Mother Masoumeh Daneshmand(Mother Bazargan)
Mother Masoumeh Daneshmand(Mother Bazargan), was born in Gorgan on 14 Tir 1314 (05 July 1935). Mother Masoumeh was the mother of Bijan Bazargan who was executed by hanging during the mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1367 (1988). Bijan was arrested in Tehran in Tir 1361 (June-July 1982) but it took four months before his family were made aware of his situation and the place where he was kept. Mother Bazargan together with her husband unrelentingly visited the Islamic Republic’s prisons in Tehran to learn the whereabouts of their son Bijan, but the Islamic Republic refuses to give them any information about Bijan.
Mother Daneshmand left Iran years ago and lived in America. In January 2019 it became known that she was suffering from the cancer of the lymph nodes. At the suggestion of her physicians she started the cancer prevention treatment. Mother Masoumeh loved to see the fall of the Islamic Republic. For that reason she consented to continue the treatment which was indeed a very hard period for her. The treatment came to an end in August 2019 and Mother’s physical condition improved. However, the cancer recurred in January 2020 but her medical treatment was not possible. She died on 01 May 2020.
Mother Bazargan together with Parvaneh Milani travelled to the City of Gwangju in South Korea and received the Human Rights Award of the 18th of May Uprising of Gwangju Foundation which was awarded to the Khavaran Mothers who for years stood against the regime and fought for justice.
Mother Masoumeh had taken a handful of soil from Khavaran to the USA and kept it with her until she died. She had instructed in her will that after her death the Khavaran soil should be sprinkle over her casket. That soil was spread over her casket by her chilrden in compliance with her wishes. For Mother Bazargan this soil was a reminder of Bijan’s place of burial.
Bijan Bazargan
Bijan Bazargan was born in Ghouchan in 1338 (1959) and was able to obtain his High School diploma at the age of 16. His father Ghazanfar Bazargan sent him to England to continue his education in the field of Medicine. He joined the Iranian students’ movement in London. Bijan was an active member of the “Iranian Overseas Students’ Confederation” and a supporter of the Union of Communists of Iran. After the revolution he returned to Iran and immediately participated in the university competitive admissions examination and was accepted in the field of Industrial Health by the Tehran University’s Faculty of Para-medicine.
Bijan Bazargan was arrested at the first roundabout of Aryashahr in Tehran in Tir 1361 (June-July 1982) where he was supposed to meet a friend. Bijan was arrested six months after the armed struggle between the “Union of Communists of Iran” and the Islamic Republic in the jungles of Amol. He was not present at the clash and was arrested solely on charges of supporting the Union of Communists of Iran.
Two years after his arrest, they took Bijan blindfolded in a room in Evin Prison and told him that he was at his trial before the court. The Islamic Republic sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment for supporting the Union of Communists of Iran, without giving him the right to defend himself and to have an attorney, and without trying him in an actual court of justice. While about six and half years of his sentence had passed in the Evin and Gohardasht Prisons, the Islamic Republic hanged him in Shahrivar 1367 (Aug.-Sep. 1988) in Gohardasht Prison during the massacre of political prisoners and secretly buried his body in one of the mass graves in Khavaran without informing his family.