TEHRAN – Director Reza Bahrami’s troupe is performing a play based on a true story that recounts how the 1979 Islamic Revolution transformed Shahrokh Zargham from a lowlife into an honest and fervent revolutionary. 

The play entitled “Buckle” has been written by Kahbod Taraj and is currently on stage at Tehran’s Iranshahr Theater Complex.

Zargham, as a professional wrestler, was famous for his gang activities in Tehran.

A few months before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he learned about Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and his struggles against Mohammadreza Pahlavi, Iran’s last monarch.    

Consequently, he became an ardent follower of Imam Khomeini and joined the revolutionaries.

After the Iran-Iraq broke out, he recruited a group of his friends to fight against the Iraqi forces in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan.

However, in a battle with an Iraqi armored company, he was shot dead by heavy machinegun fire. He was beheaded by Iraqi forces and Iraqi television announced the news of his killing by showing his beheaded body.

No information was published by Iraq about the fate of Zargham’s remains, as in his homeland he was called “Hurr of the Revolution”, a phrase that compares Zargham with Hurr ibn Riahi, one of Yazid’s commanders who joined the troops of Imam Hussein (AS) on the eve of Ashura.

Tinu Salehi stars as Zargham in the play. Parisa Moqtadi, Mohammadreza Imanian, Labkhand Badiei, Mahtab Shokrian and Amir Adlparvar are the other members of the cast.

In 2019, a book named “Shahrokh, Hurr of the Islamic Revolution” containing articles by a number of writers about Zargham was published.

Photo: Members of director Reza Bahrami’s troupe perform “Buckle” at Tehran’s Iranshahr Theater Complex.

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