SABAH (96)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2022-2-8

SABAH (96)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami

Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

Published by Soore Mehr Publishing Co.

Persian Version 2019

We went to Hamedan by bus. Due to insecurity of the roads, the bus stayed in Hamedan at night and moved towards Kurdistan in the morning. We were in Sanandaj near noon. Our residence area was a barrack belonging to army in the city. Two three days had passed since I had come to Sanandaj. On a morning I went to the army office of Sanandaj and said that I wanted to work as an aid worker in the medical center of army. An Isfahani guard who was in charge of appointment and human resources, asked my biography. I said that I am from Khorramshahr and have been among the aid workers and the defenders of the city. I have also served in Abadan Taleghani hospital for a few months. I also explained about the situation of my family.

He asked me about my motivation to stay in an insecure city like Sanandaj. I said: “One of my sisters is here and I want to stay and serve in this sensitive condition.”

He said: “There is no objection for your appointment and activity and you can start whenever you want.”

The same night we heard the voice of shooting and conflicts till morning. In the morning we heard the news that the Komalah part and democrats have entered a village and have arrested the Imam of the Congregation, tied his hands and feet and have burnt him alive along with lots of Qurans and prayer books. Then they have decapitated two three volunteer Kurd Muslims who had come to the village with a few guards and Basijis to save the Imam.

On the same day they announced that tomorrow morning the bodies of the martyrs will be buried. On the funeral day, Shahnaz went to school and said that she will be there for the funeral. I had to go to the funeral alone. It was decided to do the burial at ten o’clock in the morning from Jame mosque. Shahnaz had taught me the way. The route from barrack to mosque was short and I got there by taxi in a few minutes. I arrived there almost forty minutes early. Nobody was in the mosque. Neither Shahnaz nor the public had gathered.

A walked along for a few minutes in front of the mosque but when I saw there is nothing to be done, I decided to go inside the mosque. Moreover it was not safe to stay in the street in that dangerous situation. The day before, Shahnaz and I and two of her friends called Maryam and Hajar had gone to the textile bazaar to but some fabrics. In a shop we liked a fabric. We bought it. From the moment we had entered the shop, the look of the seller was bothering me. When we were coming out of the shop, he told me with a Kurdish accent: “It is a pity that they have taken and placed you in the eagle’s nest so that nobody can touch you! They should have taken you to the mountains ….”

By saying the nest of the eagle, he meant the army barrack. The inhabitants knew that the personnel of schools coming from other cities were stationed there. I knew that if I answered him back, it would be a mess. Therefore I whispered: “Dunce man, he thinks I am not from the city!” then I went out. When Shahnaz heard the words of the seller, she panicked and whispered in my ear: “Oh Sister! If they kidnap you here, I will be doomed!”

I went inside the mosque. The yard of the mosque was emptier than the street. I looked inside the mosque from the yard. I saw seven eight coffins covered in flags in the apron of the mosque. A few guards were sitting around the coffins. When I saw the guards, I felt more secure. I felt secure from their presence. Therefore I took out my shoes and went inside the mosque. I hadn’t got near the coffins of the martyrs that one of the guards jumped from his place and came towards me and told me angrily and with a grave Isafahani accent: “Go out sister! Go out! Who has let you in?!”

He was so angry that I felt bad. It was as if I had Najis[1] the mosque with my presence. I felt like crying. I didn’t expect such behavior especially from a guard. What had I done wrong that he acted towards me badly in front of all these people and humiliated me?! I wasn’t ready to stay there even for one second. I went out and stood outside the mosque.  It took Shahnaz half an hour to arrive.

The face and encounter of that guard didn’t go away from my mind. When Shahnaz came I told her what had happened. She looked at me surprised and said: May God have mercy! Sabbah who told you to go to the mosque?! Don’t you know that in this city it is bad that a woman walks into the mosque?!”

I was very surprised. I didn’t understand what she meant at all. What is possible?! What kind of a tradition was this?! I said: “Sister what are you saying? Do you feel well? What is wrong with that?” Shahnaz said: “Well, you have done something very sensitive. In this city it is bad that women go to church. And you have walked into all those men!”

A big crowd gathered in front of the mosque. The route that we had to pass to get to the graveyard was very long but it took about one hour. During the whole way, the guards and Basijis were patrolling around the crowd and made sure that none of the hypocrites attack the crowd.

