Sayyed Hussein Sharbiani, a political activist during the years1949 and 1978, has witnessed many of the political and social events up close. His experiences from the beginning of his political activity when he was a close friend of Dariush Forouhar in...
Sayyed Hussein Sharbiani, a political activist during the years1949 and 1978, has witnessed many of the political and social events up close. His experiences from the beginning of his political activity when he was a close friend of Dariush Forouhar in Iran Nation party to the time he accepted membership in the people’s party by Asadallah Alam’s invitation and his later activities in the resurrection party would be enjoyed and serve as a lesson to those interested. The text of the interview is as follows.
□Please introduce yourself and tell us how you began your political activity?
I, Sayyed Ali Hussein Sharbiani known as Sayyed Hussein Sharbiani, was born on June 28th 1928 in Sharbian which was part of Sarab at that time and is now a town. I was born to a relatively religious family. I was about 8 or 9 when I went to school. Our teacher was Nayeb Ibrahim and he taught us to read and write. Generally in those years there weren’t many literates in Azerbaijan while in Sharbian illiterates were rare. I learned the preliminaries in childhood and became familiar with history and the famous works in Persian language like Golestan Sa¢di. In 1943 I went to Tabriz with the late Sheikh Alireza Taghizadeh who was a noble, pious man. I had a kind of fear and antipathy towards those in military uniforms known as Amniyeh (gendarme) from childhood because I had seen how women escape from them to keep their hijab. I remember when I reached Tabriz with Sheikh Alireza he told me to wait by our things until he finds a place for our residence. After a few minutes a policeman came towards me and threw a kick at our stuff and asked what they are. In that condition I didn’t dare say anything, my tongue was tied and I started crying until Sheikh Alireza came and we went to a house he had gotten. From the next day we started learning Arabic from “Sarf Mir”. I had good memory and I didn’t need to review the things I learned, I studied morphology and syntax for a while in Talebiyeh School in Tabriz with Mr. Mirza Moslem Malakooti who is now Tabriz Prayer leader and also with Haj Mirza Ahmad Sharbiani who was my fellow townsman.
In 1945 I went to Qom with the same Sheikh Alireza and we became roommates in Dar-al-Shafa School. In QomI studied with Mirza Abulfazl Olamaei, who is an eminent personality and despite being an authority on divine law, he does not brag and doesn’t even have an encyclical and also some others (at the moment I know most of the professors in Qom and Tabriz. Mr. Mirza Hussein Ayooghi who has an encyclical was my student back then although he was older than me.
My other student was Mr. Sheikh Mohammad Taghi Ja¢fari. He, who became a very much learned man later, studied preliminaries of Arabic and conjugation with me for a while. He also said in a television interview that I was his first teacher. He had great perception and studied well. A while later, I came to Tehran and became a teacher and started teaching Arabic. Then I went to University of Theology and I was classmates with the late Dr. Beheshti. Also I met and became friends with Sayyed Hassan Haerinia1, Masoud Sharif and Mohammad Tohidi.
□What is your level of education?
Regarding ancient sciences my education was at the level of epistles and Makasib. In 1949 I removed my turban and habit in order to become familiar with politics and the national party. Of course I read all the time but I didn’t continue studying. Since I was interested in political matters, Dr. Forouzanfar did not favor me in college and he banned me from studying for a year. I even got my bachelor’s degree years later and with the mediation of Mr. Asadallah A¢lam.
In 1949, I met the late Dariush Forouhar through Mr. Abulghasem Maherani who was from Isfahan. This familiarity strengthened so much that the Forouhar family considered me a member of the family. At that time Forouhar’s father, Colonel Sadegh Forouhar and his mother Mrs. Aghdas were alive and loved me as their own. Since I was financially weak, whenever they bought clothes for Dariush they’d buy the same for me. Due to this friendship with Forouhar and later with Dr. Ameli Tehrani and Mohsen Pezeshkpoor I entered Iran National Party. I was the 13th member of the Iran National Party based on Pan-Iranism. In addition to the ones I named, Hassanali Sarem Kalaki, Houshang Haghnevis, Javad Taghizadeh and some others were members of this party.
□How did Iran Nation Party form?
The start was when a group of youngsters wanted to establish an organization to campaign against the Tudeh2 Party and the English. Alireza Raeis3, whom I never met, was the head of this organization. A while later he was killed from an explosion by grenade and was buried in Hazrat Abdolazim’s Touti Garden. Probably Dariush Homayoun injured his foot in the same explosion and lost balance forever.
