An interview with Maryam Jadali, a relief worker and a military training instructor during the Sacred Defense – the 2nd and final part

From western front to Khark Island

Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2017-5-22

Note: In the first part of the interview, we accompanied with the first years of Maryam Jadali’s youth which was concurrent with the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the breakout of the Iraqi imposed war against Iran. She explained about her memories in Sar Pol-e Zahab, the hospital of Abouzar Barracks and the Red Crescent train which was a mobile hospital. What follows is the second and final part of the interview of the website of Iranian Oral History with Maryam Jadali.

*Had your trips to the war fronts been established for your family and relatives?

* I had attracted the trust of my parents. They had witnessed that our motivation was the revolution in all of the rallies we took part, and that we had no other mentality. But this was not the case for some members of my relatives. I remember that one day, one of my relatives saw me near my house and said with sadness, “Why do you go to the front? It is not a place for women!” I replied, “Yes, its necessity is felt. If it is not, we were not informed that the train is going to the south.”

*Did you do anything for the war-stricken people who had seen in Mahshahr after returning to Tehran?

*No, I couldn’t. But we supplied food and clothes for a number of other war-stricken families who had been accommodated in a neighborhood in Tehran. We collected and packed the clothes and took them for these families with one of my friends named Farzaneh Sharif who had a religious and benevolent family. Some of them expressed discomfort over the things we had taken for them and liked to give them exactly whatever we had given to others.

Some other things were also done in the house of the older sister of martyr Fayaz Bakhsh. The house’s basement had been allocated for this. Clothes, shoes and other necessary things were collected there. The clothes were washed and packed, but we are not responsible for their distribution.

*How long did you cooperate with the Red Crescent?

Apart from the first and second time which I was dispatched by the Red Crescent, in the next trips, I went to the front on behalf of Jihad Sazandegi (the holy war of construction). However, a few changes were made in my plans. In 1980, a medical relief working center which was located behind the office of prime minister in Tehran’s Pastor Square was looking after trusted relief workers for the night shift. The building of the medical center was located in a palace of the prince of the second Pahlavi. Those patients who could not be cured in the deprived areas were taken here. They were taken to the hospitals for treatment in the morning and then returned to the center again. I and Tahmineh were working in this center. We worked there every other night. I transferred medical problems to doctors inside the hospital. Few patients had been hospitalized but they were dependent on us. They needed social workers and companions in conversation more than anything else.  After a while, some injured people were taken to male section but we did not go there.

*From which areas were the patients taken more?

*From across the deprived areas of the country. Wherever the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation felt that they were not able to pay the cost of their treatment, it transferred them to Tehran. Sometimes, I brought some of them to my house and my mother took care of them. One of the girls who had come from a village had no Manto (a kind of Iranian dress for women). I took her to Tajrish Square and bought one for her. I was very sensitive in taking care of the patients. The medical center had two separate wards for men and women. The families of the patients, who had come from different villages, had trusted the name of Jihad and sent their daughters. And this trust should not be undermined. Thus we were very careful.

Misters Pour Nejati and Tayeb Nia who were in the headquarters of jihad sazandegi and had found enough recognition toward me, proposed me to take charge of the training of the Committee of Health and Treatment. There, I reviewed the sanitary problems of the deprived areas, writing training pamphlets related to villages so that it was used by those who were dispatched.

*So, you did not go to the front anymore?

*Yes. I and Tahmineh went to the western front in October 1982, but it did not take too much. One day, I was called and said, "We want to tell something to Mrs. Jadali." When I went, they said, "You have to come back to Tehran." I said, "Why? We have just come here!" They said, "You have to come back. You are needed there." I had become worried. My mind went toward my brother. I said Amir might have been martyred and they do not want to tell me something.  They said, "You go to the house of the governor." I had become familiar with the wife of the governor. She did not know we were aware of nothing and asked offhand, "The brother of which of you has been martyred?" Both I and Tahmineh were crying and said, "Certainly, my brother has been martyred!" Finally, we found out that Ahmad, Tahmineh's brother had been martyred.  We came back to Tehran by a Chinook helicopter which was full of injured soldiers.  In Tehran, we became sure that the brother of Tahmineh had been martyred. Tahmineh's house was located in Nobahar Alley in Qolhak and we had to go up on foot a little. She did not have the power to walk. When we entered her house, it was very crowded and Tahmaineh was crying a lot, but he mother was very calm. Although she was not an educated woman, told Tahmineh calmly, "what are you doing? Why are crying? God has promised us!"

*I like to ask you a question; when we read or hear the memoirs of many women, we find out that they were involved in the war somehow. I mean their town or nearby towns were attacked by the enemy, and they rushed to help. Why did you insist on taking part in the war fronts since the very beginning of the war?

