In the name of the Supreme Power, Allah
The second session of the 85th round of Congress 60’s educational workshops—dedicated to both travelers and companions—began at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, with Mr. Hossein Dezhakam as the master of the ceremony, serving also as the guardian, and Companion Iran as the secretary.
The agenda of the session was “Tobacco products (cigarette, hookah, nass, pipe, vape).”
I hope all of you are doing well. I’m also doing well, thanks to God.
Today is the 7th of Khordad 1404 (May 28, 2025), and it’s 10 a.m. Today, I came three or four minutes earlier to start the meeting, and we’re currently at the Academy building in Tehran. The agenda for this week is about tobacco—cigarettes, hookah, and other related products.
If you look at the back of the hall, there’s a ventilation fan on the ceiling. When the Congress 60 meetings were first held here—during the early sessions—the Congress 60 members would smoke after the meeting ended, because they weren’t allowed to smoke during the sessions. When they lit up afterward, the room would get so full of smoke you could practically slice it with a knife. Eventually, we had no choice but to punch a hole in the ceiling, install a duct up to the rooftop, and place a powerful exhaust fan—like a jet engine—on the roof to suck the smoke out so that we could actually see each other.
It was terrible—really awful with the smoking. And I was the leader of them.
Every morning, I would go swimming, and by the time I got to the office at 8 a.m., I had already smoked at least half a pack. Even before the swim, I’d smoke, and right after getting out of the water—at the Amjadieh Stadium—everyone had their cigarettes lit.
People kept saying, “Don’t smoke, it’s harmful!” And I’d reply, “You’ve done so much research on the harms of smoking, but have you researched its benefits?” I’d joke, “Maybe if you looked into the benefits, you’d find they outweigh the risks.”
And so it went. We all kept smoking… until one day, I had a heart attack.
That was back in 1390 or 1391 (2011–2012). When it happened, the doctor told me the only cause was smoking—nothing else. The heart attack was solely due to cigarette smoking. Smoking causes plaque buildup in the arteries and many other issues—lung damage, vascular problems, and so much more. I later learned that the death toll from smoking is 17 times greater than that of all other deaths including addiction.
In fact, if you add up all the deaths related to drug addiction, car accidents, suicide, drug overdoses—combine all of that—it still doesn’t equal the number of deaths caused by smoking.
There are two major causes of premature death, and I’m not even talking about drugs here. Smoking is far more dangerous. The two are: smoking and obesity.
I always tell the Congress 60 members: the more cigarettes you smoke, the shorter your life will be. The bigger your belly gets, the shorter your life will be. So when your stomach starts sticking out, you can be sure your life expectancy is going down. Smoking cigarettes and obesity are things that absolutely shorten your life.
So, there I was in the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit). It was the second or third day after my heart attack. In the CCU, they usually hook you up to all kinds of wires and machines—monitoring your heart, pulse, everything. I tore off all the wires, got out of bed, and fell to the floor because I had no balance, likely due to the medications.
The nurses rushed over and asked, “Where are you going?”
I said, “I want to go smoke a cigarette.”
They laughed and said, “You’re in the CCU! You think you can smoke here?! Get back in bed!” That’s how strong the pull of cigarettes was for me.
Right then and there, I asked the doctor, “So, I really can’t smoke anymore?”
He said, “Absolutely not. You definitely cannot smoke—especially not while you’re in the CCU.”
That’s when I started thinking: We managed to transition people from smoking opium to oral opium use for treatment—so why can’t we do the same with nicotine?
If we could switch from smoking nicotine to ingesting it in another form, that might work.
So, I asked the doctor, “Can I use nicotine gum instead?”
He said, “No problem.” I told Abbas Amir Moafi, “Abbas, go out and get every kind of nicotine gum you can find and bring it to the hospital.”
Right there in the hospital, I decided to replace smoked nicotine with oral nicotine. By that point, I fully understood the concept of substitution—that nicotine takes a place in the body, and removing a substance that the body has adapted to is extremely difficult. The Congress 60 members now understand this too—the importance of replacement in recovery.