□Did all the members of the Iran Nation Party think alike or were there disagreements among them?
At the time I was a member of the party there were few branches and trends there. Sarem Kalali, Taghizadeh and Haghnevis were with Dariush Forouhar. Mohammadreza Ameli Tehrani, Mehrdad (whose spinal cord was injured) and the brigadier worked under Pezeshkpoor’s supervision. Zia Modares, Shapoor Zandnia and Hamid Sherkat were close and formed another branch. Colonel Meghdadi, Agha Bayati and another person whose name I have forgotten were another group but the main leader of the party was Dariush Forouhar. The common trait among all was their nationalism. Forouhar had formed a committee and invited all the nationalist representatives to gather every week or month. He took me with him to every session. This committee led the activities of all members and Dariush Homayoun was part of this committee too.
I was the organizer of the committee and in contact with everyone. A while later Mr. Mir Mohammad Sadeghi joined Iran National Party too and for some time unionized everyone but after four months they scattered away again, some went after Pezeshkpoor and some remained with Forouhar. Among these people, I believe, Ameli Tehrani was a real theoretician and knew exactly what he was doing.
At that time, Pan-Iranists were severely against the influence of Soviet Union’s politics in Iran and moved against the Tudeh party. With the start of Mosadegh’s premiership, Dariush Forouhar coordinated all his capabilities with Dr. Mosadegh’s policies and became very close to him and kept this closeness until his death. But after the august coup de ta, due to the reasons evident, people’s way of thought changed. Forouhar remained faithful to Mosadegh while the likes of Pezeshkpoor got close to the king.
Dariush Homayoun married Ardeshir Zahedi’s sister and became a relative of the regime. Therefore, the formation of Iran Nation Party was more based on homegrown feelings and opposition with the Tudeh Party.
□What do you know of the other parties and the formation of the National Front in the 20’s?
In those years there were other parties against the Tudeh party like the Iran party, the labor party, Aria and others in all of which branches formed and all transformed into different groups. From the Iran Party a group split led by Mohammad Nakhshab. Before that Khalil Maleki from the Tudeh Party separated and formed the Third Force but all kinds of people participated at the beginning of establishing the National Front. People like Abulhassan Amidi Noori, Abdolghadir Azad, Hussein Maleki, Dr. Baghaei, Haerizadeh and the members of the Iran Party were effective in the formation of the National Front. Then we saw that many of these people left the side of Dr. Mosadegh.
□Tell me more about your activities in the Iran Nation Party.
One day I was sitting in the office, Mr. Forouhar was there too. A few people came; Hassan Karbasi, Kazem Beigi (a school principal in Babol) and Ali Asghar Roshani. One of them said: “It is good if a person came and started a branch of the party in Babol.” Dariush Forouhar, may God bless his soul, looked at me and asked: “will you go?” I said I would if you asked me. He immediately wrote an official order and gave it to me and I left for Babol with those men the same day, in Babol I stayed with Hassan Karbasi, who was one of the rich people in Babol, to start the foundations of this party’s branch in Babol. I remember we struggled with the Tudeh party a few times there. Once it was on Charshanbe Soori4 and the Tudeh party held a gathering in a hall and we disconnected the electricity. One of us, named Amir Zarinkia known as Amir Mooboor5, chanted slogans against the Tudeh Party6 and we repeated and the gathering was disrupted and everyone left the hall.
The next day we went to Babolsar with a car and we had severe struggles there too and the Tudehei’s stabbed me with a knife. A while later on April 18th 1950, when I was going to visit one of my friends named Husseini or Zein-al-Aabedin Naderi, I was attacked by the Tudehei’s in an alley named Taghi Darbon and stabbed me 22 times with a knife and although I was armed I was cautious and didn’t use it because if I did they would have definitely killed me. The interesting thing was that at the time of struggle there were 3 police officers present but did not do anything in our favor. Later I heard that colonel Masoumi, the head of Babol Police department had called Mohammad Ghazi the Tudehei leader and told them: “we did our work.” Any how I was taken to a hospital. I remember my doctor was Dr. Babayov. After recovery I started my political activities in the Iran Nation Party again until other incidents happened.