*This was not created suddenly and through hearing the sound of the war march. The motivation dated back to the beginning of the revolution. We were worried that the revolution which bore fruit with much difficulty was ruined. We wanted to safeguard the revolution and its achievements. We had seen how the pro-shah army forces opened fire on the people in during the revolution. We had come many times in front of Tehran University to take part in the demonstrations. The army forces attacked the people and we run in the alleys. The environment had changed and we had a joint experience somehow. There, they opened fire on us and here, the enemy threw bombs and mortars on people. Not only me but a lot more were dragged into the war for the sake of the revolution.

*You were in welfare in your personal life. How did you tolerate the conditions in the war zone?

*My mother had come from a charitable family. They helped the needy. I had learnt from my mother to help others. She was a sociable and beloved woman before her family and husband. She was the only daughter of her family, but had learnt how to serve her fellowmen. My mother went to the deprived neighborhoods and helped the needy. She took me with herself. A deprived family whose father had died was living in Zargandeh neighborhood in a very small house. The family's mother was young and had nine children. She wanted to marry again. Until the last child of the family grew up, my mother brought food for them. But all the mothers are not like this. During the war, I myself went to the house of a family whose father had died and learnt them how to recite the holy Quran. Since I had done such things, so the difficulty of activities in the front was not noticeable for me. Meanwhile, there were two kinds of views at that time; one I think of myself and the future and the other think of myself and the people beside whom I was living. Maybe, no great work is achieved but it is relaxing and beautiful. I was far from my mother and father during the best period of my life and made them worry, abandoning the pleasure provided for me. Some said you enjoyed this way! No! it makes  a huge difference between the pleasure that you sleep and hear the sound of bombardment and mortars or you are in your house and hear the sound of the birds. In fact, you are free to choose. The criteria of appearance, wealth, fame and education and so on should be changed.

*Until what year did you continue to go to the fronts?

*I continued to go to the fronts until 1983 when I married.

*You mean your husband prevented you?

*No, my husband was of my opinion and companion. He worked in a medical relief working center. He asked for my hand due to her sister. Of course, different people had been asked for my hand during these years, but I did not think of it. We had come to serve the injured.

The proposal ceremony was held as per the custom. In the last meeting I had with my husband, I told him candidly that I have accompanied the revolution since its inception and that I like to use what I have learnt during the war. I felt that he became ecstatic and said, "I also would like to serve and you have no problem." His only condition was that I should not go to the frontline. He had yet to receive the positive answer that told me, "If we marry, I would like our wedding vows to be recited by Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul)." I asked, "How?" He said, "At any rate, it is possible to go to him to recite our wedding vows." I did not think of nothing but the recitation of the wedding vows by Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul).

They made an appointment from the Imam and visited him. First, our parents were supposed to take part in the ceremony, but later our number increased to nine and our sisters and brother also took part in the ceremony. We were controlled in front of the door of Imam's house. My friends had given many volumes of the holy Quran to be signed by the Imam. We went up the path and I had a lot of anxiety. When we reached there, the Imam (God bless his soul) became my proxy and a man the proxy of my husband. Then, we were allowed to go forward and kiss the Imam's hand from over his cloak. I had the Quran books in my hands to give him to sign. But at that moment, I just liked to look at his face. When I came forward, I could not look at him but asked him to give an advice to us. He said, "I hope you be successful and corroborator and have forbearance." The Imam's sentence was very sweet for me and helped me most of the times.

A simple ceremony for our marriage was held in our house. I even chose a simple golden necklace. It was so simple that my sister pointed at me what kind of thing this is that you have chosen. Whatever they told me to take a golden jewelry service, I said, "I do not need any jewelry service. I want to go to the front! I cannot use them".  The sister of my husband said, "You pick up and go also to the front." Finally, I picked a necklace with an ordinary ring. My mother sewed my bride dress which was very beautiful. I chose a milky color for the dress. Two or three of the close relatives of my husband have been martyred and they were supposed to take part in our wedding ceremony.

All the girls of my relatives married with special conditions and as per the statue of their families. They held wedding ceremony in luxury halls and had independent houses. Although they were from religious families, the wedding ceremonies were held according to the dignity of their families.

At any rate, one day after marriage, my husband came to my house with an empty cartridge inside which was a few branches of rose. He said, "I want to go to the front tomorrow." And he went. Everybody asked me why I allowed him to leave? What if he is martyred? Everybody criticized me why I allowed him to go. I answered we had talked to each other in this regard and we agreed that none of us prevented the other one for going to the front.

Second in right and sitted in white is Maryam Jalali

*He fulfilled his promise and you left for the front again?

