Statements on the Special Program for the Sacred Defense Week

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

It is twenty minutes to ten, meaning that a considerable amount of time has passed since the scheduled time, and now I have nothing to say, but some of you may be tired, and it cannot be prolonged too much. Yes, there are certainly memories; my memories are not very important, and the main memories are yours, the warriors, which truly hold value. On this occasion, I have noted a few points to share with you. If there is time afterward, I might share a memory as well.

First, I must express my gratitude to those who have kept this flag raised. I sincerely and wholeheartedly thank those who have kept alive the memory of the events of the Sacred Defense era through storytelling and writing; truly, thank you; their work is a significant endeavor. What Mr. Sarhangi said is entirely correct; this is a form of border guarding with high importance.

So how many memories do we have? How many stories do we have? We had several hundred thousand warriors, and each of them is a collection of memories. Each of them had friends, family, parents, spouses, and so on, each of whom holds a treasure chest of memories about these warriors. Unfortunately, some of these treasure chests have remained unopened for thirty years, buried underground, out of our reach; what a pity! Those who think today or thought yesterday to write their memories or those who thought to go and gather memories from fathers, mothers, and spouses are, in fact, preventing significant losses and damages from occurring; they are reviving these invaluable treasures. These are the assets of the nation; both the individuals themselves were assets of the nation, and the memories of those who remain—such as the disabled, the freed, and the former warriors—are also the assets of the people.

The Sacred Defense has various aspects. One aspect of the Sacred Defense is that it delineates the state of power equations in the world of the system of domination—the world of the oppressor and the oppressed. The Sacred Defense is this. You and other warriors were able to create and record an image of the world of your time, a crazy world, a savage world, a tyrannical world, a world unaware of spirituality, unaware of justice. How did you create such an image through your actions? Because you faced an adversary that could not even bring barbed wire—this is my information, as they said, and it was so. We wanted to bring barbed wire, but not only did the seller refuse to sell it, but the country through which this barbed wire had to pass also did not cooperate with us; it did not allow it. On one side, we were, and on the other side, they had the most modern military equipment of that day in high quantities. The 92nd Division in Ahvaz had fewer than twenty tanks! In fact, it was one-seventh or one-eighth of the organizational capacity of tanks, where a battalion should have had forty-some tanks. The division we saw, that brigade stationed in Ahvaz, had fewer than twenty tanks. The opposing side, when its tank was hit on the road, would send a bulldozer to throw the tank to the other side of the road to clear the way; it did not care at all. Whatever it wanted, it could have—land, air, sea capabilities, various types of ammunition; it was even allowed to use chemical weapons. See now what uproar the Europeans and Americans create in the world over the accusation of chemical weapons, what a fuss they make! At that time, Saddam's regime was allowed to use chemical weapons—not only on the front but also in cities. Sardasht is still suffering. The areas around Sardasht are still afflicted by chemical effects. See, this was the state of the world back then; it demonstrated what was happening in the world, how the world was divided, how the power equation in the world was; this was recorded by the war, the Sacred Defense, these eight years, and the sacrifices of the warriors.

The same country, France, and the same country, Germany, and the other countries—now others in their own place—were helping, and the Soviet Union of that day was also on one side. In addition to all this, we were under economic siege, under political siege, and under a severe propaganda siege; that is, our voice truly did not reach anywhere; the media of the world was in the hands of the Zionists and under their control, those who were enemies; not that they were supporters of Saddam, they were enemies of the Islamic system and said everything they could against us, and our voice did not reach anywhere; we had such a situation.

Well, my question is why do the people of Germany and France not know what their governments did to a nation called the Iranian nation during those eight years? Why do they not know? They do not know now, and this is our shortcoming. Now the world does not see this clear, transparent, and discrediting image of the system of domination that we have created in front of it; why? This is our shortcoming, and we must strive in this regard.

We must do many things in our literature, in our cinema, in our theater, in our television, in our journalism, in our virtual space regarding the Sacred Defense that we have not done; wherever we have done it and done it with commitment, even if in small volume compared to the total work we must do, it has been little but impactful. The recent film by Mr. Hatami-Kia in Syria, wherever it was screened, was welcomed; why should it not be screened in Europe? Why should it not be screened in Asian countries? Why should the people of Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and India not know what happened in this region and who we were facing? This is just about the recent events; the importance and depth of the issues of the Sacred Defense era are much greater than this.

In Western festivals, Iranian films are sometimes taken and shown; films that are of much lower professional quality than many films made about the Sacred Defense or the Revolution. They go and show them with praise and admiration, but they do not show a single film of the Sacred Defense; why? It becomes clear that they are afraid. They are afraid that this revealing image will reach the people of the world and influence global public opinion; they are afraid. So this is an effective weapon, this is a great opportunity in our hands; why do we not use this opportunity?

