The 280th Night of Reminiscence of Sacred Defense (Last Part)

The reminiscent of an international caricaturist

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by Fazel Shirzad

2017-6-19

The caricature of Saddam on dusty cars

Seyed Masoud Shojaee Tabatabaei, an international caricaturist chosen as the face of Islamic revelation art in Farvardin in 1396 (April 2017), was the second narrator of 280^th program of Night of Reminiscence of sacred defense.

He began to tell his memoirs as follows: "when a caricaturist intends to tell his/her memoirs, let us suppose what will be happened? The dear friend (Mohsen Zaimzadeh) told that some words about Nader Naderi; it is to say that I was lucky to work with him in advertising unit of military station and operation Khaibar. Martyr Naderi attended in Kurdistan for first time where he was attacked by the enemy. As he said, it was first time he heard the sound of martyr closely; he felt that the earth is shaken. When he abandoned for this situation, he was injured by a shoot; his leg was cut. He said:" I saw my leg, when it was injured and cut; I hardly got my foot and hugged it. After a while, when ambulance arrived there, I was put in it; my leg was left from my hands, I screamed:" My leg! My leg!" Someone said:" your leg is cut!" I answered:" no. bring it!" when they put my leg in the ambulance, my leg stuck in the door of car, because they were in a hurry; I shouted again:" My leg!" someone asked again:" what's happened once again?" I said: "my legs get stick in the door". When I was arrived in hospital, I was given an injection of blood;  I said: " a bad penny always come back; because I came in hospital yesterday, and I was given an injection of my blood today!" he made a mention that there wasn’t any tragic climate in the frontage of war; the fighters were often happy, and added:" the first night when I was with Fatemiyon’s fighters and shrine defenders, I got up at midnight and found the fighters and defenders were praying. I got a strange mood; I stood up and joined them. Here is in different about one hour a half to there. Tomorrow's night, I got up and I woke them up for Morning Prayer.

The comrades didn’t have good relations with the staffs of personal office, because they were formal and rigid. Once, one of the official of personal office came into our tent, and we had already coordinated together to be stood up immovably with a hand signal while he was speaking, and we would gotten back normal status with another hand signal to show a feedback on the official's rigid manner. Suppose! He was speaking, suddenly he found us standing up immovably. "

The narrator went on telling memoirs of sacred defense as follows:" in those days, Omidiyeh military station was so crowded inasmuch as there wasn’t enough space for some of comrades; some of us were sent to the near of Garrison Do Kuheh, and we sat up a tent there. In the morning, I found a river nearby where fishes are moving slowly in. I caught some of them with my hands easily. It brought me happiness and fried fishes poisoned the comrades; because the soldiers of garrison, who sat up tent in upper region, had washed their clothes in the river; therefore, the comrades were hospitalized for few days. All asked me that why the comrades were poisoned, but you weren't. 

In those days, I made a will was other friends, but as I was a caricaturist, I wore a will in different writing style. When I was ready my will for martyr Naderi, he laughed heartily for instance I wrote:" try in the way of effort…"

He added:" in operation Nasr 7, the fighters were going to attend in the border of Iraq, and some of them were to do operation through the border, finally join together and achieve success. The comrades had been waiting to begin operation. It was cloudy; the fighters were able to enter into border of enemy easily. We should pass next to Iraqi military station and walk for about 250 km; it means we should walk for a week. I caught cold and went to dispensary to be given an injection of B12 and B complex to continue the walking trip. Thanks for God! It was an effective treatment for my disease. We had some equipment burden on a mule. He arrived at a region near to Iraqi military station. Due to tiredness, I was walking with the tail of the mule in my hand. Suddenly, I saw that a mortar was passing through the leg of mule. It hit on ground several time and exploded over there."

In the path, there was a shallow river, but we came back, it was a deep one. In that special situation, we tried to run, and sometime fell on the ground. In a slope region, I rolled down the slope; suddenly I found the mule rolling behind me. Thanks for God, I realized soon and sidestepped me. If I didn’t realize, I could be martyred under mule's body, and it could be an unpleasant martyrdom.

Reza- a photographer and documentary filmmaker- was shell shocked by one of those explosions; he was in an unnatural state. By the time, he took a gun towards some Iraqi soldiers were with us. I changed the direction of the gun barrel toward me, and said him:" if are going to kill them, you should kill me first"; as a result, these words brought him back to himself.

