Part of memoirs of Masoumeh Rasouli about sacred defense supporting
Selected by Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan
2024-3-18
The first martyr of village
When we were informed of his martyrdom, we wanted to do what we could. The town of Mallard did not have a flower shop. It came to my mind to make a flower basket ourselves. Since my mother had lived in Tehran in the past, she knew how to make flowers and had the equipment.
We gathered at my mother's house with the guys of the group. We used to put the wooden handles for making flowers on the heater and wait for them to get hot and ready to style. We applied gelatin on the satin fabric and waited for it to set. Then my mother drew the shape of a tulip flower on it and shaped it with special materials and made flowers one by one.
That day, we worked from morning to evening until we managed to make a beautiful tulip basket.
We were holding the flower basket and getting ready to go to the house of the martyr, which suddenly I remembered the first years of the revolution came:
It was the year 1358 (1980) and the war had not started yet. At that time, the eldest son, who later became my brother-in-law, had turned a part of their house into a club.[1] They said that we were going to perform a play; that's why we gathered at Fatemeh Sultan's house.
The name of the play was "Fighting"[2]. The end of the paly was like this: Ali Asghar Shafiei, who played the role of a martyr, was shot and fell on the ground. And we started crying.
It passed until the issue of war became more serious.
Now Ali Asghar Shafiei had gone to the front and this time he really became the first martyr of the town of Mallard![3]
When we arrived, we entered the martyr's house with a song and presented the bouquet to the martyr's mother.
Source: Tavakkoli, Leshgajani, Narjes, Research and interview, Rahimi, Mohammad Mahdi, We Also Fought, Mallard women's narrative of supporting the Sacred Defense, Rah-e Yar Publications, Vol. 1, 1401 (2023), pp. 143-144.
[1] To find out about how this cultural and martial club was formed and operated, refer to the book "The Cultivators of Towhid", written by Zainab Khazaei, which was published by Asr-e Sadegh Publications in 1396 (2017). There is also information about this in the caption of this book.
[2] The play "Fighting" directed by Seyed Mohammad Rafiq was performed during the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations in 1359 (1981). The theme of this play was about SAVAK and the fight against the Pahlavi regime. Martyr Ali Asghar Shafiei, Martyr Akbar Tahani, Martyr Seyed Hossein Rafiei and Hossein Shabanpour were actors of the play.
[3] What the narrator means by the first martyr, is the first Basiji martyr of the sacred defense. He was martyred on 30th of Tir 1360 (July 21, 1981). Before this noble martyr, Seyyed Hasan Aghili, who was the commander of the Basij and responsible for the security of Mallard, was martyred while performing his mission, and after that, Martyr Mosayebzadeh was martyred in the front and was buried on 7th of Aban, 1359 (October 29 ,1980) in the cemetery of Mallard.
Number of Visits: 2235
The latest
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 6
- Memories of Farshid Eskandari
- Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 28
- An Interview with Members of an Iraqi Mawkib Present at the Gatherings in Tehran
- Memoirs of Manizheh Lashkari
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 5
- 100 Questions/27
Most visited
- 100 Questions/26
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 5
- 100 Questions/27
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 27
- Memoirs of Manizheh Lashkari
- An Interview with Members of an Iraqi Mawkib Present at the Gatherings in Tehran
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 28
- Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
The Editor's Missing Place on the “Deck”
The book From Deck to Heaven offers a relatively fresh approach to examining the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Navy (AJA) during the eight years of the Sacred Defense, published under the “Oral History of the Islamic Revolution” series. To compile this book, the esteemed author has utilized documentary research (referring to relevant archival centers and selecting documents) and field research ...An Exceptional Haft‑Seen Table
I wanted to celebrate the new year with my family. Together with two relief workers I boarded buses designated for transporting the wounded to Choubideh and received our mission orders. We waited for a helicopter to take us to Bandar Imam Khomeini. I was stationed near the helicopter’s touchdown zone and was slight in build. As the helicopter was about to land, I could not steady myself; the breeze generated by the rotor blades lifted me off the ground.Spring under the shadow of war
Composing the Spring special for the new year in the past years was mostly along with hope, nature’s rebirth and the promise of renewal of life. Spring has always been a reminder for returning of life and peace after the Winters’ cold. This year though, another atmosphere has settled over our land in the last days of Esfand (March).Excerpt from the Memoirs of Mohammad-Hadi Ardebilli
I registered for Konkour (university entrance exam), following the conclusion of high school. I was accepted into Tehran’s polytechnic (Amirkabir) university and began to study chemical and petrochemical engineering. There was a building named Jordan in the faculty in which religious students had prepared a small room as a house of prayer and did the noon and afternoon prayers in there.
