The 349th Night of Memoir

Blood Sharer

Compiled by: Leila Rostami
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2024-4-25

Note: The 349th Night of Memoir was held on Thursday, August 24, 2023 in the Surah Hall of the Islamic Revolution Arts Center with the title “Blood Sharer”[1]. In this program, Alireza Rajabi Jafari, Aref Jafari and the defender of the shrine, Seyyed Musafir gave their memories. Davood Salehi was in charge of performing this night of memory.

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The first narrator was Alireza Rajabi Jafari, born in 1961 and from Tabriz. He was one of the fighters of the Holy Defense and is now one of the activists in the field of culture and resistance. At first, he called himself "Khudam al-Shohda" [servant of martyrs] and said: one who was also a servant, went to one person. He introduces himself and says: "Sir! I buried two thousand martyrs with my own hands." He also added: "We have a person who was in charge of it." (Audience laughter).

He said about the time he started his work: I was sitting in the office; A person came from one of the mosques and said: "We need help to bury a martyr, will you help us?" I said: "Sir! In the name of God, I am a servant for whatever comes our way." He said: "We talked to someone before you. He said, "We don't do anything for the Afghan martyrs." I said: "I serve for the families of Afghan, Iranian, Pakistani, American martyrs and anyone who is named a martyr." That martyr was none other than "Yar Mohammad Mardani" whose grave is in paradise of Hazrat Zahra (PBUH) cemetery. Getting to know this martyr and his family made me fall in love with all the veterans and fighters of the Afghan Fatemiyoun. That familiarity and connection caused the scope of our activities with the families of Fatemiyoun martyrs. 171 martyrs of Fatemiyoun are buried in paradise of Hazrat Zahra (PBUH) cemetery. We placed a memorial stone for the grave of 16 immortals in the same cemetery. The supreme leader of the revolution said: "I am proud of you, the family of martyrs of Fatemiyoun."[2] This caused our duty to multiply.

Some examples of our work are: Once a month, we invite the families of Fatemiyoun martyrs, both those whose graves are in the paradise of Hazrat Zahra (PBUH) and those who are around Tehran, and celebrate the anniversary. We also have birthdays for the martyrs of that month and the children of the martyrs. Recently, Martyr's father said to me: "Why don't you celebrate our birthday?!" I said: "Sir! We celebrate your birthday too." their big problems should be solved by other people; But as far as we can, we consider it our duty to take the burden off the shoulders of the families of the martyrs, veterans and fighters of Fatemiyoun.

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The second narrator of Night of Memoir was Aref Jafari, a poet and singer born in Afghanistan in 1973.

At the beginning of his memoirs, he said: The life of immigration is full of memories. It was the 1980s, aid cars to the front came to the city and announced with loudspeakers. We saw these every day. My father and uncle were shoemakers. They lived with the same income they had. Every day, they used a part of their income to help the front. My father even brings his bill home. Finally, the number of bills increased. One day I said: "Dad! What else do you want these for?!" The father said in a very serious tone: "When I die, put the bills in my grave." My father's belief in war, front and holy defense was very interesting.

He further said: I have three older brothers and many cousins. Suddenly, two of my brothers and several of my cousins disappeared! After a month of inquiry, we found out that they went to Sosangerd without registering to help in the front. After a while, they were told: "You should finally write names." They fired them.

At the end of his speech, the narrator said: "Afghan Literature House has been holding weekly meetings to review poems and stories of young Afghans in the field of literature for a long time. He has been active there by performing festivals such as "Persian Sugar" and "Empathy Narrative", in which the late Sarvar Rajaei emphasized the blood-sharing and empathy between the Afghan and Iranian co-speakers.

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The third narrator of the Night of Memoir was one of the defenders of the shrine and fighters of Fatemiyoun, Seyyed Musafir. He said: The misunderstanding is that we give lines to people in narrations, which I think is wrong. If we are honest and tell the memory of the martyrs correctly and accurately, the martyrs will give us the lines. Today's society is also very intelligent and aware and there is no need for our interpretation.

Our Iranian and Afghan friends, who were not aware of the conditions of the defenders of the Haram, called us "defenders of Bashar"[3]. They could not understand us and said that some thugs gathered and went to Syria. They used to tell us these jokes all the time. Some still say so. In short, we were talking to them very easily in response that this was not the case.