Seyed Masoud Shojaee Tabatabaei went to say about those days when he attended in operation Karbala 5 as a photographer:" I asked the forces of operation's intelligence protection unit until to lead me some special region to take photo; these photos could be used for operation's intelligence protection unit, and recorded as a historical document. In those days, we used of film with 24 or 36 reels in which there were some reels named "gift". That day, I took 36 photos and tried to take more; I took about 40 photos. I was surprised. I checked reel of film and found it not fixed well; in fact, I didn’t take any photo, I said the comrades that my photographic work was over and you could come back, because they had help me a lot and I didn’t want to upset them. Later, I avoided them -the forces of intelligence protection- not to find me for time.

In this operation, I was seeking for a toilet. At last, I found a place, but I heard a sound after a while. One of comrades said me with an Isfahan accent: "Brother! Brother! You are sitting within my eyeshot and enemy’s."

After operation Badr, I interested a lot to stay in the region. When it was found that there wasn’t any position for me to stay, I was sent to preparation unit, and I was positioned as a conductress. I received two cigarettes there every day. In those days, I wasn’t a smoker. Dear driver insisted that cigar is good; after smoking a few cigarettes, I became a smoker gradually. When I came back Tehran, I arrived at my house's door, I was standing behind of door, my mother opened door suddenly. I put the cigar in my shirt's pocket in hurry. "Why is smoke coming out from my pocket?" it caused my mother to be aware of smoking. After this event, she went to my military station quickly and said to an authorities:" Do you make a station to train human lesson? Or, do you make a station to train smoking lesson?" evidently, the cigarette became forbidden and no body allowed to do it or have it.

While the photos of Masoud Shojaee Tabatabaei were being displayed, he told about them as follows:" Afghans and Palestinians also attended in the war, and today, Fatemiyon’s fighter, who are in Syria, are Afghans. They are lovely and sincere persons in so far as Hajj Qasem Soleimani told about them that I didn’t use them everywhere, I used at the crucial moments; there were able to attack resolutely and destroy enemy.

I drew caricature of Saddam on dusty car by my finger insofar as the comrades showed interest in my drawing; and they were standing in a line to watch it. In operation Karbala 1, one of the comrades asked me to take a memorable photo of him. I didn’t have enough film; that was why, I said him:" I’m sorry, the reels of film are being finished." I said him aimlessly: "I’m looking for an issue or a special event." He replied me:" do you want to take photo of me when I became martyr?" I felt incredibly a shamed of myself; I walked towards him and kissed him. He tied Keffiyeh[1] on top his head, and put Iraqi medal, as a spoil of war, on his beast; I took photo of him. When walked away with some stops, a mortar fell down near him; it made him martyr.

It is the photo of a teen aged 12 or 13, who went into frontage of war adamantly. When he attended in the war, a mortar fell into bulwark; his face was injured by quivers. I went near to help him, but I don’t know how I could take photo him. I heard a sound saying with strange felling: "sir!  I'm coming! "When I reached him, he fell on the ground. I called medics, but when they arrived here, he was martyred. When tried to lift him to carry to Meraj al-Shohada[2] he was no heavy as if angles help me to lift his body. After injured, the comrade usually showed themselves calm and tried to quieten themselves by reading Quran and prayer.

In the operation Karbala 7, while I was driving on a road, a mortar fell near a motorcyclist moving on the road. It caused him to fell motorcycle on the margin of the road. I went toward him. His body was injured by a lot of quivers. There was blood come out of his chest. I was trying to confuse him until medics came and transfer him to field hospital, but he requested me to read Quran to be repeated by him; so, I read Quran and he repeated it. He had been martyred before we arrived at the hospital.

In this part of Night of Reminiscence of sacred defense, a film about operation Bayt al-Maqdis which Seyed Masoud Shojaee attended in was shown. He explained about the film as follows:"

The fighters of battalion Komeil, like Fatemiyon’s fighters, was ready to attack everywhere, and repulsed the enemy and nobody could prevent them. We were also along with them. When we arrived at Basreh’s roads, we were command not to go forward more. Unfortunately, a tactical mistake was taken place there i.e. two division of Najaf and Karbala were blocked; as a result, our rear guard was too.

After this event, we came to force to go back, because provision force had not arrived there yet, and hot weather got the fighters into trouble; the most of them were martyred by reason of thirsty and sun stroke. In 1367, the Iraqi fighters felt that the Iranian staying power was being faded gradually; they decided to destroy us, but Iranian fighters slapped in the face of Iraqi forcefully; therefore, Iranian fighters, particularly battalion Komeil recaptured major regions from Iraqis. At last, we were going to slap in the face of Iraqis again, but it wasn’t occurred; we came to force to go back. In this film, the driver of personal carrier had bottle of water; the fighters used of water inasmuch as they could merely get a bit wet their mouths. There, I seemed healthier than other. But, when I came back, I stayed on the sickbed for same days."

