Mehdi Tahanian

A 13-year-old Iranian captive who showed unparalleled courage and resistance during captivity.

Mehdi Tahanian is an Iranian liberated captive who was captured by the forces of the Iraqi Baath party during the war imposed by Iraq on Iran and was kept in Iraq`s  prisons for nine years. He was born on 5^th of September 1967 and was the eldest child of a family of seven. A pious and revolutionary family living in Ardestan, one of the provinces of Isfahan. His father was an architect and his mother was a housewife. The second child of this family was another son named Morteza, he got wounded during the Holy Defense and in the Wal-Fajr 8 operation, and some time later, he died a martyr in Tehran's Sasan Hospital.

Mehdi Tahanian's acquaintance with revolutionary activities happened when he was only nine years old  studying in the third grade of elementary school. At that time, i.e. 1976, the atmosphere of Mustafavi's primary school  where he studied, was calm and not yet affected by the revolution. Nevertheless, the revolutionary and religious atmosphere of the Tahanian family was such that the parents kept talking to their children about the oppression of Shah`s regime. This caused the emergence and strengthening of the anti-monarchy spirit in Mehdi and his brothers and sisters and brought it to the point that in the morning program of the school, when the head-master of the school, a votary of Shah, tried to persuade the students standing in the line to chant the slogan ”Long live the king”, Mehdy along with his like-minded cousin Hojjat covertly chanted “ The king plundered Iran”

As the victory of the Islamic Revolution  and the peak of the people`s demonstrations against the Shah drew closer, Mehdi Tahanian, sometimes with his parents and sometimes alone, took part  in the demonstrations held in Ardestan, and he witnessed the brutality of the SAVAK and its plain-clothes agents at close range. It irked him to see how defenselessly some of the demonstrators were martyred and at the same time he became more determined than before to go along with that demotic movement which was bound to result in the occurrence of Islamic revolution. One of these people was  Mehdi Shafiq who was martyred by Gendarmerie forces in the beginning of February 1978 in the main square of the city, while pulling down the inscription of the Pahlavi Charter and in the presence of Mehdi Tahanian. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution and concurrent with the formation of the Oppressed Militia by Imam Khomeini (RIP), Mehdi Tahanian found a better space to show his interest in and devotion to the Imam and the revolution. For the first time, Mehdy was invited by  Colonel Hassan Zare'i, who was in charge of the military training of the troops in Ardestan's IRGC and the Islamic militia at that time,  to participate in the Islamic militia ideological training courses held in the mountains and the militia camp around the city. This invitation, which was for all the students of the school, was very well received. In this camping which lasted several days, Mehdi Tahanian picked up a weapon for the first time and learned how to use it. After this camping, he started going to the Islamic Militia

and Propaganda office of Ardestan Corps.

Some time later, with the beginning of the imposed war, his enthusiasm to be on the front-line with his friends in the IRGC band the Islamic Militia overwhelmed him. But there was a problem standing in his way. He was only thirteen years old, and what he and his peers were expected to do was to stay at the school and guard it like a real trench on the battlefield. Something that did not satisfy the young Mehdi. On the eve of the Beyt-ol-Moghaddas operation, which led to the liberation of Khorramshahr, a number of fighters from Ardestan were supposed to be trooped to the front line. Mehdi was restless after having heard this news and pleaded with Colonel Zarei, so that he might be able to put a word for him. Although Mr. Zarei knew  Mahdi quite well and had no misgivings about his religious and military abilities, but his young age and small stature, made it impossible for the colonel to get Mahdy`s permission from the officials.

Finally, when at the moment of deployment, the officials of the Ghadir barracks realized that they were short of one sniper among their troops, they agreed to send Mehdi Tahanian to the front line and unintentionally marked a new epoch in his life. Mehdi Tahanian was captured by the enemy on the 19th of May 1982, in the third stage of the Beyt-ol-Moghaddas operation, in a sad and bloody evening, feeling exhausted and thirsty.

The Ba'athists, who were very surprised to see him, ran away with the idea that they could take advantage of him as regarded the war propaganda by taking him to different battlefields and showing him to the Iraqi soldiers assuring them that Khomeini`s soldiers are all so young and vulnerable and they should not fear them at all. Through the translator who was with the Baathists, he found out that the commander who captured him told his troops that this child was just nine years old and that Khomeini had kidnapped him from the kindergarten and brought him to the front line by force!!!

Upset and ruffled by that discovery, Mehdy learned the Arabic equivalent  for “volunteer” from the dragoman. And henceforth, when he was taken to various enemy positions in Khorramshahr, which was under occupation, for propagandizing purposes, he would shout aloud in Arabic that “ I am a volunteer and I have come to the front line spontaneously”.