I saw the same thing among the defenders of the shrine. It was a street that the comrades had to protect. ISIS and al-Nusra came at night. One night, a great martyr that I do not remember his name, who was also a critic and a very good guy, asked me in the Sheikh Hilal region of Syria between Aleppo and Homs: "Sir, who are we fighting for?!" I said: "With ISIS." He said: "Okay, ISIS is justified. But Nusra are Syrian people. How do you justify these?!" I said: "Look, brother! If this is my father's side and this is my brother's side, it makes no difference to me when they insult the Imams) PBUH) and oppress children and do not respect humanity, and I will stand against it." When I said this, he was shocked and said: "Have you seen the children's heads being cut off in their movies?" I said, "Yes, you've seen his film, but I've seen him." After these talks, he started to defend Fatemiyoun and eventually became a martyr and rested in the 50th section of zahra (PBUH) cemetery.

After Syria, we were guests in a place where no one knew that I was in the Fatemiyoun army. One person in this crowd was shouting at the defenders of the shrine and saying that the Fatemiyoun army are all thugs. They have no religion; All of them are drug addicts and...after a few minutes I said to him: "Does that mean they are all thugs?!" he said:" "Yes," I said: "Are they addicted?!" he said "Yes,". I said: "Let it be between us, I am one of those thugs who go to Syria." He said: "If you are among them, then everything they say is a lie." "Why?" I said. He said: "Because I know you well." I gave him a friendly look and said, "You're welcome."

Another memory of Seyyed Musafir was about martyred veteran Seyed Mohammad Hosseini. He was known as "Martyr of Heshmat". He used to do strange things in Syria. Martyr Mohammad Hamidi was his comrade. Hamidi said: "Hosseini was a brave and fearless being." He was so energetic that he gave us energy. I was with them in an operation. On the night of reconnaissance, we were shot at from the top floor of a three-story building with mattresses. We reached under the building. The Iranian commander called Abu Zainab where are you? The conversation was in Turkish. Mohammad Hosseini said: "I have come to the members of Fatemiyoun." The commander said: "Finally, I have to collect your body from the front line." One leg of Mohammad Hosseini was trapped on a mine and was cut off. When I went to visit, he was very upset. He used to say: "I ran all this time for Hazrat Zainab (PBUH) and made efforts; Finally, I fortunately lost one of my legs in the way of God."

I always wanted to see martyrs Chamran, Hemmat, Kazemi and Ahmed Metouslian, and I used to say, will there ever be a time when I will see them again?! I went to Syria and saw the persons like of Chamran, Bakri and Hammat.

The narrator said about the patience of one of the martyrs who defended the shrine: We were 20 meters away from Seyyed Mohammad Amin Hosseini or "Martyr Aqeel". The arrow hit his throat and he was isolated. "Passenger, Passenger..., Aqeel..., Passenger, help." My body trembled because he was a great fighter. We were 100% in the crosshairs of the enemy. He radioed again: "O Passenger, Passenger..., Ageel..., Passenger!" An arrow to the side, an arrow to the throat and an arrow to the leg, help me." The enemy didn't shoot anymore, because he was waiting for us to go to help, so that he could shoot the comrades. There was no sound from Ageel for a while. I said to him: "dear Ageel! wait." I couldn't do anything and I was out of breath. His voice did not come for a few moments. After a few moments, I heard him say: "O Zahra... O Zahra... O Zahra...!" He slowly raises his voice. I was near the wall. I slowly leaned against the wall and started crying. The comrades said what happened?! I said: "I think his mother came to him."

The last memory of Sayyid Musafir was a memory of martyr Reza Esmaili, who narrated it from the words of martyr Sayyed Hakim. He went to help the defender of ISIS prisoners, but he himself was captured. There was no news of Reza until the evening. We announced that everyone should be silent on the radio so that if Reza is injured or asks for help, we will go to his aid. We were waiting until after evening prayer when suddenly I saw Reza's code dropped on the network. Everyone was silent, but the sound of laughter and Arabic speaking came from the wireless. The wireless was activated again and someone said in Arabic: "Curse Ali and Fatima!" We all begged with our eyes that if Reza said such a thing, we should bury it here and not tell it anywhere. A little later Reza's voice came, he said: "O Ali! Oh Ali! Ali” then we heard the sound of his throat being cut.

His wife was pregnant. When they told him that his child was born, what would you name him? He said: "Three dots" and these three dots became his name "Abu Se-Dots". He was waiting for the birth of his child; but he did not mention the name of Imam Ali (PBUH).

This passenger spoke about being follower of imam, being insightful and self-sacrificing defender, and addressing the mothers of martyrs, he continued: The first third of our duty is to go to the front, the second third of our duty is to be patient in the face of the martyrdom of our children and loved ones, and the third is to continue the path of martyrs.