the prison officials to take him to the clinic but nobody cared about what we said.[1]

In the afternoons, about 3 to 4 and half o’clock, we would go to Mr. Teleghani’s room to read newspapers; Ayatollah Montazeri would join us late sometimes. In a way that we had read the papers till his coming and then he would start reading the news. Whenever he would see interesting news, he would begin reading them with his nice and sweet Najafabadi accent. It would make us laugh and we would say: “Agha! These are second hand news…” or “… burnt ones”.

It was in the March of 1977 that part of trials and behind the curtain activities of Hadaf Group were revealed in the press. At the head of these people was Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi[2] who had done dirty genocides such as killing the late Hojjatoleslam Shamsabadu[3]. Ayatollah Montazeri was really upset for this genocide and told us several times: “This Shamsabadi was innocent. He should not be killed. I swear to God if they kill Seyyed Mehdi, his blood would be useless.”[4]

Gathering for public prayers had hard political implications and punishment. So, the palls would say their prayers alone in their cells or at most would hold public prayers just inside their rooms. I would say my prayers before Mr. Montazeri. He would oppose, but I would wait to let him begin his prayers and then I would join him. He told me several times: “Why do you come join in public prayers?” I would answer: “Haj Agha! Do not care about me. Just say your own prayers.” And he would answer: “It is forbidden here.” I would answer: “Let it happen even if only one person can do it.”

Abbas Modarressifar, my other roommate, would bother Mr. Montazeri a lot. He would ask him unrelated questions. I would advise him a lot not behave him like that, but alas. He was showing the sings of being misled. Ayatollah Taleghani had noticed this and would not invite him to the discussion sessions and did not care about him. I remember once he asked Mr. Taleghani: “Why do you say: ‘Oh God! Give me knowledge and join me with the good believers’ instead of ‘Oh God! Give me knowledge and using it and join me with the good believers’ in your prayers?” But Haj Agha, who knew what he meant, would never reply clearly and only would answer: “Our prayer is the clergy’s kind; it does need to be used!” Once I told Haj Mehdi Araghi: “Haji, if once again he (Modarressifar) says something like that, I would hit him hard with this very disabled leg of mine! And I do not care about solitary confinement at all!” Haji said: “It’s Ok. His behavior is like this. He does not mean anything. He should be tolerated.”

Ayatollah Teleghani had passed his interrogations and trail and was passing his verdict. He had a strong personality. All would respect him. Whenever he wanted to see the prison official, he would send a message and they would come to visit him. Once I witnessed the damned Manouchehri and Tehran came to visit him. They stood so politely and listened to him and confirmed what he said by moving their heads.

The late Taleghani behavior was in a way that friend and foe would respect him. I remember right on those days, his daughter, A’zam was arrested and held in the clinic of prison. He went there to visit her several times. Mr. Taleghani was also careful about the status of Mr. Montazeri. The late Taleghani was called “Agha” and Mr. Montazeri “Sheikh Montazeri” inside prison by others.

My legs were as before and still bothering me and also others. The doctors of prison believed my legs would never be cured and should be cut. Ayatollah Taleghani who was actually our father in prison seriously pursed the treatment of my legs and asked the prison officials to do something about them. They said there was no way and they had to be cut. Agha rejected. I was also against this decision. One day Agha called Manouchehri and told him: "I may accept that you cut Ahmad's legs under a condition and that is you should bring a doctor here that I introduce; someone other than the prison doctors. He should take look at his legs and if he affirmed your viewpoint, then you can take him and cut his legs. I may also pay all the costs." However, they did not accept and my legs remained disabled.

My friends would report my anxieties about Fatima to Mr. Taleghani. One day He called me and told me: "You should get divorce from your wife. As long as she is out and you are here the conditions would not change. Since you are dependent to her and worried about her, it is better to get divorce. Then he read the formula of repudiation for me and Fatima who was not there. Mr. Mahdavi Kani and Kho'eyniha and Karoubi witnessed his reading.

The presence of Mr. Taleghani was actually a privilege for us. We were hopeful about future by looking at him. After the divorce I could abate from my anxieties about unknown situation of Fatima and become less worried about her; since she had chosen her way by her own wish.