Subsequently, a 15 minutes film, adapted from 50 minutes documentary of Sepah[3], was shown. This documentary, for first time was shown in the Night of Reminiscence of sacred defense.

The memoirs of Iraqi soldiers

Thymol Derdoosh was an Iraqi soldiers of Saddam’s army imposed war against Iran. He was third narrator of memoirs in the 280^th Night of Reminiscence of sacred defense. It was the first time for this program in which the memoirs of war were said by and Iraqi soldier. Mr. Ranjbar, as a translator, and Amin Ghadami, as director of documentary "Sepah", were on the scene at this night.

Amin Ghadami told some parts of memories of Thymol as follows:" the reason why Iraqi soldiers joined Iran's army was that they were along with iron with all their heart and they didn’t intent to fight against Iran. Even iraqi commanders sometimes commanded their fighters to be capitulated by Iranians."

Greeting to audience, Thymol asked them to look him (Iraqi soldier), who came to force to attend in the war, as blame, not an oppressive Amin Ghadami asked Thymol:" what was the situation of Khoramshahr on first day, when he came into the city? How many days after the occupation of Khoramshahr did you come in there? He replied:" in 1989(1359), Khoramshahr was captured by Iraqis, and they went out of Khoramshahr in 1982. I was in Khoramshahr in the last two months of the occupation of Khoramshahr. When I came into Khoramshahr I was stationed at a hospital near Karun River. Our commander, with the soldiers of battalion went for swimming every day. Someday, I asked my commander for shooting towards Iranian were across the river, because the resident people were getting away. The commander agreed, but I fired at them so that the resident people to be informed and made themselves escape. When the commander asked the weather you were able to kill someday or not, I replied:" yes, I saw myself that I killed all of them. I always assured the soldiers and comrades that Iranians wouldn’t fire at anybody unduly. For instance, if we wanted to use the water of Karun, Iranian fighter would never fire at us. With these words, it was rumored in the battalion that Iranians liked me; they wouldn’t fire at me."

During the war, I wanted to escape twice. One, I tried to escape towards the boarder of Iran, but, in the middle of way, I remembered my family whom Baath fighters would get them into serious trouble. I didn’t like attended in the war; One again, I wanted to make escape toward the boarder of Europe. I became able to receive a medical certificate to have problem in my stomach and eyes proven; this medical certificate caused me to be sent back from the frontage of war to behind.

I named Khoramshahr "bloody city", because it was like a dead city where there wasn’t my citizen. It had a negative impact on the morale of Iraqi soldiers."

Thymol Derdoosh went to say:" four cars with chemical weapons moved from Baghdad to Basra. It was going to have southern cities bombed. I was a guard of a place where the weapons should be kept in. drivers of the cars and I unloaded the weapons. We were commanded to send the weapons for the front line forces as soon as possible. The only work, I was able to do, was that I should suspend the drivers for some hours to send the weapon with a delay; so, Iranians would have more time. It caused the drivers to be arrested because of wrong doing and delaying to their duty.

When Iranian fighters increased the attack against us Iraqi soldiers were overcome by fear. A soldier, who attended in the war, was from England and getting a Ph.D.; he came into the war by the force of Saddam. He was always sad and crying. He said: "I love Imam Khomeini deeply and I'm not in hostility with Iran at all." At last, he was killed strangely by a bullet in his heart.

At the end, Amin Ghadami retold a memoir according Thymol’s words as follows:" Iraqi fighters robbed a lot of thing at home. I robbed just two thing: a necklace was made by pipe of serum and an anti-pain pomade for my father. When I gave pomade to my father, he angered and said:" have you no shame! Why do you bring pomade!? Take it and give it back. I felt shame a lot; I gave it back."(Few years after this event, he was martyred by Saddam’s organization of intelligence and national security).

Two hundred and eightieth programs of the Night of Reminiscence was held under efforts of Center for Cultural Research and Studies of culture and Literature stability, and office of Literature and Art of Resistance at Sureh hall of Art Center in the Thursday evening on 4  Khordad 1396 (2017-May-22). The next Night of Reminiscence will be held on Tir 1, 1396 (June 22, 2017).