The Notebooks

By: Ali Asghar Jafarian

About 41 years ago, I was a teenager like you. In those days, the spirit of the revolution had made all of us very excited. Everywhere, in schools, bazaars, and streets and so on people, both young and old were calling for an end to the injustice and the oppressive rule of Shah. Children at schools chanted slogans and prepared placards. Their best notebook had become the walls of the cities, because they wrote slogans on them: “Independence, Freedom and the Islamic Republic”. On those days the youngsters would struggle hard in the way of the Islamic Revolution,  and they formed processions like those in Muharram, carried flags and chanted slogans. Some of the best youngsters were martyred. In fact, they had become inwardly mature enough to help bring the Islamic Revolution to success. A number of them were martyred on the 13^th of the month of Aban, a few months before the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Now, each year the anniversary of their martyrdom is commemorated in Iran.

More than four decades has now passed since those fateful days, and we continue to hold the commemoration ceremonies of the victory of our Islamic Revolution more splendidly every year.