The darkness had spread its wings over the waste land and was shading for the light but a beam of hope was still able to shine through. He was Ali Karimi. 

Ali Karimi was born in 1952 in Hamadan where his father was a PC. 
Ali was only two years old when his father was sacked from his position because he had been supporting the serves against the landlords. After two years unsuccessful attempt to immigrate abroad the had to come back Sanandaj. 
Sanandaj was a favourable place for the growth of ideas of equality and for people in search for truth.
After graduation from high school and while serving at military he made his entry into the ideological world. 
He joined Sepah Danish ( it was an organisation whose aim was to eradicate illiteracy in the country). 
He was allocated at a village by the name Qasimlo. He was acquainted with Mr Abdul Rahman Qasimlo who later became the leader of PDK. 
He ended up in a political environment which the regime was afraid of. 
It didn’t take long before he was well known amongst the villagers and they would consult him in every matter. 
This made him get closer to the people and the hardship they were suffering from. 
After military service came back to Sanandaj to work at a local office. 
To live a quiet life was not something he had been dreaming about while people were being suppressed by the Shah’s regime . 

In 1978 it was a period of changing atmosphere at the political area in Iran and people who they were craving for change were gathering to realise their dream to get rid of tyrannical Pahlavi dynasty. 

He joined first struggling unionists who had been the organisation for people like Behroz Soleimani and Ali Akbar Moradi. 

The time were changing rapidly and Ali was not left behind. 

In 1979 when Cherikhai Fedayi ( a leftist organisation) publicly started their activities he joined them. 

He was active in creating public libraries where books were made available for youth on their way for enlightenment. 

Ali’s belief was one of equality for the people in the revolution. No one was expecting the revolution to be high jacked by a murderous regime who could not tolerate equality for the people. 

Iranian regime sent his infamous henchmen to Kurdistan which by this time was the last bastion for freedom and a shelter for people with socialist ideology. 

The political parties were looking at the situation with a sense of irony that after such a revolution they should flee the cities and seek safety at mountains surrounding Sanandaj. 

Ali was as well one of those who sought safety from this murderous regime in the mountains. 

The same year in the beginning of autumn the military forces had to pull back from Kurdish cities after being defeated by Kurdish forces. 

That made it possible for those who had been exiled to make a come back and resume their political activities. 

The regime had learned its lesson and attacked Kurdish areas but this time they were much more experienced and were able to oust the Kurdish forces and political dissidents and force them back to mountains. 

After this the organisation got divided between two major fractions. The majority and the minority. 

The minority was believing in armed struggle but the majority was in favour of dialogue and a political solution in Iran. 

Ali and his friends joined the Iraqi communist party and they were given honorary membership for one year. They gave all their weapons to Iraqi communist party and they were given the option to join them in Iraq. But they declined and came back to Iran to resume their struggle against the regime. 

The first tragedy occurred when they came back their friend Hassan Jahanbakhsh was arrested and executed not long after. 

Ali came back to Iran in 1981 and was responsible for east Tehran. 

For safe keeping his life and his fellow activists he had to live in hiding under harsh conditions. That resulted in being forced to move and change frequently their hiding places for safety reasons. That was a precautions measure since many of their party members were taken into custody and were being tortured. 

That was one of the reasons that he joined a group which was led by Ali Keshteger on 26 of December 1981. 

After joining the group which had left the majority of the party on the 26 of December until 1983 they continued their secret activities. By that time Behroz Soleimani had reached the conclusion that they could no more stay in Iran and they planned to escape through Kurdistan and seek asylum abroad. 

But unfortunately Soleimani was killed and the project was effectively stopped. 

The killings were a reminder that the regime was determined to eliminate all opposition and the killing of Behroz was an awakening for others to be careful. 

Less than one year after the death of Behroz On 15 of September 1984 Ali was detained in Orumie by security agents. 

After countless interrogation and merciless tortures he was moved to the joint committee in Tehran where he was still tortured for another three months but he never revealed neither his identity nor mentioned any of his fellow party members. 

After the revelation of the organisation and his true identity his wife who was as well a member in the same organisation was as well detained. They had a little child who was one year old as a way of pressuring its mother they were denying her feeding him. Only to extract some information from its mother. 

During his entire imprisonment he was only allowed once visit by his wife. 

Later she described the dreadful and sad meeting like that: Ali had just taken a bath and had tried to put on clean cloths and had a smile. Later he gave me the picture of our one year old son Perham. 

He did not mention his pending execution and was smiling when he said fare well. 

There are many stories that has been told by his inmates as an evidence of the savage nature of this regime. 

Every time his family visited him they could see the traces of torture on his body. 

Later his inmates were telling about his epic resistance under torture where the prison guards would take him away all night and brought him back with blood all over his body and face. 

On of his inmates told that he only found out about his tortured when Ali’s family got back his belongings. They were all soaked with blood. 

Ali Karimi on 26 of October 1985 whilst he had broken ribs was executed. 

According to testimonies from some prisoners he and 70 other prisoners were executed. 

His body was never delivered to his family. 

The first place in our mind was Behesht Zahra cemetery to search. 

They showed us a unnamed tomb and they said he is buried here. 

We are still not sure if he is buried there. 

Ali Karimi and 70 other of our friends kneeled in the blood only to be remembered in this country for the sacrifices they endured. 

He sat in the blood thirsty for one drop 

The thirsty lilies on the waste land of dry 

Mino Hemili