So, I started planning and began using nicotine gum. After I was discharged, about two months passed. By then, I was confident that the process was working.
I announced, “I want 30 assistants.” Even though I hadn’t fully completed my treatment yet, I said, “I want 30 people who are interested to join me. I’ll give each of them a program. Once these 30 recover, they can become guides and help others.” The first person to follow me and succeed in quitting was Hamed—Hamed Shams. I was the first to quit. Two months later, he became the first of the group to succeed. Gradually, more people followed—Abbas, Kourosh, and many others.
Some people were still smoking while chewing the gum. Those who weren’t succeeding would say things like, “Well, he’s an engineer. He could quit because he’s got charisma, he’s experienced, he knows what he’s doing—but this isn’t for us.” And I said, “No, don’t say that nonsense. This isn’t the case—everyone cn cure their addiction to nicotine. Anyone who wants to can do this and succeed.”
And they did. Out of those 30 people, 28 successfully completed the treatment.
Only two didn’t at first—but even those two eventually started the process and got on track.
And that’s how the anti-smoking initiative began in Congress 60. Gradually, it developed step by step, until it reached a stage where quitting smoking became mandatory within Congress 60—for those who wanted to become guides, serve others, and those who wanted to enter their second journey, i.e. to be liberated from addiction. They had to stop smoking.
Currently, this process is also being introduced step by step for newcomers in the first phase of treatment. For example, if someone begins addiction treatment, we give them about two to four months. For the first two months, we don’t interfere. After that, between the second and fourth months, they can begin joining the smoking cessation groups (the William White’s legions). Eventually, this too will become mandatory—but for now, it’s still optional.
The program is so easy to implement—it’s just like DST (Dezhakam Step Time). That, too, is straightforward. What’s hard, sometimes, is believing in it. Having faith in this method is the hard part. It’s the same with the Jones’s weight-loss program. That method is also as easy as a piece of cake—you can lose weight easily. But the difficult part is believing it works. If someone truly believes in the Jones’s plan and follows it precisely, they’ll absolutely see results.
It doesn’t work if you do it inconsistently—like eating salad for five days, skipping it for two, then eggs for five days, then stopping again. It has to be consistent and on schedule, just like the DST method.
So, if we apply the smoking cessation plan properly, we’ll definitely succeed—just like a piece of cake [in Persian, we say it is as easy as drinking water]. And that’s what the members have realized.
But then, people sometimes switch to something else. Even now, some say, “Okay, I quit smoking, but I didn’t quit hookah.” They think hookah is harmless.
In reality, hookah is ten to fifty times more harmful than cigarettes.
Or they’ll say, “I quit smoking, but now I smoke a pipe. That’s harmless?” But a pipe is ten times worse than cigarettes.
A cigarette is small—like a pen—so it produces a small amount of smoke. But with a pipe, you pack in a bunch of tobacco and light it like a traditional “chopogh” (an old-style pipe), and that produces a huge amount of smoke.
Hookah, too, creates a tremendous amount of smoke. So you can’t say, “I quit cigarettes but switched to hookah—that’s different.” No, it’s not different. Hookah is worse than cigarettes.
It’s like someone saying, “I quit opium, but now I use heroin.” That’s not a solution—heroin is much worse.
That’s when Congress 60 truly took shape. People found recovery, and the Jones’s legions began to expand gradually. Today, the environment at Congress 60 is incredibly clean and healthy. At our sports facilities, you’ll see that no one smokes. Out in public parks, regular people might be smoking cigarettes or hookah, drinking alcohol—doing all kinds of things. But among the members of Congress 60, you won’t even find a single cigarette butt lying around.
I remember how Park Taleghani used to be covered in cigarette butts. We would go and collect them all. Now, if you compare the lung of a healthy person to that of a smoker, you’ll see the difference—the lung belonging to a cigarettes smoker is like tar [black and blur]. It’s horrifying. We just haven’t seen what death from smoking looks like—it’s hidden away in hospitals. Throat cancer, lung cancer, all kinds of cancers caused by smoking—we don’t see those directly.