*Yes, during our contract period, I went to the western front one more time. It was a hard and saddening trip.  This time, we were deployed in Imam Khomeini Hospital. The people had evacuated the city and sheltered in the mountains due to the intensification of the enemy's attacks. The hospital was full of injured people. Around the hospital was attacked several times. The injuring and martyrdom of indigenous people was harder than the military forces for me.

This time, Tahmineh had come as a reporter and an assistant physician. He had to provide reports. Thus, we also went to see the hospital's morgue. I saw a woman in the morgue whose one of his legs had been amputated.  Whenever I remember the scene, I feel bad. Of course, there was no fridge and a place had been allocated for keeping the martyrs. We were very busy and had become tired.

One night, the explosions were so much that we had to transfer the injured to the basement of the hospital which was very dusty and cold. We lifted the trolleys, kept the serums in our hands and transferred them to the basement which was safer. That night, I and Tahmineh saw the light of the anti-aircraft cannons out of the windows of a small room in the basement.  

*Were all the injured from military forces?

*No, one day earlier, Iraq had bombarded several areas and the native people had also been brought. We went to Kermanshah and were taken immediately to Abouzar Barracks with a driver who I think was eight years old. The driver stopped on our way and camouflaged the vehicle with the help of several soldiers. The man was supposed to take us to the frontline till Tahmineh prepared a report. The driver lost its way and we arrived at a path named Changooleh. The Iraqis had counterattacked.  We were in the middle of bombardments both by Iraqi and Iranian forces. We were very worried not be captured. We were not supposed to reach there at night. We were supposed to have a report and then came back. I continuously said, "My husband was not satisfied that I went to the frontline! What if we are captured?" I always said I liked my body to be destroyed completely rather than falling into the hands of the Iraqis.

The driver took us to the IRGC headquarters. After saying prayer and having dinner, we went back to the ambulance. We told the driver to lock the door and leave. It was very cold. We had taken the hands of each other. The ambulance was shaking as a result of the sound of artillery. We willed to each other. We had an appointment that if survived till the next morning, we would ask the driver to return us to the back. But the next morning, the driver went forward so much that we saw two combatants had taken two Iraqis as captives. The driver asked one of them, "From where have you captured them?" They said, "They had come near the river to wash their hands and faces." We became more panicked. Tahmineh noted these cases very fast in order to reflect when coming back. Of course, I and Tahmineh used to write the memoirs since the very beginning of the war. I remember a trip when we were going to Mahshahr by a train. The train was attacked and we came out of it. When we came back, saw that our things had been inspected. Our diaries did not exist. We became angry and objected to two members of the revolutionary committees who guarded the train. They said, "Yes, we took the diaries. The train had been recognized and attacked." They were right at that sensitive situation. The writing of memoirs with full details that where were now and where we were going, was not correct. There were two girls and a boy in the train who had worn the dress of the MKO terrorist outfit. They guessed this had been revealed by them but I don't remember whether they followed up or not.

*In view of the fact that you were in the western front, and antirevolutionary forces were active in this front, did you see any member of such grouplets among the injured and captives?

*No, we saw nothing. I had just heard about them, but it was said that the Iraqis had fifth column among our forces and someone had disclosed the area and they had managed to come closer to us.

*Do you have any memory from your last trip to the front?

*A dorm had been considered for us to take a rest. It was located in a kindergarten in the city of Ilam which was close to the hospital. Bombs had been hit around the kindergarten. One day, they told me, "Sister Jadali, come down, someone wants to talk to you!" I was surprised. I did not know who wanted to see me. When I came down I saw that my husband had come to see. I was very surprised. I had talked to him who was in the south via phone one day earlier. He had told me nothing about this. I told my husband, "What are you doing here?" He said, "The Iraqi radio has announced this morning that the city of Ilam would be attacked today at 3 PM. I had come here that if we are supposed to be martyred, let's be martyred together." It was very strange for me how he had been able to reach himself here. He told me, "Let's come together to have lunch." I said, "No place is open in the city to have lunch." He said, "What have done for food during this time?" I said, "Nothing, we eat something in the hospital." He said, "Let's go, we find somewhere."

We went to the downtown. A shop which had rice and fish for eating was open. Except us, a few soldiers were also present there. Since there was no place to have a seat, we ate the food standing. All of the shops had been closed and just a few shops which sold dates were open. A bookselling shop was also open from which I bought a small holy Quran and indorsed it for my husband. I wrote, "I dedicate it to my husband. Hoping to read it, to know and to act." I wrote my name and signed and gave it to him as a gift so that if I was martyred, he had a memento from me.

*Did you go to the front again after this trip?

