This is the second in a series of articles about a Reston family's long journey from Iran to the United States.
Reston resident Sadollah Fattahi lived a simple life of a nomadic farmer in Iran. However, his simple life turned complicated when Iranian intelligence officers arrested him in 1995.
"The official charges were cooperating with the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran and being a member of the Yarsan religion," said 43-year-old Sadollah Fattahi through an interpreter — his son Loghman, 18. As an Iranian Kurd, Sadollah Fattahi said he and his family were classified as second-class citizens. To make matters worse, not only were they Kurds, but they also belonged to a non-Muslim Kurdish religion, Yarsan.
"In Iran most of our ceremonies and religious tenets and scriptures are secret," said Sadollah Fattahi. Loghman Fattahi added: "For example I've never seen or read any of our holy scriptures."
According to Loghman Fattahi, students at Iranian schools study from the Koran regardless of their religion. "After high school, if an individual from my religion wants to advance into society, they have to convert to Shiite Islam. Publicly, they have to renounce their religion," he said.
When the Iranian Intelligence officers arrested Sadollah Fattahi in 1995, they took him to a solitary confinement where, he said, they tortured him. They used many forms of torture, including electrocution, putting him into different uncomfortable positions and depriving him off food. Also, he said, they pulled off his toenails, and hammered nails into the soles of his feet. "They wanted confessions from me," said Sadollah Fattahi. "They wanted me to confess I was cooperating with the KDPI and sheltering Peshmerga [Kurdish freedom fighters]."
Loghman Fattahi said his father suffered back injuries that still bother him. He said his shoulders are uneven, and he suffered psychological trauma. However, he would not confess. He decided to endure the torture instead, because the alternative was death. He said his 67-year-old uncle had been arrested before him, and told him to never confess to the Iranian government. "My uncle told me, 'Never ever confess to what the government wants,'" he said. "That's something I remembered when I visited my uncle in prison." He said his uncle made a confession and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, where he eventually died.
AFTER SIX MONTHS of maltreatment in a solitary confinement, Sadollah Fattahi was transported to a regular prison where his family could visit him. Loghman Fattahi remembers the day he saw his father for the first time. "He was totally emaciated from the torture and just sheer brutality of being in that place for six months. He was quite depressed and dejected, and really wasn't the same person that left us," he said.
Sadollah Fattahi said he does not quite remember how he felt during that visit. "I don't recall exactly how I felt," he said. "I was very depressed and I wasn't in a stable psychological state. I knew I was happy, but not as happy as I wanted to be."
After prison, Sadollah Fattahi was ordered into exile in the Iranian province of Ardible. He was free during the day, but every night he had to report to a local government office and sign a sheet stating he was there. "Everyday go to sign," said Sadollah Fattahi, this time without an interpreter. Every night he was handcuffed to a soldier as he signed the sheet. One night the soldier unlocked the handcuffs and went into an office to talk to a superior. Sadollah Fattahi overheard them talk about the prison where he came from, and feared they would send him back for a harsher penalty. Not fixed to the soldier, Sadollah Fattahi seized the opportunity and left.
The soldiers chased him, but he ran until he was out of sight. Sadollah Fattahi then hired a taxi to take him out of town. Then he walked. "I got on the road and I walked. For six hours I just walked without any knowledge where I was going," said Sadollah Fattahi. In those six hours, he found a rock he used to break the handcuff off. He said he felt considerable pain while breaking the steel around his wrist. The road he walked took him to a village, where he ordered tea and a biscuit and hired a car to take him to his new destination. Slowly he made his way from city to city, until finding his way back to Kermanshah, the province where his family lived.
In Kermanshah, Sadollah Fattahi stayed with a friend, because he was afraid to be with his family. Government officials had told Fattahi's relative that he should surrender, because if they caught him they would kill him. One night he came back to the house. He saw his parents, wife, sister and his son Ali. He told them he arranged for himself to be smuggled to Turkey.
WHILE HIS FATHER was away, either incarcerated or running from the law, second grader Loghman had to help his family members take care of his younger siblings and cousins. He also helped them raise the livestock they depended on for living. "I had to take on a lot of responsibilities," said Loghman Fattahi. He said he and his grandfather would take the sheep to graze in the mountains at night, and in the morning he had to be in school. "I had to — in a way — substitute for my dad. I had to be the caretaker for my siblings and cousins," he said.
Meanwhile, Sadollah Fattahi reached Turkey. He sought asylum from European nations, but was denied. The last country he looked to for hope was the United States, and the U.S. accepted his asylum case, based on political and religious grounds. The U.S. Consulate in Istanbul told Sadollah Fattahi it could postpone his interview about traveling to the U.S. until his family joined him in Turkey. He immediately went to a smuggler he knew and arranged for his family to be smuggled from Iran to Turkey.
The smuggler promised him it would take three days to bring Fattahi's family to him. Day three passed by and there was no sight of his family. Another week passed by without any word from his family. Sadollah Fattahi paced the hallways and constantly questioned the smuggler about his family's whereabouts.
Loghman Fattahi said he and the rest of the family — mother, sister and two brothers — traveled to Turkey on foot. They walked through the mountains, which Loghman Fattahi described as a treacherous landscape. It took them nearly a week to cross the border, because the smugglers felt the group would be captured if it rushed across the border. "There was the constant fear of, on one side, being captured by the Iranian government, and on the other side, being captured by the more aggressive Turkish army," said Loghman Fattahi.
ROUGHLY 13 DAYS after setting on foot from Kermanshah, the group joined Sadollah Fattahi in Turkey. "We reached my dad right about the 13th day. I believe that's how long it took us. We didn't have a watch or anything," said Loghman Fattahi. He said his father immediately took them to a United Nations headquarters where they were accepted as refugees. The Fattahis were eventually accepted into the U.S. and started preparing for their trip to this country. "I was happy because I love America more than any other place. I had a childhood obsession with this place," said Loghman Fattahi.
"It took us a couple of trips to get to Nashville, Tenn.," said Sadollah Fattahi about the 24-hour long trip from Turkey to the U.S. It was the first airplane trip for any of the family members. After 45 days in Nashville, the family moved to Minnesota. Something about Minnesota must have appealed to the Fattahis, as the youngest of the children is now a Minnesota Vikings fan. "I like the Vikings. I don't know anyone on the team, I just like the team," said 12-year-old Azad Fattahi, while playing a King Kong video game in his room in Reston.
Next week read about the Fattahi family's newfound life in the United States.