We ourselves must get to work; we must make films about our heroes. We have heroes: Hemmat is a hero, Bakri is a hero, Kharrazi is a hero; the leaders and commanders are heroes; some of these living ones are heroes. It is not that the sincerity and struggle of those who have survived are less than those who have gone; no, God Almighty has preserved these individuals. God has work with them; many of them are like this. These faces must be introduced; the world must recognize these faces, understand their greatness, and know.

A movement for translating good written works must be initiated; a movement for translating good works. Fortunately, we do not lack good written works. As far as I can, I want to read and I read. Very good works have been produced, and it is truly deserving of translation; those that have been created so far. Let us initiate a translation movement; not translation from outside; translation to the outside, to present what exists. Let them know what happened in Abadan, what happened in Khorramshahr, what happened in the wars, what happened in our villages. Regarding the account written for this lady from Kermanshah—Farangis—I wrote a note there; in that note, I wrote that we truly did not know what events occurred in the villages of the war zone.

I have said this many times; this painting is a beautiful painting, but we have seen this painting from afar; the closer one gets to this painting, the more one sees the details of this painting, the more one is amazed. These events are written; let the people of the world know these. Translation into Arabic, translation into English, translation into French, translation into Urdu, translation into the living languages of the world. Let hundreds of millions of people understand, know what has happened in this region, what we say, who the Iranian nation is; these are the representatives of the Iranian nation. The movement for translating books, the movement for producing good films; the Ministry of Guidance has a responsibility, the Organization for Culture and Islamic Relations has a responsibility, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting has a responsibility, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a responsibility, and various institutions have responsibilities.

If you do not turn to collecting and adding to the memories of the war today, the enemy will take the field from you; this is a danger; I am telling you. You must narrate the war because you have been in the war; if you do not narrate the war, the enemy will narrate the war as it wishes. They will exploit some weaknesses—of course, every military and non-military action may have weaknesses, which it certainly does; they will use these and construct according to their desires. We must feel a great sense of duty in this regard, we must work hard.

In narrating the Sacred Defense, the spirit and greatness of the message of this defense itself must be shown. This Sacred Defense, in total, has a single spirit, a single language, and a single message; this must be reflected; that message and spirit is the spirit of faith, the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of devotion, the spirit of struggle, the message of the invincibility of a nation whose youth, like the young men and middle-aged men and the elderly, eagerly go into the field and fight; this is very important. At the same time that the ordinary youth of the materialistic world suppress their excitements in other ways, our sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth go into the battlefield, fulfilling and satisfying this youthful excitement with jihad in the way of God; these are very important, these are very valuable.

War is indeed a hard thing, a bitter thing; some friends here have also pointed out that war is bitter; yes, but from this bitter incident, the Quran extracts the message of joy, greatness, and vitality. You see, dying, leaving this world is, in the view of most people in the world, a loss, a deprivation, but what does the Quran say? The Quran says: وَیَستَبشِرونَ بِالَّذینَ لَم یَلحَقوا بِهِم مِن خَلفِهِم اَلّا خَوْفٌ عَلَیهِم وَ لا‌ هُم یَحزَنون; from dying, from leaving, from being deprived of life, a message of vitality emerges, a message of joy emerges, a message of glad tidings emerges; وَیَستَبشِرونَ بِالَّذینَ لَم یَلحَقوا بِهِم مِن خَلفِهِم اَلّا خَوْفٌ عَلَیهِم وَ لا‌ هُم یَحزَنون.

My dear ones, good brothers, good sisters! Know that today, if the message of the martyrs reaches our ears, it will remove fear and sorrow from us. Those who are afflicted with fear, those who are afflicted with sorrow, do not receive this message, do not hear it; otherwise, if we hear the voice of the martyrs, our fear and sorrow will also be erased by the blessing of the voice of the martyrs; this fear and sorrow will be removed from us and will bring us joy, courage, and action.

Pursue this matter seriously; both the Art Bureau and the Ministry of Guidance and other various institutions. I have seen some institutions entering the field in different cities; just recently, I read a book from Qazvin, a book from Mashhad, a book from Shahinshahr by Mr. Bolouri. All—people, youth, motivated individuals—can enter this field from all over this country and have done so; turn this into a hundredfold. When I say a hundredfold, I am not usually one to exaggerate; in the true sense of the word, what is being done today in the field of war literature, the literature of the Sacred Defense, and the artistic works being done on the Sacred Defense and the literary works being done on the Sacred Defense must increase a hundredfold; then we can feel success in this regard.

God willing, we will be able to thwart the comprehensive plan of global arrogance through this means. The plan of global arrogance from the very beginning was to uproot a sapling that had sprouted from the land of spirituality with the fruits of spiritual glad tidings in a world where all materialists of the world, all those drowning in the mire of materialism, the Zionists and others had joined hands and created a purely material world that was increasingly distancing from spirituality; they sought to uproot this sapling. In the early days, they thought it would be easy; they unleashed Saddam on the Islamic Republic with this hope. And well, they got a slap in the face, they retreated; but they are trying. We can nullify this effort, this plan with our own determination, with our reliance on God’s grace; we have nullified it so far, and God willing, we will completely nullify this plan in the future. One of the ways is to revive these issues of the Sacred Defense.

