A Brief Biography of
Comrade Ashraf Dehghani
Comrade Ashraf Dehghani was born into
a poor-working family in Azerbaijan. At the time of her birth,
her father was a mirab, and before that, lacking steady employment,
had undertaken many other menial jobs, working in a cotton
mill, digging wells for water or cesspools, working in a grocery
shop, or as a building labourer. His earnings from all of
these jobs were not enough for his family of eight. Therefore,
her mother and those of the children old enough to be able
to work, shared the burden of bread winning. The elder brothers
did what they could, and sometimes the mother and elder sister
would help by spinning yarn. Being a mirab, the father was
constantly exposed to dampness, often sleeping all night near
water. He had continual pain in the legs, which finally incapacitated
him. He had known poverty and deprivation all his life, but
he was not one to blame his destitution and miserable life
on 'faith and destiny'. He knew very well the cause of his
misery, and that of the millions of other workers like him.
He knew that his class enemy lives here on Earth. To him,
endless adversity and poverty was a true teacher, which helped
him to unveil the realities of class society, exploitation
and injustice. He was illiterate, yet enjoyed political awareness,
and played a part in the struggle against the enemy. In the
developments of 1945-46 in Azerbaijan and the establishment
of Democratic Rule, he was in the people's front. During the
barbaric invasion of Azerbaijan by the Shah's forces, and
the mass murder of the heroes of the people, his home was
a refuge for many from the regime's savagery.
The family discussed political issues,
often memories of oppression, suffering and exploitation were
told, and the character of the enemy - the exploiting, parasite
class. Despite their political awareness, class-enmity and
hatred, her parents and others like them failed to rise up
openly against their rich adversaries. Humiliation, over many
years had robbed them of self-confidence. They felt feeble
and helpless and imagined the rich as unassailable. The social
conditions of the time and the defeat of the movements no
doubt contributed to this lack of confidence.
Comrade Ashraf was born in 1949 into
such an environment. As a child, she got little attention
and was able to grow up self-reliant, not expecting protection
and patronisation. She learned to stand on her own feet and
to survive, to overcome her problems and difficulties herself.
She soon came into contact with the cold and hard realities
of her life. By the time she was born, her father was permanently
bed-ridden and poverty was closer and uglier than ever. Among
the members of her family, Comrade Behrouz inspired most love
and confidence in Ashraf. To her, Behrouz stood high, far
above all others; his world was much larger than that of the
ordinary people. Behrouz encouraged her to read. She read,
discussed, listened and increasingly developed political and
social awareness. Gradually she knew what caused the sufferings
of the masses. Gradually she learned to know the class enemy.
Ashraf found the propaganda environment
of the school shallow and distasteful, and she did not hide
her feelings toward it. The problems, and questions in her
mind, were far removed from the petit-bourgeois trivialities
that preoccupied many girls of her age. Everyday, Ashraf asked
more questions regarding political and social relations, and
Behrouz would deal with them with patience and in detail.
Comrade Samad Behrangi* and Kazem
Saadati were close friends of Behrouz, and Ashraf felt great
respect and admiration for them. While at the time revolution
was still a vague notion to her, Ashraf was increasingly determined
to devote her life to her people, and their revolution. While
in school she endeavoured to raise the level of consciousness
of her classmates, she seized on an opportunity to explain
the facts of Iranian history and life to them. Once, she wrote
in the classroom a detailed account for a friend, describing
the character of the Shah's regime and how the Shah and before
him, Reza, his father, had come to power in Iran. The teacher,
who was a SAVAK informer, took the letter and delivered it
to SAVA.K. Later, Ashraf and her friend were taken to SAVAK
and forced to sign a letter, undertaking not to get involved
in politics again! She did not respect that 'undertaking'.
Ashraf graduated from high school.
This is what she had been longing for, but there was no sign
of the revolution. Behrouz, Samad and Kazem seemed to be leading
normal lives. This was not what she expected to find. Soon,
Comrade Samad was murdered by the Shah's mercenaries. Then
she understood. Revolution was no longer a vague, distant
notion.
