Two sisters, two sacrificing stars in the night sky of Iran

By Nasrin Younesi

The article before you is a true story and part of the memories of a female political prisoner by the name of Giti Vanaie, opposing the mullahs’ regime in Iran, in Diesel Abad Prison of Kermanshah, western Iran.

Time of Death: Giti was executed by an Iranian regime firing squad in October 1981. She was around 24 years of age. Giti was executed for the “crime” of supporting the opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. She was placed under vicious psychological torture and her husband was hanged before her eyes. The next day she, too, was executed and joined her husband.

Giti Vanaie is a star shining bright in the night sky of my country, Iran. Her name for me is the symbol of innocence and sacrifice, and also a reminder of the cruelty and savagery of the mullahs ruling Iran. I can still see her kind face and hear her soft voice before me. She always used to call me “Mommy” because she was quite fond of my unborn child. She always wished to see my child’s birth. Giti was studying agriculture in Karaj University, west of Tehran. Her large black eyes were like a beautiful doe, full of energy and life.

She would always laugh… Giti was one of those prisoners who the mullahs had placed on death row. She was arrested along with her husband, and they were on death row together.

Those moments were very harsh and quite difficult to even imagine. They day had come. They called out her name, and she never returned until the next morning… Waiting for me was like dying bit by bit. After all those times that we had endured together, in those atrocious conditions, and now, not seeing her, and even imagining she will never return was unbelievable.

There was noise outside of the ward that caught my attention. I saw Giti and I was actually upset and tried not to confront her. I knew that she had been taken to witness her own husband’s execution. Since she was pregnant they had postponed her execution on that day.

Everyone was happy in the ward, and they were distributing pastries, celebrating that Giti had not been executed. Everyone went to see her and wished her the best.

I finally went to see her. I knew her husband, Bijhan, and I was feeling quite awkward; I felt deep sorrow for he was executed, yet I was happy she was alive. I went up close and simply said, “Giti, God wanted you to see my child’s birth!!”

She laughed and said, “Yeah, mommy, I will definitely be there.” Then she said, “By the way, I left you that toothbrush that you liked as a memoir”.

The next day when everyone was still happy, once again they called out her name, and this time, she never came back. The henchmen had first tortured her by executing her husband before her eyes, and the next day they placed her before a firing squad, along with her unborn child…

Such an atrocity was repeated time and time again against women members of the Iranian opposition, PMOI.

The sadness I felt of the cruelty imposed on her still has a place in my heart, and I no longer seek the answer to the question “why?” I already know this is the method of the mullahs’ regime, and this was how they executed 120,000 of the best in Iran…

Many years later, I fled the country and joined opposition group in Camp Ashraf located 60 miles north of Baghdad where thousands of Iranian dissidents, men and women were residing; Had just arrived and entered a big hall, I was very happy and asked one of the residents, “Do you know Faride Vanaie?”  Since I knew Giti’s sister is living in the camp. To my utmost surprise she replied, “It’s me.”

I was amazed and rushed into her arms and said I was hoping to see you someday and tell you about Giti, and I started telling her everything.

I knew Faride for years after that, until she too was taken away… This time not in a prison in Iran, but in a camp ironically called “Liberty” in which thousands of camp Ashraf residents forcibly have been relocated by Iraqi Government at the behest of Iranian regime. She lost her life due to the pressures of inhumane medical blockade imposed by then Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, who carried out the policies dictated by the Iranian regime in Iraq. Unfortunately, this medical blockade continues as we speak.

Until she lost her life, I always was so proud of seeing her because I could see the sense of courage and resistance of her sister Giti in her, too.

Now, these two sisters who have sacrificed their all for freedom in Iran are like two beautiful shining stars alongside each other in my country’s night sky.

Nasrin Younesi: A former political prisoner from September to December 1981 in Diesel Abad Prison of Kermanshah, western Iran. Currently a political activist residing in camp Liberty in Iraq. During her imprisonment she was under brutal torture.