Da (Mother) 55

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

She approached me with a look of apprehension on her face. She probably doubted she could do such a thing. Finally politeness overcame her reluctance, and she wrapped her chador around her waist. She bent down and took Shahnaz by the legs. I tried to lift her by the shoulders, but that was impossible. I was forced to take her arms. I looked at Mrs.Vatankhah and signaled to her that we should lift the body together. But her arms were trembling. “Scared?” I asked.

Da (Mother) 54

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

I looked around and noticed two piles of sand by the yard. I walked to them and rubbed my hands with sand. Then I wiped them off on the earth in the yard. Abdollah followed suit but used more force than I did in trying to rub his hands clean. I got the bloodstains off, but I was not satisfied with my efforts. So I went back to the mill and wiped my hands on the bricks;

Da (Mother) 53

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Hoseyn went back, and Abdollah and I went off. As we walked, I noticed how the Iraqi shells would hit one spot, then hit another spot further along the road. No matter how far we advanced, we could not get ahead of it. We could tell where their shells were landing from the smoke, fire, and the earth that flew into the air. First, they hit Amir Kabir Avenue, then they moved on to the Forty-Meter Road.

Da (Mother) 52

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

She looked at them in surprise. “Mansur brought them,” I explained. She offered me a piece but I pushed it aside. The lump in my throat was almost big enough now to strangle me. Leila was also in a bad mood. I guessed that seeing mother and the children had brought her down. She did not let on, but I could tell what was going on inside her. A few times when I tried to speak to her, there were tears in her eyes.

Da (Mother) 51

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Although I knew going there would do no good, I said nothing. I stood outside the door while Zeynab went to find Parvizpur. After a few minutes they emerged from the building. I said hello and got into the car with Zeynab. We were all silent as we drove to the mosque. Once inside we immediately saw Soleymani, Dr. Sheybani, Farrokhi, and two others. They were all standing in the yard under a small cupola talking.

Da (Mother) 50

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

The girls and I were in the process of straightening out the yard by bringing sacks of clothes and cartons of food into the prayer room. We first separated out the food, then we opened the sacks. We had been told to find all the clothing that would be of use by the defense forces, whose clothes would get blood-stained and torn during the fighting. Mens clothing was hard to find, and we waded through the piles to find the odd scrap.

Da (Mother) 49

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Early the next morning I saw Mr. Najjar washing his hands with a white liquid after each time he bandaged someone. He would also wash the blood from the floor and apply the same white liquid to the spill. Curious, I asked him about it. “This is Dettol, a powerful disinfectant,” he said. Then he went on to tell the girls and me about drugs, their effects and uses in medicine. He also told us about his experiences working in the hospital.

Da (Mother) 48

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

When we got to the hospital, we delivered the man to the nurses, who were dead on their feet and were complaining about the volume of wounded. “Why did you bring him here?” one of them asked. “Take him somewhere else.” “He is in a bad way,” I said. The van dropped me off at the mosque. I entered the courtyard, where there was pandemonium. Everyone who had come to the mosque for shelter was standing around.

Da (Mother) 47

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

I opened the spigot in the yard, but nothing came from the hose but a rumbling of air. Whenever father came home he would hose down the yard, wanting it to be clean when we ate outside. As I looked around, I noticed that Leila had walked over to the welding equipment father used to do projects for people. I joined her and bent down to kiss the places on the tools where father put his hands.

Da (Mother) 46

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

His tone, which seemed high and mighty, offended me. I said, “If it is dangerous, what keeps you here? I am no different from you.” Then I quickly got back on the pickup, and we were off. The driver raced ahead about two or three hundred meters, to a place where a number of boys had taken cover. They banged on the cab and the driver stopped to give them some food. While the food was being distributed, I took a closer look at the road.