Memoirs of Seyedeh Maryam Jalali about public aids to fronts
Higher than gold
Selected by Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan
2024-4-30
Receiving public aids to support the war was a priority for our work in the IRGC. We took advantage of every opportunity to attract public aids. At that time, the cost of accommodation for each combatant in the fronts was 20 thousand tomans and the salary of each IRGC member was 15 thousand tomans.
We tried to find different verses and hadiths from the Holy Qur'an, and to memorize and retell them for the people. With this approach, we started collecting and entered the operational phase.
We started to inspect the bases. Wherever we got to a base, we put a large tray in the middle of the yard so that people from all corners of the village could put their cash and non-cash gifts inside. At the same time, I saw a rich woman with a lot of gold and jewels hanging on to her and entered the yard and took ten tomans out of her pocket and put it in the tray.
I was surprised by the low amount of money the rich woman had considered to help the front. At the time, it wasn't significant, because some people even gave their necklaces and rings to the front even with middle incomes, and we even knew the wife of a martyr who had given her wedding ring, which is important and valuable for the wedding, to help the fronts.
I struggled a lot with myself to discuss the issue with her, but I couldn't. Finally, I made up my mind and, out of public view, shared the story with her. She replied: "As a matter of fact, my husband was not happy to help the fronts at all, and whatever I begged him to give me some money to help the fronts, he was not satisfied until I offered him at least to allow me to go to the mosque on foot every day and save it in exchange for the rent I have to pay to the taxi driver to help the fronts. When I came to the mosque, I managed to save 10 Tomans for myself, and now the result is 10 Tomans that I brought for you."
I was ashamed of the answer I heard and said to myself, the value of what this lady did is not less than the value of someone who donated her gold and jewelry to the fronts; maybe it is more.[1]
[1] Source: The Fifth Festival of Memory-Writing of the General Office of the Preservation of Works and Dissemination of Sacred Defense Values in Mazandaran Province, Memoirs of Women of Mazandaran about the Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense (1342-1367), Sari, Sarv-e Sorkh-e Bonyad Publications, V. 1, Summer 1369, P. 201.
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