Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 26, 1997

Mr. Karbaschi, [Mayor of Tehran], came with Mr. Qobba. Mr. Qaba cried; Because his mother had a stroke and died due to the discomfort caused by the arrest of his brother [Mr. Gholamreza Qobeh, Deputy Administrative and Financial Officer of Tehran Municipality], during the prosecution of Tehran Municipality's issues, and his sister is also in danger and filed a complaint and petition.

Mr. [Abdul Rahman Nadimi] Bushehri, the former governor of Bushehr, came. Recently they fired him. He gave the report of construction services of the province and the leaps and bounds of the five-year period of his responsibility. Messrs. [Syedkazem Mousavi] Bajnordi, [Syed Mustafa] Mohagheg Damad and [Abul Qasem] Sarhadizadeh came. They gave a report on the work of the Islamic Encyclopedia Center; they have 350,000 books and about 200 researchers. They told me about the greatness of the construction work during my tenure and asked us to try to make it a public culture.

[Mr. Hossein Kamali], the Minister of Labor [and Social Affairs], came with six female workers. All of them were bachelors and had valuable and innovative jobs in factories. Each gave a work report. I gave each one a coin.

In the evening, Dr. [Abdullah] Jasbi, [President of the Islamic Azad University] came and sought a solution to prevent the weakening of the Islamic Azad University. Mr. [Syed Mohammad Baqer] Hakim, [Speaker of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq] and his brother came. They gave a report on the situation in Iraq and the struggle and discussed how to move better.

Mr. [Alireza] Arafi, the head of the district and university [cooperation] office, came and gave a work report on the training of personnel and the preparation of appropriate books in the human sciences and asked me for help; [Mr. Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam], the head of the faculty of theology [Tehran University] was with him. He asked me to give conferences in the university.

I was the guest of the leader. We talked about the researcher's village in Wasf Qom and the pistachio farm of Murqad, and the statements of Mr. [Ahmed] Azari [Qomi] and [Hashmatullah] Tabarzadi, [the editor of Payam Student Weekly] against Faqih, the situation of Rafsanjan with cold labor, and European disturbances to export pistachios, as well as the situation in Iraq. They asked me to deal with the Iraq issue.