One day, Mehdi Tahanian was taken to the war room in Khorramshahr in order to meet Adnan Khairullah, the Iraqi Minister of Defense. Unaware of who he was visiting, in a conversation with Adnan Khairullah, in the presence of other high-ranking military commanders of the Baath party, he gave such brisk answers to his questions that for a few moments, an oppressive silence dominated the war room. In response to the Minister`s question that “How come you were not afraid to fight with our sturdy brawny warriors despite your small size and stature?”, Mahdi retorted:

"Why should I be afraid? If I were supposed to wrestle with your warriors, you could expect me to be scared of their size and stature, as it is, you have one gun and I have one. Bullet for  bullet. Besides, as your warriors are big and burly, I can easily see and target them, but what about them? Because I'm tiny, you can't easily see and target me!!!"

Mahdi Tahanian's captivity in Iraq began by entering the Anbar camp and continued with his presence in the Ramadi 2 and Bein al-Qafsin camps. There, he was always at the center of attention of the Baathists. Despite his  revolutionary spirit, the commanders of the camp constantly sought to create conditions in which his presence could foster the propagandizing purposes of the Iraqis

Colonel Mahmoudi, a creative torturer and sadist Baathist who spoke Persian language most fluently, was among those who did not fail to persecute this young prisoner. Hoping to rise to eminence in the Baath Party, he set up a barrack for children and youngsters  and gathered young prisoners from different camps so that he could more easily manipulate them for propagandizing purposes.

Mehdi Tahanian was repeatedly punished and tortured by Mahmoudi. The climax of these tortures was when he was taken to meet up with foreign journalists who came to visit the camp. At every turn, Colonel Mahmudy had tried to persuade Mahdy to behave himself towards the international reporters and to keep a civil tongue resorting both to threatening and cajoling, but not even once did Mahdy bow to  the demands of the Baathist commander of the camp.

Late in the spring of 1983, some journalists from French TV channel Five came to the camp. They were accompanied by an Indian journalist named "Nasere Sharma who wore no Hijab". Nasareh, along with her colleagues were taken to visit the  children's barrack. Colonel Mahmoudi, in spite of the various  psychological and physical pressures he had inflicted upon teen-aged prisoners and as he presumed himself, now he had all young prisoners under control, he still evaded Mahdy`s interview with the foreign journalists. Nevertheless, the relentless persistence of the Indian journalist at last made him change his mind.

When Nasera Sharma asked Mehdi's name, he said: Because you don't have the Hijab, I won't talk to you! The reporter, who was shocked by Mahdi's reply, pulled the shawl she had round her shoulders and asked: what is your name, how old are you and where do you come from? Mehdi introduced himself and said that he was sixteen years old and had been deployed in Isfahan. He had deliberately lied about his age was so that could not look down on him as a pimply young lad. The reporter's next question was based on some fake news. She said: Mr. Saddam Hussein is a humanitarian and says that he wants to free you, but Mr. Khomeini said that these are not our children! Mahdi finally said bravely: Imam is my leader. If he says go, we will go and if he says stay, we will stay... The reporter was shocked by his answer and Colonel Mahmoudi was writhing with indignation. The restlessness of the colonel reached its peak when Mehdi in answer to the reporter's question that: Do you want a ceasefire?  answered: No, we want the victory of Islam over infidels! Mahdi answered the reporter's questions like a fully experienced veteran, and by his own admission, in those moments, he had put his life at stake.

The scandal that Colonel Mahmoudi had brought about involving the revolutionary and anti-Baath regime prisoners was reported by people sent from the Iraqi intelligence, who accompanied the journalists, and finally it led to his removal from the position of camp commander. The story did not end there. When the female Indian reporter somehow smuggled the video of the interview out of the camp and broadcast it on TV, Mehdi Tahaniyan`s  interview containing some seditious content was broadcast over and over  on various media in all over the world. .

Mehdi Tahanian spent the remaining years of captivity feeling indomitable and uncompromising and finally returned to the bosom of his homeland on 25^th of August 1990. After his return, he worked in public relations of the Ministry of Health in Ardestan and after some time he came to Tehran and went to a university. He graduated in the field of political sciences at the undergraduate level and in the field of Qur'anic and Hadith sciences at the master's level. Atiya and Mohammad Mehdi Tahanian are the children of this zealous father; A father whose bravery as reflected in his memories, sets a brilliant example to all Iranians old and young alike. Mehdi Tahanian's memoirs have been published as two books, Imam's Little Soldier and The Whole year When I Was 13 Years Old.

See also

• Imam's little soldier
• Ramadi camp 2
• Iraq's imposed war on Iran
• Adolescent and young prisoners

Bibliography

Dustkamy, Fateme