And that’s exactly why Congress 60 is addressing this head-on. The program now covers cigarettes, hookah, and even “nas”. Nas is made by grinding tobacco and mixing it with lime and other substances—it’s used orally. It’s a form of smokeless tobacco.
So now, Congress 60 addresses all forms of tobacco—smoked and oral. Both cigarettes and nas are part of the treatment program, as well as obesity, which is also being actively addressed.
There’s one more important point I want to share with everyone right here: politeness and manners are extremely important in Congress 60. We must always maintain a culture of respect and proper conduct.
I’ve said this before—we have a regular agenda topic called Etiquette and Manners. This needs to become a habit. Sometimes we forget [who we were]; and what happens, when we forget this? Our behavior towards others becomes unpleasant. We start speaking harshly. For example, a guide might shout at their pupil or call them names like “idiot” or worse.
Yes, the pupil is younger than you and has come to cure their addiction—but you have no right to insult them. I’ve even said this: even if someone is sentenced to death, you are allowed to carry out the sentence, but you are not allowed to insult them.
The judge has ruled the death penalty; you, as the executioner, carry out the sentence—but you don’t have the right to swear at them or humiliate them.
If you're instructed to deliver 50 lashes, you must do it with respect. You’re not allowed to curse or be abusive.
But sometimes we lose awareness. We speak badly to people and damage our own character. Or, let’s say a guide makes fun of their student to get others to laugh—this is extremely offensive behavior. Wherever I see or hear about this kind of behavior—someone speaking disrespectfully, insulting others—I immediately remove that person from their position, no matter where they are serving.
So this is a very important point:
Whether we are a Marzban (border guard), an Agent, a Guide, or working in any other position, we must always speak respectfully with people. Enforcing rules is not the same as being rude. There is a difference between upholding the law and being angry or aggressive as we speak.
And really—who are we, really? Whether you're a guide, an agent, a Marzban—what position do we actually hold? Not much. And holding that position does not give us the right to speak harshly or disrespectfully to anyone.
Even if you are a Dideban (Watcher) or the Congress Guardian, no matter your role, this principle applies to everyone. This is a reminder I give regularly—to both men and women—because once in a while, I notice some people begin behaving this way.
Because sometimes I hear that guides, Marzbans or agents—anyone, [have used improper language]. That’s why this point is very, very important.
As the saying goes: “A man’s manners are worth more than his position, wealth or power.” I’ve said it before—believe me, I prefer a polite heroin addict over a rude professor.
Yes, we have addicts who are polite, and addicts who are not. But I would absolutely choose a well-mannered addict over a rude university professor or a disrespectful minister. Because this principle—manners and respect—is fundamental.
At Congress 60, we are identifying and eliminating the things that harm human beings—things that shorten lives, cause chronic illnesses, and trap people in all kinds of diseases. The first major step was drug addiction, and we tackled that together. The next was smoking, and we’ve made major strides there too.
And now we’re working on obesity.
In fact, just today, one of the women reported to me during the session:
She said one of her students, who had come to the William White’s legion for smoking cessation, had been struggling with infertility. After six months of attending the William White’s legion, she became pregnant.
So you see—even smoking can affect fertility. It affects women’s health, menstrual cycles, and a whole range of medical issues.
When we begin a weight loss program, we often discover that the person had seven or eight different health problems. After losing 15 or 20 kilos—or more—the improvement in health is remarkable. The more weight they lose, the more their health improves. We often see that thyroid issues, in particular, get better.
Today, people commonly say, “I’m overweight because my thyroid isn’t working.” But what we’ve actually found is the opposite: those with significant excess weight often develop thyroid issues, and once they lose the weight, thyroid function often returns to normal.