The next day, Shahnaz took leave from school and we both returned to Tehran. When Shahnaz’s leave was over and I wanted to return to her, she didn’t allow me. She was still terrified of the event on the day we went to buy fabrics and said that she is worried for me. I talked to her a lot but she didn’t accept. I had no choice. I gave up and forgot about working in Sanandaj and a few days later returned to Abadan.

I was busy attending and helping injured during the whole winter of 1360 (1981) in Taleghani hospital. I worked with the rest of team members and personnel of the hospital. Prior to the martyrdom of Jahan Ara and based on his request, a group of around fifteen women from Khorramshahr army had been stationed in the hospital.

I just took a few days off during this period. Mohammad was the name of one of the members of Tehran army who had seen Ferdows in army and Ghasre Firoozeh and had found the address of our home. At that time Ferdows commuted to army voluntarily on behalf of martyr foundation in order to archive the documents of martyr foundation. When they came to ask Ferdows’s hand in marriage, I was in Tehran. Although it was not accustomed in our family to marry younger daughters as long as the elder ones hadn’t marry, but Mohammad was brother of a martyr and also had a noble and religious family. My father did a research about them and said that they are a good family. They set the dates and on the night of twenty second of second month of winter, their matrimony and wedding ceremony was held in a hotel in Tehran. Their new house was in Jeyhoun Avenue.

After Ferdows’s wedding, I returned to the hospital. The procedure of attending to the wounded continued in the hospital. Once in the hospital two army injured were brought in who had suffered minor quivers. When we went to them with a nurse, one of them told us the story of this incident. It was an interesting event. He said that along with six, seven comrades we were sitting in a trench that we saw a big and ugly mouse came into the trench and ran between us. We came out of the trench one by one and waited behind the trench for the mouse to come outside. As we were standing outside, a mortar bomb hit the middle of the trench. We had all seen the occult relief with our own eyes. That mouse had been appointed by God to get us out of the trench and prevent anything bad to happen to us. We were only hit by a few quivers.

Another time during the attack and counterattack in the region, a number of injured were brought into the emergency ward. Among the injured there were two who looked like black and dry charcoal. Their appearance was so strange and they had been burnt equally that I touched their skin unconsciously. One of them had been martyred and from the mouth of the other one, a noise such as constant whistling was being heard.  The body was as hard as a stone and had no resemblance to the human flesh. The martyred one was completely burnt and could not be identified; only the white teeth had been remained untouched.

His appearance was so unique that I wanted to touch the body to see how it feels like although in other occasions I was ultimately careful not to touch the skin of the injured. The strange thing was that despite his burns, the body hadn’t turned into dust and had kept its shape.

One of asked his friends about his martyrdom, they said that we were sitting in our trenches when the Iraqis started to fire. They were targeting the trenches one by one and fired. We knew that staying in that region was no use and had to leave there. We all came out of our trenches and outspreaded in the region. Only these two soldiers stayed in the trench. At the same time a cannon bullet hit the middle of our trench and these two became like this. Half an hour later the whistling noise was not being heard from the throat of the other one.

On the new year of 1982, Shahnaz and I were going to the graveyard of martyrs of Abadan. Shahnaz had come to Abadan one two days ago to be with me for New Year and Nowruz holidays. When we heard shots, we thought for a second that the fifth column has attacked the city but when we heard the voice of explosion of the cannon, we found out that the New Year has arrived. Shahnaz and I kissed each other’s face and congratulated the arrival of New Year. In the graveyard I remembered what we had done last time we were there.

Two three days had passed when we decided to go and visit Ms. Islami again. When Iran got the Bostan region and Sabele Bridge back in Fathol Mobin operation, we were in Mr. Islami’c house. As Mr. Islami explained, Fathol Mobin operation was a big and successful operation which had taken back lots of areas from the enemy. He also said that they had captured a lot of Iraqis as prisoners.

We stayed in Mr. Islami’s house for two nights and returned to Abadan. Shahnaz took train ticket for Tehran.

After Fathol Mobin operation until the beginning of first phase of Beytolmoghadas operation meaning tenth day of second month of spring, the situation in the hospital was very good. Everybody had high spirits. With the victory of Bostan and … Ray of hope had shined on our hearts for the victory of Khorramshahr, from Khorramshahr side especially from the bridge side, the enemy movements had increased. Sometimes it raided Abadan too; mostly around Taleghani hospital. The soldiers conveyed the news that Iraqis had done lots of defenses on the bridge side. It was not clear what they wanted to do.

To be continued …