Well, now it is ten and five minutes. What memory should we share? Should we share the first memory of the war? The first hour the war broke out, I was near the airport. I was giving a speech at that factory. We were sitting in the room waiting for the time to speak, and the airport was visible from the room—there was a window—when I saw there was noise, and suddenly we saw, yes, the planes came. At first, we did not understand what it was; then they said it was an attack, and well, they hit Mehrabad Airport. I went to the meeting that had been formed, and the workers were waiting for me to speak. I spoke for a few minutes, about four or five minutes, and said I have work to do and must go; we have been attacked.

I came to the Joint Staff, where everyone was gathered; Martyr Rajai was there, and Martyr Beheshti was there, Mr. Banisadr was there, everyone was there. We went there and started discussing what we should do; they said—perhaps I suggested—that we should first talk to the people, [because] the people do not know what has happened. We were still not fully aware of the dimensions of the issue that several cities had been hit; [we only] knew that besides Tehran, other places had also been hit. I suggested that we issue a statement; this was around two or three in the afternoon and before Imam Khomeini's (may his soul be sanctified) message. They told me to go write it yourself. I went over there and wrote something, and it was broadcast on the radio with my voice—which is certainly in the archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. After a few days, we were here; four or five days, five or six days—around that time—we were here. I mostly did not go home; sometimes I would go home for an hour or two, but mostly I was there day and night.

From Dezful and Ahvaz and such places, they were constantly calling that they were short; short of forces, short of ammunition, short of equipment. When the discussion of forces came up, it occurred to me that I could do something, and that was to go to Dezful, sit there, issue statements, and spread them here and there, and request that the youth come; something like this came to my mind. Well, it was necessary to get permission from the Imam; I could not go without his permission; I went to Jamaran. I suspected that the Imam would oppose it, [because] sometimes he would react with hesitation to some of our such actions—travels and the like. I told the late Hajj Ahmad Agha that I want to go to the Imam and tell him this and request that he allow me to go to the front—go to Dezful—and you help me so that the Imam allows me. Hajj Ahmad Agha also agreed, saying okay. We went into the room. Inside the room, I saw several people; the late Chamran was also sitting there. I told the Imam that it has occurred to me that if I go to the war zone, my presence will be more effective than staying here; please allow me to go. The Imam said without hesitation: Yes, yes, you should go! That is, contrary to what we thought, the Imam would say no; without any consideration, he said yes, yes, you should go. When they told me you should go—I was very happy—the late Chamran said: Sir! Then allow me to go too. He said: You should go too. Then I turned to the late Chamran and said, let’s go, what are we waiting for? We came out; it was before noon. My intention was to leave at that moment; he said no, let’s wait until the evening. Because I was alone, [that is] I did not want to go with anyone, I wanted to go alone; he had a group of people—when we went, [we saw] about sixty or seventy people, he had individuals who were prepared and had trained with him, and he wanted to bring them along, and he had to gather them. He told me to wait until the evening, and instead of going to Dezful, we would go to Ahvaz; Ahvaz is better than Dezful; I said okay. Well, he was more knowledgeable than us, more experienced, so I accepted. I went home and said goodbye to my family. We had six or seven guards; I told the guards that you are dismissed; I am going to the battlefield, you are around me so that I do not get killed; I am going to the battlefield, [there] guards do not mean anything! These poor guys started crying that it cannot be done and such things. I said no, I will not take you. They said very well, then not as guards, but as companions, let us come too; we want to go to the front as well, take us this way; I said okay, and they came with me to the area we went to; they stayed with us until the end.

In the evening, we set off with the late Chamran, boarded a C-130, and headed towards Ahvaz. Ahvaz was completely dark! Now I see some who have written novels and articles about the war zone—I have seen the war zone, that is, Ahvaz, in the early days of the war up close and have been there for a while—everything they have written is contrary to reality. That is, these non-revolutionary novelists who wanted to prepare a report about the war and write something, what they have written about Ahvaz is contrary to reality; and the same goes for some other places; one of them wrote from Tehran, and that too is contrary to reality, meaning they did not want to reflect it correctly. Our own writers, our own novelists must come to the field and write these things. If we do not write, others will write differently.

In short, Ahvaz was dark; we went into the 92nd Division barracks in the dark and were there, and then we went to the governorate and were there. The very first night we arrived, the late Chamran gathered his group and said we are going for an operation; we said what operation? He said we are going to hunt tanks. I also had a Kalashnikov, which was my own—I had a personal Kalashnikov with me—I said can I come too? He said yes, what is the harm, you can come too. I took off my turban, cloak, and robe, and they gave me a loose military uniform to wear, and we went out at night with them; while I had neither military training nor suitable weapons, I mean, no one goes to hunt tanks with a Kalashnikov. Of course, they did not have RPGs and such either; they were also like this with such weapons. We went and did not hunt any tanks and returned!