Iran’s 1988 Massacre: Testimony by MEK/PMOI witness Kobra Jokar, Ashraf 3, Albania, 15 July 2019

Hello to all distinguished friends. and dear Maryam Rajavi 

“I was in the regime’s prisons for six years. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) arrested me while I was pregnant. I was taken to Evin prison and the torture chambers. I was transferred to Ward 209. In the cell, I saw four torturers torture my husband in front of me. They also tortured me in front of him,” said Ms. Kobra Jokar.

“A few days later, they executed him with 75 others. The torturer said, ‘I wanted him to never see his son.’ “The regime had executed 50 pregnant women, including Masumeh, the sister of Mrs. Rajavi. They took me to a hospital and quickly brought me back to prison even though. I was feeling very bad,” she added.

“In prison, there was no doctor or medication for the children. In the public ward, there was only 15 minutes of warm water per day, which we had to use to bath the children. Many of these children had lost their parents,” Ms. Jokar continued.

“The torturers even interrogated the children. They had strapped a small child to a chair in a dark room and tortured her so she reveals the names of her mother’s friends,” she said.

“I managed to escape prison in 1987. One year later, all of those ladies who shared the cell with me were executed in the 1988 massacre,” Ms. Jokar added.

“The roots of our hopes and faith in our leaders helped us overcome the dark times in prison and to fight for freedom,” she concluded.

My name is Kobra Jokar, I spent 6 years in the Iranian regime’s prisons.

 The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) arrested me while I was pregnant.

They battered me and ignored our neighbor, an elderly man who begged them not to beat me. They took me to the Evin prison and put me in the torture chamber.

In the cell, I saw four torturers torture my husband in front of me.

They also tortured me in front of him; they wanted to break our spirit but they never succeeded.

A few days later, they executed him with 75 others. The torturer said, “I wanted him to never see his son.”

One night, after severe tortures she was brought to the ward, they executed her at dawn.

IRGC forces took me to hospital in fear of protests escalation, but they returned me back to prison right after the birth of my child despite the doctors’ disagreement. In prison, my dear sisters Maryam Parviz, Nadia Kaviani (both are MEK martyrs) were looking after me while their toes had turned black and their feet were in bandage due to the tortures.

In February 1982, prison wardens took me to hospital and quickly brought me back to prison even though I was feeling very bad; my dear sisters Maryam Parviz and Nadia Kaviani, who were severely tortured, took care of me. They were later executed. Some days before that they didn’t take my cellmate Parvaneh to hospital to give birth to her baby, and she died with her unborn child.  As far as I know regime executed 50 pregnant women, including Masumeh, the sister of Mrs. Rajavi she was tortured before execution, Sima Ahamdi who was executed with her unborn child, and Zahra Bijanyar, whose child died in her womb and then they killed her.

There weren’t enough milk and food for the children. My cellmates gave me their little ration of sugar so I could feed my baby. There weren’t any doctors or medication in our cell; once my child got sick and was about to die,  We were 750 people in a public cell with the capacity of less than 70 people. Every 10 days we had hot water for 15 minutes, and we had 50 children to bath in such a short time. Some of these children had lost one or both of their parents.

Once, prison wardens opened the door and threw a four-month-old baby into the cell. Her mother was executed, so I took care of her for a year. She was dying from starvation. The torturers even interrogated the children. When a child came back from the torture chamber, told her mother Shayesteh, that they had strapped a 6-year-old child to a chair in a dark room and tortured her so she revealed the names of her mother’s friends.

That is how we spent years in prison. Until 1985 we were 150 people in the cell and suffered numerous attacks by the IRGC members. They finally dispersed us, some were transferred to other provinces. I was released in 1987 due to my illnesses, but so many of my cellmates were executed in the 1988 massacre, including Ashraf Ahamadi and Shahla Shahdoost, who gave birth to their children in the prison, or Monireh Rajavi who had two little daughters at the time of execution, and Shahla Koohestan who had her child with her in prison. Others were my friends Dr. Shoorangiz Karimian, Dr. Zahra Shabzendedar, Dr. Houri Beheshti-Tabar, Maryam Golzadeh Ghafouri, Zohreh Eynolyaghin, Azam Taghdare, Maryam Tavanaian-far, Qodsieh Havakeshian, Mehri Attaie and her sister Soheila, who  had lost one eye under torture, Homa Radmanesh and Afagh Daknama along with thousands of other heroines who believed in the cause of freedom and had faith and hope in our beloved leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. This is the cause that has motivated us to bear tortures and to continue this struggle until victory.