So, we’ve successfully addressed addiction, obesity, and smoking. And we’ve incorporated sports and physical activity into our program. We now have 75 sports locations. When I go to Talaghani Park and visit the families' section, I see the women exercising—I truly enjoy. Women from different cities come, dressed in colorful sportswear, playing volleyball, playing darts—it’s absolutely beautiful.
Instead of family arguments and domestic tension, we’re now seeing the growth of a healthy athletic spirit. Health is returning to their lives. With clear thinking, they can stabilize their family’s financial situation. Everything is falling into place.
So now, we also focus on manners and proper conduct, which is an incredibly important topic. If I ever feel I’m unable to serve with kindness, and I’m at risk of being rude, I must step aside immediately.
If I’m tired, I won’t serve. If I’m upset, I won’t serve. And none of us—none—have the right to say, “I’m owed something by Congress 60.”
Because what Congress 60 has given us is priceless. The health, the recovery—it’s invaluable. No matter how much I serve in Congress 60, it will never be enough to repay it. Even I, the creator and founder of Congress 60, consider myself indebted to it. I say this sincerely—not out of modesty or politeness.
If Congress 60 hadn’t existed, if I hadn’t created it, I would have been gone 10 or 15 years ago. Who knows where I would have ended up? This is true for all of us.
So we can never justify saying: “Because I serve a lot, I have the right to insult someone.” Let’s hope we resolve this issue completely, too.
Exams are being held, and hopefully soon, we’ll be able to award the first round of guide sashes. And with time, our guides are becoming stronger, more confident, more knowledgeable, and the new generation is much more educated, God willing. We are also becoming much stricter in our interview process.
I hope you all speak about smoking this week—so we can spread this message further. One more point: people often ask, “Why don’t you accept people from outside for the smoking treatment program?”
And I say: we cannot accept them. Why? Because the members of Congress 60 have worked through the ‘Valleys’, they’ve attended the classes, they’ve become disciplined, they understand the rules, and they follow them.
But when someone from outside comes in, without having gone through the training, they haven’t developed worldview. And because they haven’t developed that worldview, their behavior is unpredictable. They don’t have the same manners, courtesy, or adaptability. In a way, they’re still wild. That’s why we don’t accept them—unless they’ve been properly trained.
Thank you all for listening so attentively.
I appreciate it deeply.
Thank you—merci.
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Mr. Ashkezari, please come up and introduce your assistant.
Please pass the microphone to Mr. Ali. Go ahead—explain what his role is.
Hello friends, I am Ali, a traveler.
I am here to introduce Mr. Reza Shahmoradi as the Assistant to the Sports Parks Guardian.
His responsibilities include regular visits and inspections of parks, monitoring operations and coordinating activities in his assigned region, and also officiating the ceremony of granting shawls to agents or border-keepers in the respective cities and areas—particularly in the Isfahan region.
Mr. Dezhakam explained that within the structure of Congress 60, we have two key positions in the field of sports:
1. A Sports Dideban
2. A Parks Dideban
Currently, we have more than 83 active sports parks across the country, from Qeshm Island and Kish to Mashhad, Quchan, Nishapur, Dargaz, Kerman, Isfahan, Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil, and many more.
Naturally, the esteemed Parks Guardian, Mr. Ashkezari, cannot individually visit and supervise all these locations. Therefore, to support and streamline operations, assistants are appointed in various regions to represent him. Within this framework, the responsibility for the Isfahan region has been assigned to Mr. Reza Shahmoradi.
As the representative of the Dideban, he is tasked with conducting on-site inspections, identifying potential issues and challenges, and reporting them to the Dideban or relevant officials to enable proper decision-making and implementation of suitable solutions. We will now proceed with the formal signing of the pact by Reza.
Thank you all.
