She was arrested in 1972 by SAVAK, the domestic security and intelligence service of Iran, during Shah’s regime, and severely tortured.

She spent years in training military tactics in the Palestinian camps in Syria and Lebanon.

Hadidchi was appointed as the IRGC commander in the western province of Hamedan following the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

She later served as the head of the women’s prison in Tehran, and as a lawmaker.

Hadidchi was a member of the delegation appointed by Imam Khomeini to convey his message to the last General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1989.

During Imam Khomeini’s exile in Paris before the Islamic revolution, Hadidchi was his personal bodyguard. 

She was elected to parliament (Majlis) for three terms.

Hadidchi chaired the Association of the Women of the Islamic Republic from 1987 until 2012.

She died on Thursday, November 17, at the age of 77.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a message calling her a “combatant, revolutionary and indefatigable woman.”

In his message of condolence, the Leader said “imprisonment and harsh tortures” failed to cause a crack in her strong will in the campaign the Shah regime. 

President Hassan Rouhani also said Hadidchi left a “glowing” legacy of herself through her “unrivaled” and “epic” struggles against the Phalavi regime and the services that she did after the victory of the Islamic revolution.

NM/MG