After the coup de ta in 1953, Teimoor Bakhtiar was at the peak of power as a military governor and I taught at Firooz Bahram School. One day when I left the school the military government officers took me to Bakhtiar. After a few questions Bakhtiar asked me where Forouhar’s hiding place was. I told him I didn’t know and that I haven’t seen him for a while. the day before that Forouhar had sent his mother to visit me and she had a letter from him. In the letter he had said if you want to see me come with my mother. Of course I didn’t get the chance and was taken to the military governorship. Bakhtiar offered me a job but I didn’t accept making different excuses. In the end he said you are free to go. I said that it is after midnight and if I go out now the officers will detain me. Send an officer with me to take me home. Bakhtiar sent a car and an officer and I remember him saying: “you certainly are a mullah7!” as I remember they had laid such a trap for Forouhar too but he had fled also. Some time passed until I got a message from Bakhtiar ordering me not to stay in Tehran. I had to go to Gilan and was a guest of Meftah, Gilan’s governor for six months.
When I came back to Tehran I started teaching in night schools again, in Khazaeli, Iranshahr institute and also in national high schools of Mahyar, Tamadon and Noshiravan8 and during those years I established Naser Khosro and Fazel Sharbiani night Institutes and I also wrote articles in some newspapers and magazines regarding different state matters and sometimes I gave speeches in some meetings.
At this time Major General Arfa had started political activities too in order to prepare for his own premiership and he had gathered some people around himself. Around mid-spring of 1959 I gave a speech about the country’s affairs and politics in Asadallah Riazi’s house who was a cleric and in favor of Arfa. After my speech, a person approached me and while introducing himself and praising my word he said: “I am Mohammad Hadi Moshtagh, are you willing to participate in the People’s party led by Mr. Alam?” then he gave an address so that I can go to their place on Saba Street the next day. Of course I knew Alam from before. Anyway I went to Saba Street to meet the members the next day. Moshtagh introduced me to those present. From what I remember, sirs Dr. Baheri, Rasoul Parvizi, Naser Amidi, Abulfazl Suleimani, Mostafa Sahebdivani and Jalal Jahanmir were there. Naser Amidi wanted to arrange a meeting for me and Alam but on the condition that it doesn’t exceed a few minutes. When the time came I visited Mr. Alam. When I met him I said: “I am not much in favor of the king and I am a supporter of Mr. Mosadegh. If you have a place for the like of me with such a point of view I am ready to participate.” Upon hearing this Alam got up and came and sat beside me and while taking my hands in his he said: “We have formed this party to have the likes of you and we are looking for people with the same viewpoint as yours.” Then we talked about the king’s situation among people and the things we could do. At that time the king had talked of his thesis entitled “positive nationalism” a few times. Alam asked me what I knew of nationalism. I said I am aware of it but I believe dividing nationalism to positive and negative is meaningless. Nationalism in its normal form means that people intend to protect their nationality and country but in its fanatic mode which is chauvinism, it will lead to racism and racial discrimination. The important thing is that does the king want people like Hesam Dolatabadi and Mohammad Ali Masoudi to run the positive nationalism policy? If so, we won’t get anywhere unless we look for new soft wares to advertise new thoughts.” Alam, who was very smart, asked: “who of the nationalists do you know?” I said I know them all. He asked how our relations are and I answered I am good with all of them. He asked a few other things which were not important but I suitably answered all of them. Then he thanked me and issued an official order and I started work as a member of the people party organizing commission. Then we parted and a meeting which was supposed to be no more than five minutes lasted for an hour and a half.
□Who was the head of the organizing commission?
Dr. Parviz Natel Khanlari and he wasn’t yet a minister at this time.
□Did all the members of the party think alike or were there disagreements among the members?
As I remember there were two nearly hostile factions. Rasoul Parvizi, Dr. Khanlari, Dr. Baheri, Jalal Jahanmir, Naser Amidi and Sahebdivani were in one faction. Amir Motaghi, Dr. Mohammad Hussein Etemadi, Dr. Bahrami (license holder of Andishe Mardom publication) and Dr. Askari (executive of Khosheh magazine) were in another group. Some had an unclear condition like Samad Namvar, Dr. Mahmoud Shervin and Sayyed Mahmoud Sajjadi. Naser Amidi’s office was downstairs and Amir Motaghi’s office was upstairs so the first group was called the downs and the second group was the ups. There was a severe struggle between these two factions. People like me had an undecided state; if I said high to the ups the downs would become upset and vice versa. But in general the downs, especially Dr. Baheri, were not good with me. They had a spy named Behrouz Farbood who was from Astara and wrote well but became an addict later. As I previously said, Mr. Alam introduced me to the organizing commission and with Dr. Etemadi’s order9 who became Ghaenat’s representative later, went to Varamin and established the Nation Party’s branch there.
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