*No, I didn't go to the front after marriage, but I was active in other ways. My husband was a student in Shiraz. After marriage we went there together. I was the employee of jihad Sazandegi at that time and got the permission to be transferred from Tehran to Shiraz. I entered the Health and Treatment committee. The training department of the committee proposed me to take charge of the committee, but I did not accept. I said if I take charge of the committee, I must do executive works.

Of course, one time when we had just married, had been to Shiraz. I along with my husband and two of Jihad officials went to some of the villages in the area, reviewing their problems. For example, the people of a deprived village were suffering from a skin disease. After inspecting different sections, I found out that the water was polluted. The people drank from the same water they used for washing the clothes and livestock. If I had not seen this, I could not find the problem. This caused me to write a pamphlet about the polluted water, and got several copies form it. I also should point that the Committee of Health and Treatment of Shiraz was very dirty. The color of the ceramics and tiles were not clear. I shut down the committee for one day. I and one of my friends washed there with detergents. The representatives of the villages commuted there. The next day, the committee was worth seeing. When the officials themselves did not observe sanitary cases, how should we expect the villagers do this and agree with them about observing the sanitary cases?

I was working in the Jihad since my gestation and then came out of it. My husband took his exams and went to the front. I came back to Tehran before my family. Our house in Shiraz had turned into a base for the front and war. We had set up Quran classes for local women. The class was very crowded. While teaching Quran, we talked about the memoirs and conditions in the front. We collected necessary things like medicines and clothes for the front and in fact a good fondness and interest had been created among us.

*How long were in Shiraz?

*We were in Shiraz for three years and then returned to Tehran. After a short while, my husband went to Khark Island. He was supposed to stay there for a while. The island was considered a war zone. After a while, I told my husband, “I come with you.”   He said, “It is a war zone there!”  I said, “I know. Don’t the native people live there?” He said, “Most of them have abandoned.” Nevertheless, my husband became very glad, arranging our trip to the Island. It was in my mind that I teach military training and first aids to the island’s people.

The island had divided into two parts before the revolution. The Americans resided in one part and the native people in another one. The two parts had separated with wired nets. The houses of the part where the Americans were living were made of wood. The section we were living belonged to the Oil Company. Most surrounding houses were empty. We were living in one of these houses. The appearance of the house was very beautiful but we had spread blankets on the floor.

A column of siren had been installed beside each house and was played from the loudspeakers with a loud voice.

The WC was located out of building. The very first day, I went to the yard for ablution. My husband came with me. A few minutes later, the sound of sirens were heard. My son woke up frighteningly. It was a bad day. Iraq had targeted an oil tanker and two oil platforms. I thought there were such conditions in the island every day. Then, we were recommended to go to bastions in the island if such situation happened.

I was glad that I knew how to work with a gun, and if the Iraqis attacked the island, I could defend myself and my country. One day, the sound of sirens was heard. The shelter was far from us. I was doing something. With a little delay, we moved toward there. I saw the Iraqi Mig jetfighters were flying in low altitude. We were still far from the shelter. I put down my son Ruhollah on the ground quickly and guarded myself in order to protect him. After the jetfighters went away, I reached myself to the shelter.

*Did you hold first aids and military training classes?

*Yes. I became familiar with a woman who had already held Quran classes in the Island. She took the responsibility of enrolling from women. The class was largely welcomed. Many women from different ages took part in the class. We provided real guns through one of the men. I instructed them how to work with M1 and G3 guns. Our relation with the people of the island had become very good.

*Were the island’s facilities good for living?

*Seventy percent of the people had abandoned the island. There were no facilities such as meat, vegetables and fruits. Sometimes, the ships brought fruits, or else, either there was no fruit, or if there was, it was very expensive. Our food was supplied by the army which was very chilly. We had to live with creativity. For example, for the birthday of our son, I everted a carton, took a beautiful pillowcase on it and then put a coral - which had been brought by my husband from the sea – on it. Then, I placed a cake cooked by myself and celebrated his birthday. I and his father wore an army dress and took several photos.

*What did the native families who had not abandoned the island do?

*Those who had stayed in the island was due to the situation of their husbands. The husband of one of them had a bakery, the other a grocery; but those who had state jobs had abandoned the island. The people who had remained had no relative outside their island. Most of them had gone to the city of Bushehr, the closet city to their residence. When the families residing in the city saw that someone was coming there from outside the island, became very glad. There were no confectionary, greengrocery or fruit shops. They themselves had planted vegetables in their gardens. We were there for one year and then came back to Tehran. After a short while, the UN Resolution 598 was accepted and the war came to an end.

*Thanks a lot for giving us your time in the interview with Iranian Oral History website