At the time of Samad's murder, Comrade
Ashraf was teaching in a village in Azerbaijan. There she
saw before her eyes all the poverty, suffering and oppression
she had always felt around her. She could see the miserable,
bleak future of the children she taught. So she made a vow,
to fight for, and with the people she belonged to, to dedicate
her life to the cause of the deprived masses.
Now Ashraf and Behrouz became comrades,
and when, together with many others, they faced the enemy
in the forefront of the armed struggle, their comradeship
was sealed forever. A comradeship sealed in the front against
the enemy is not one to wither away with distance or death.
For a revolutionary, a comrade lives as long as he remains
faithful to the cause, and dies when he turns away from the
people. Behrouz died under torture but he remains alive in
the hearts of his comrades. His love for the masses, like
the love of others martyred in the struggle for freedom, and
like the love of those who continue the struggle, lives forever.
His hatred for the enemy, like the hatred of all others remains
to haunt the enemies of the people until the class society
is no more.
In February 1971, the Organization
of Iranian People's Fedaee Guerrillas (O.I.P.F.G.) initiated
the armed struggle in Iran by attacking the gendarmery at
Siahkal in Northern Iran. This battle, although militarily
a defeat, was an important political victory. Ever since,
many revolutionary groups and elements have joined the armed
struggle movement and hundreds of revolutionaries have been
brutally executed or killed in armed clashes with the regime.
Frightened by their heroic struggle, the regime utilized all
of its forces to suppress the movement. Imprisonment, torture,
and execution were furiously used. But in spite of all the
SAVAK raids and arrests, the O.I.P.F.G. survived and the struggle
went on. In 1975, the O.I.P.F.G. suffered heavy losses in
several raids on the organization's bases and many comrades
were killed. This severe blow practically destroyed the organization's
leadership completely. Thus, a new leadership was formed,
which managed to get through some difficulties. These new
leaders were not from the prominent membership, and thus,
because of their position and period of membership in the
organization, they could not understand the theory of armed
struggle as deeply as the martyred prominent comrades had.
Also, later, the new atmosphere and relative ease of the conditions
of struggle made it possible for opportunists to appear on
the scene again and claim the proletariat leadership.
Comrade Ashraf Dehghani, a prominent
member of the O.I.P.F.G., was arrested in 1971 and savagely
tortured. She succeeded in breaking out of the maximum-security
prison and later rejoined the organization. During this time,
she wrote her memoirs, which have been translated into English
under the title, Torture and Resistance in Iran. During the
1975 raids, Comrade Dehghani and Comrade Hormatipour, both
members of the High Council of the O.I.P.F.G., lost contact
with the organization while on assignment outside the country.
They had been put in charge of coordinating the organization's
relations with the revolutionary and progressive organizations
in the region and throughout the world, and also of providing
any possible needs the organization might have within the
country. Later, when they regained contact with the organization,
they found, to their surprise, that the new leadership had
rejected the past policies and methods of the O.I.P.F.G.,
although it would not reveal this to the O.I.P.F.G supporters
or publicly announce it. The comrades also discovered that
in spite of all the propaganda propounded by the new leaders
about the imprisoned comrades, recently freed from jail by
the people, they would only accept into the organization those
who either somehow rejected the theory of armed struggle,
or failed to realize the deviant tendencies within the organization
toward this theory.
Comrade Ashraf Dehghani at first decided
to stay in the organization as a regular member and start
an ideological struggle with the new leadership. Later, however,
because of certain actions of the leaders, and in the best
interests of the O.I.P.F.G., she, along with other comrades,
severed ties with this organization. With the support of the
people's revolutionary forces, they formed an organization
based on the armed struggle theory, and retained the name
I.P.F.G. At the beginning, both of these organizations use
the same emblem and name (O.I.P.F.G.). However, since the
new leaders, who rejected the theory of armed struggle, always
referred to themselves in their publications, as "People's
Fadaiyan" and disbanded the term "guerrilla",
consequently, a demarcation line was drawn between the two
by which one could distinguish this organization and its publications
from the other.
To be continued…
