Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina

“Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina”, a revolutionary combatant against the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Iran, has compiled his socio-political memoirs of victory of Islamic Revolution in Iran centralized the description of memories pertaining to the residence of Imam Khomeini in Neauphle-le-Château, France, in a book entitled “Visit at Neauphle-le-Château.”

The book begins with some memories from difficult childhood, adolescence, and youth of Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina and continues with his entry to Imam Khomeini’s movement and his accompaniment with Islamic Coalition Party. Tavakoli Bina has even added to attraction of the book “Visit in Neauphle-le-Château” by expressing the unsaid facts of what happened during the fighting path beside Imam Khomeini.

In a part of Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina’s memoirs, the difficult conditions of “SAVAK (Organization of Intelligence and National Security)” and methods of forcing confessions out of political prisoners have been described as follows:

“My back swelled and burst my due to the strike of cables. It was about 3 a.m. when I fainted. Only my ears could hear them ordering not to let me sleep, not to give me food, so that he would confess. By the time of in Neauphle-le-Château as expressed by a revolutionary combatant Morning Prayer, I went out to do wudu. My entire back had swelled such that I was unable to move my hand or my waist. I did wudu with difficulty and said Morning Prayer. At 7 a.m. they took me to the interrogation room, and I repeated the same words as the previous night.

They would not let us rest more than an hour or two in a day. The pressure of torture and psychological pressure had completely taken comfort away from us.

Having suffered prison and severe tortures, Tavakoli Bina goes to France with Mahdi Iraqi, the late Iranian revolutionary combatant. At that time, Imam Khomeini was living in Neauphle-le-Château village in France, who ordered that his housekeeping would be performed by Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina and Mahdi Iraqi after realizing that these to combatants reside in France.

The volume of visiting demands from Iranian students abroad, journalists, and even the French with Imam Khomeini was high and this course of history has been very effective in expediting the process of Islamic Revolution and people’s increasing awareness of the event. Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina mentions in a part of his memoirs, “Five persons from churches in south of France had been sent as representatives to welcome Imam Khomeini who came and met him. Before Imam met them, he ordered us to get some presents and flowers for them. He was so gifted. When they entered, a woman who was the head of that team began her words like this:

“Oh Imam, you who have come to establish the rule of God on earth…” This was what the Christian woman said. When she was expressing such words, everybody cried emotional tears. The meeting was so influential.

The finishing part of the book “Visit at Neauphle-le-Château” is devoted to Imam’s return from France to Iran and formation of Welcome Committee in Iran in 1 February 1979. He then talks about expediting the recording and distribution of Imam Khomeini’s speeches and messages from France to Tehran: “The process was such that Imam’s speeches were sent from his office in Neauphle-le-Château via telephone which I recorded. The messages were recorded in a similar way. While transcribing the tapes, we wound sometimes wind the tape back and forward for more than fifty times to understand some ambiguous words.

Then we multiplied them and sent the ones which were ready to different regions in Tehran. They, too, were responsible to distribute them, and it was such that whoever came to his work would see a version of Imam’s speeches on his desk. I heard from one of the brethren who had studied in the U.S. that Holmes and Sullivan, America’s ambassador in Iran said in a televised debate that you did not perform your duties well. They told they did a good job, but what was unknown to them is that Ayatollah Khomeini wrote on a small piece of paper and suddenly the entire country moved. They could not work this out…”

The book “Visit at Neauphle-le-Château” is published by attempts of Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s works.

Download PDF: “Visit at Neauphle-le-Château

Visit at Neauphle-le-Château