Those who enter the William White’s Legion—once they’ve entered and stabilized—must completely remove the idea of smoking from their minds. Thoughts like “I'll just have a puff” or “just a little now and then” will lead nowhere. From the very beginning, one must say goodbye to cigarettes. Those who have done this succeeded. You can't have it both ways—trying to quit while still smoking occasionally, or using nicotine gum while also smoking. That path will never lead to success, not even in a hundred years. You have to decisively say, “That’s it, I have to do whatever I am asked for to quit cigarettes.” If you’re using nicotine gum, you're still taking in nicotine, so you need to accept that reality. Otherwise, the effort will be fruitless.
I remember a story from when Amin was 4 or 5 years old. I used to smoke cigarettes, and I saw him picking up my cigarette butt and blowing on it. I called him over and said, “Son, don't just blow on it. You need to inhale like this” (laughs). He asked, “Like this?” and I said, “Yes, like that.” He took a puff and started coughing (laughs). His mother said, “Are you trying to kill the kid?” (laughs). After that, he stopped playing with cigarette butts, but unfortunately, when he grew up, he did start smoking (laughs).
Another important point, when the master enters the session, everyone must stand up. What I mentioned about standing up for the master applies throughout the entire Congress 60. We must observe certain rules and protocols. When we introduce a guest speaker in a session, we should honor them by standing up, acknowledging their value to listen to what they state. When the instruction is given to stand, it must be followed. These kinds of discipline, order, and etiquette are extremely helpful—they allow us to build a strong community.
Someone passed me a note asking: “Mr. Dezhakam, could you suggest something for companions who want to begin the nicotine journey, but their traveler objects?”
If the companion is part of Congress 60, I doubt the traveler would object. But if the traveler is the one involved in Congress 60 and the companion is not, then until they join Congress 60, become a member, attend sessions, and transcribe their CD, naturally they cannot join the nicotine quitting legions.
For the gentlemen: if your companions smoke cigarettes or use other substances, nothing is wrong with it—encourage them to join Congress 60 to start their own recovery. In Congress 60, the women's section is very safe. There are no men present when female travelers [those female members of Congress 60 who abuse drugs] meet. Their identities are completely protected. On the days when women meet, no men are present—it’s an entirely separate day. So if your companion is using drugs, cigarettes or hookah, encourage them to join Congress 60 and become part of the female traveler’s or companions' group. It will make things much easier and better for both of you. Congress 60 is a very safe place. It’s family-oriented. In Congress 60, we live as families—travelers, their spouses, and their children come to the parks. It’s a very suitable place for everyone.
Someone also wrote me: “I drink a lot of tea and I enjoy the smell of hookah.”
Go ahead and smoke hookah if you enjoy it (laughs). It’s not a big deal (laughs).
The important point is moderation. Tea should be consumed in moderation—two glasses a day is fine—but excessive amounts become harmful. Tea is good, but it doesn't replace water. Similarly, drinking water is healthy—just not underwater. Drink all the water you want, just not under water—that’s when it becomes excessive.
Another serious and potentially dangerous issue is coffee. Especially bitter coffee. From my perspective, it’s essentially a narcotic—it makes no difference. Some people wrongly think that by drinking coffee they’ll feel euphoric. But euphoria must come from your heart, your brain, your thoughts, and your mindset—not from hookah, not from coffee.
Anything that’s bitter is harmful to the human body. Bitter almonds are poisonous—they contain cyanide. Consuming a large amount can be fatal. Many bitter medicines and herbs are toxic. Opium itself is bitter—that’s why it’s deadly and damaging to the digestive system. It significantly shortens life expectancy.
Drinking something like Nescafé with milk and sugar is fine—I do that myself. But drinking bitter coffee, the kind they used to serve in Congress 60 years ago, is not okay. It was discontinued for this reason. So those who still drink that kind of coffee, in my view, it’s no different from taking narcotics and will cause significant harm. Reduce it little by little. Health is extremely important to us.
As members of Congress 60, we must take care of ourselves—our bodies, our health. Big, bloated stomachs and wide waists don’t suit our members. Thanks to everyone who participated. I now hand the session over to the secretary for the report.
Typed by companion Zahra, Salar branch of Congress 60
Translated by Elahe