Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – November 9, 1994

At seven in the morning, passing under the Quran, which Effat, as usual on every trip, had held up, we went to Mehrabad Airport and immediately flew toward Kermanshah. The Ministers of Roads and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Messrs. Mirzadeh and Hossein Marashi, and the province's representatives were accompanying. At Kermanshah Airport, there was a detailed welcoming ceremony. After the interview, we headed toward the city.

The people gave an extraordinarily warm and magnificent welcome; their faces were smiling and their expressions determined and sincere. The sunny and clean weather, after a week of unprecedented rain, was also pleasant for the people. Several times the car was stopped by the crowd of people. In the covered hall of the Azadi Stadium, we had a meeting with the families of the selfless [martyrs and veterans].

After the welcome and anthems and slogans, I gave a speech describing the status of the martyrs and the jihadists and the selfless. Then we walked to the public ceremony in the open space of the stadium. The crowd was very huge and dense and, in their own words, unprecedented, and the fervor and emotions were at their peak.

Mr. Mohammad Hossein Zarandi, the Friday prayer leader, and Mr. Gholamreza Sahrayian, the governor, and Ms. Akhtar Derakhshandeh and Messrs. Esmail Tatri and Seyyed Ayatollah Mousavi Ajaq, the three representatives of the city, gave brief welcome speeches. There is severe disagreement between the representatives and the Friday prayer leader and the governor, but out of respect for my presence, they have reconciled with each other. I gave a detailed speech to the people, praising them and referring to the province's facilities and potentials and the government's services and future plans and encouraging promises.

Then we went toward the governorate. Again on the way, everywhere there were gatherings of people and expressions of feelings. At noon we reached the governorate. We rested a little and studied and prayed, and then had lunch with the companions and hosts, and then rested a little and listened to the news. We headed toward the airport and flew by helicopters toward Islamabad. The governor gave explanations on the way.

We landed beside the very magnificent gathering of the people in the city stadium. The emotions and the rush of the people took a lot of time. Several women were trampled under the feet of others; I was affected. I asked the people to move away from around them. The Friday prayer leader and the province's representative in the parliament gave welcome speeches and raised the demands. Then it was my turn to speak, which was done with difficulty due to the great crowding.

We immediately flew toward Kermanshah. On the way we visited the operation of four-laning the Islamabad-Kermanshah road. Then we landed at the site of the integrated and pressurized irrigation project of the Doroud Faraman area located on the outskirts of Kermanshah and beside the great Qareh Su River.

We visited the irrigated fields of the project. In the hall of the Agricultural Extension Center, the engineers and the head of the agriculture department gave good explanations. Interestingly, a thousand hectares of the rainfed hilly lands beside the river had been integrated into a sprinkler irrigation program; at a cost of two hundred and twenty thousand tomans per hectare. The interesting point is the preservation of the hilly form. The people of the surrounding villages had gathered and were expressing joy with sacrifices and drums and instruments. We visited one of the pools in the heights and inaugurated the pump house.

From there we went toward the mausoleum of the late Fazel Tuni. On the way, the villagers and the people on the outskirts of the city gave a warm welcome. At Maghrib we reached the mausoleum. It is under construction. Three and a half centuries ago during the Safavid era, on the return route from the holy shrines, he passed away beside the old bridge.

We prayed the evening and night prayers there. A large crowd of the people of the village of Choqazard had gathered. From there we went to the Telecommunications Office. The ceremony was for the inauguration of twenty-four thousand telephone numbers. The managers gave reports and I, after the speech, inaugurated the telephones of the urban and rural centers.

We went to the Jame Mosque. Mr. Zarandi, the Friday prayer leader of Kermanshah, in the gathering of the clerics and seminary students of the province, gave a report and a welcome speech and raised the demands; he spoke well. I too gave a long speech about the position and duties of the clergy and the First Five-Year Development Plan and the services of the revolution and the government.

We had dinner. By my order, they have built the Jame Mosque very well using reconstruction credits. We returned to the governorate. I wrote the memoirs. I studied a little and slept.