Letter from Enayat Eshraghi to his children and their spouses

This letter relates to their first imprisonment in 1981.

My beloved children, Saeid and Roohiyeh, Nahid and Anoush, Vahid and Sone, May I sacrifice myself for you (This is a common Persian way of greeting loved ones: Ghorbanetan Gardam).

Today I want to write to you the short story of  70 hours of our lives. I hope that the kind Lord will assist me to accomplish this endeavor. It was exactly minutes before 9:00pm on Tuesday 3rd of Azar (25 November) that the garage doorbell rang. I inquired from behind the garage door and found out that there were a few revolutionary guards who had come for investigation. Since the garage door was locked, I requested them to use the small entrance door. Moments later, two young men were in front of me and entered the house. In the lounge, their eyes caught sight of a quotation we have stuck beneath a poster : “Man’s nobility and distinction is his honesty, truthfulness, charitable acts, chastity and dignity and not his wealth and riches.”  Then they entered the sitting room and noticed the picture of Abdu’l-Baha and asked who that was. I said: Hazrate Abdu’l-Baha. He asked if we were Baha’is, I said, yes. Immediately he radioed his central office and got instructions, then he started searching every room, books, documents, etc. During this period, four others joined them to assist with the search. We (I, mamman, Roya, Rozita, and Daie Aziz who had come from Esfahan) were all sitting in the lounge downstairs, waiting for them to be through with their search. After about 2 hours, they took some of the children’s notes, one hand written prayer book and some other written documents which were not important, and said you should be ready to present yourselves to the revolutionary guards centre whenever they called you. We abide by that and they said good bye and left. That night Daie Aziz was supposed to stay at his brother’s house, Uncle Partovi’s since he was travelling back to Esfahan the next morning. We informed Uncle Partovi of what has happened and mentioned that Daie Aziz will stay at our home for the night. It was a night full of anxiety and worries. Wednesday morning, we took Daie Aziz to the bus depot and after a visit with Zohreh and Azar (Baba’s nieces, our cousins), we returned home. Afterwards, Sasan (the son of Baba’s nephew) called to tell us that the revolutionary guards have also searched his home that morning. Around noon time, Sasan’s wife (called Ziba) who was upset from these events, came to our home, and moments later the other cousin (Saadat Darab) arrived as well, he was on his way to go to Bandare Abbas. We made some tea and had tea together. Around 12 noon, the doorbell rang and it was clear that the four of us were called by the Sepah (Revolutionary Guard Centre), and since the officers came in and saw the two visitors, they took them away with us as well. We turned off the cooker with our lunch cooking on it, left the house and went towards our destiny. None of the friends or relatives knew about this.

While on the road, the officer in charge of taking us, who was also the driver of the vehicle, instructed us to keep our heads down and cover our eyes. After some minutes we arrived at a location that later on I found it is called Arteshe Sevvom (Third Army unit). There, we were blindfolded and were directed to go to a room. After asking about our personal information, we were guided to go to our cells in the following manner: I was taken to a 80 person cell, Mamman and Roya to a 80 person cell belonging to young women and girls, Rozita and Ziba to a 25 person cell for girls, and Saadat to another cell. What happened to us in these cells are beyond description. Mamman in her cell was the oldest person and everyone called her “mother”. Roya and Mamman, both, were reciting the long obligatory prayer, in addition to other prayers. Everyone was amazed with wonder, and questions and answers had followed and then afterwards the sound of collective chanting prayers and singing songs never ceased in the cell. They have to write the account of the event themselves in more details, so you can shed tears of joy. Next day which was Roya’s birthday, the inmates of the prison cell celebrated her birthday and chanted the poem: ‘O Love, I am bewildered and confused for you. I am perceived to be insane in the world…’.    Rozita and Ziba, were in a smaller cell, with less prisoners. Rozita, with a special melody chanted the prayer written above the page, and they were encountered with sisterly love of the others. I don’t know about Saadat since he had been released and left before our release. In my case, I met my cellmates with brotherly courtesy. They were mostly young people who sympathized with me and tried to give me hope. But I was soaring in another world and often would forget that I was in prison. On Friday, before noon, they started the interrogation, and it was obvious that the others had already gone through it. At around 4pm, suddenly I felt very strange and the next thing I know was when I opened my eyes and saw everyone gathered around me.  They were trying to bring me to consciousness and a few doctors who were among the prisoners were trying to check my pulse and heartbeat, and to make arrangement to transfer me to the prison clinic. I rested in the cell for an hour as instructed by that doctor, until I was called from outside. I stood up and realized that I could move. When I went out, they told me that I have been released, and I saw that Mamman and Rozita were also there, but they said Roya should still stay behind. However, while waiting for a vehicle to take us home, Roya also joined us. The same person, who had taken us from our home, drove us back home. Everything was the same way we left them. The brothers (the revolutionary guards) stayed for another hour, continuing their search. While they were searching, Roya and Rozita got engaged in talking to one of them, discussing the issue of the Last of prophets (since Muslims believe Mohammad was the last prophet of God.) Finally, after collecting Baha’i magazines of ‘Ahange Badi’ and ‘Akhbare Amri’ (Baha’i News) and other thing (excluding books), they said goodbye. Of course they told us that the reason for our arrest was not in connection with being Baha’is, but because of their suspicion about a lot of people, family and friends, visiting the house. The behavior of the officials to us was courteous and we hope that we have also been able to show them Baha’i behavior and ethics, and a Baha’i home. I forgot to mention that Ziba was also released an hour before us and they had taken her back to her home. What was interesting for me was that firstly, during interrogations, as I was responding to questions about my dear children, their names, professions and that they live n three continents of the world with dignity and nobility, I was full of joy and pride. And I thank the Blessed Beauty whose blessings and love always included and will include these weak ones. Also, I am truly happy of the courage and truthfulness of Roya and Rozita and their faith that attracts the divine blessings, and I hope that misunderstandings and the dark clouds of prejudices will be removed and vanished and the truth of this beautiful Faith, which aims to spread peace and harmony and the unity of mankind, will become evident. Wishing for your health and certitude, from the court of the mighty Lord, I’ll leave you dear ones to the protection of God and kiss your beautiful faces, specially dear Arash (he was the only grandchild at that time). Mamman and Roya and Rozita also want the same thing.

Ghorbanetan (I sacrifice myself for you)

Baba

8 Azar 60

29 November 1981