334th Night of Memory – 2

Sepideh Kholoosian
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2022-7-12

The 334^th show of the Night of Memory was held in Sooreh Hall of the Art Center on Thursday 1^st of Ordibehesht 1401 (April 21, 2022) titled “Men of Enthusiasm Tribe”. It was attended by a number of freed POWs and the families of the martyrs and hosted by Hossein Behzadifar. In the ceremony released also online, misters Reza Abbasi, Amir Mahmoud Najafipour, and Colonel Ahmad Heidari, freed POWs from Tikrit Concentration Camp recounted their memoirs.

In continuation of the show, the host introduced the second narrator, Mr. Mahmoud Najafpour and said, “In a situation where the morale of the captives, especially the younger combatants, had to be maintained and they had to cope with the problems of the camp, it was necessary to have people who tried to maintain the energy of the captives and not let the hardships destroy them. Mr. Najafpour, who worked as a hairdresser, is one of those who, according to other freed POWs, was the energy bomb of the camp.”

Najafpour started his words from pre-captivity period and said: Mr. Heidari's name had been announced among the missing and since I knew him since university and he was one of my fellow citizens and friends, I had participated in his ceremony. After that, I was always sad that Ahmad left us. Now let me tell you how I was captured. When I was captured, I myself had 112 captives and in that unit I was the head of a mechanized infantry battalion with the statistics of 1,200 organizational members and 800 present members. I was in the 92nd Armored Division of Ahvaz.

When we were captured, they took us to Basra. I never forget the first night. We were 28, who were kept in a 14-meter room without windows, with a small fan just enough to let in a light, and the guys passed out from the heat. For us who were in that situation, it was so hot that when we knocked on the door to come and take someone out, the hot wind that came inside acted like an air conditioner.

We were taken to Al-Rashid Garrison after six days. After a few days, I saw that Mr. Heidari also came there. It was as if the whole world had been given to me. Then I saw that Mr. Kambiz Kamalvand came with him and this added to my happiness. We were both homeboys and close friends. When I saw that Mr. Habib Nasrollahi also came, I said, “Thank God! Does that mean we should gather here?!" In short, the children came one by one. Shamsullah Rezaei, whom we knew from university, and then Mr. Mujtaba and Mohsen Jafari, Mr. Fallahdoost, etc., who were in the Officer's University together and knew each other, we all had gathered there.”

Before going to the camp, one day they came to al-Rashid prison and said in Arabic: "Who is the hairdresser?" No one reacted. When I saw that no one said anything and I'm unemployed! I said I am a hairdresser. "Do you know?" he said hesitantly. I said yes. The first person, Mr. Habib Nasrollahi, came to sit under my hand and I would cut his hair. Mr. Nasrollahi has curly hair and cutting curly hair requires special skills. When I cut his hair, he looked at me and said: What kind of look is this that you have made for me?! I said: Excuse me, Habib. I'm inexperienced. I cut his hair with a razor and he left there with a bald head. Little by little, I became proficient in this work.

In our camp, there was a person named "Ahmad Mohammad Reza" who also limped. He was known as "Ahmad Sareq al-Hajar" or Ahmad the thief of stones. The guys worked hard, brought a stone, grinded it and gave it to Hamid Fallahdoost. He would write on it with a pencil and the guys would carve and engrave on it and finally make something beautiful out of it. Then Ahmad would come the next day and say that we will inspect tomorrow. He used to come and collect the stones and take them away. Most of us didn't like this man and liked to punish him in some way. After a while, Ahmad wanted to go to propose. Mr. Nagarestani said to me with a Shirazi accent: Mahmoud, this is Ahmad, Sareq al-Hajar. I said so what. He said he told me that he wants to propose. Tell Mahmoud to come and fix my hair. I said, Colonel, I will never do this. What if we return to Iran tomorrow and they say he was the hairdresser of Iraqis?! He said no, what are these words? Come and cut his hair. I said no unless you come and tell me this in front of all the guys. Also, if I messed up his head, don't complain tomorrow. He said: no problem if you mess up, just let his excuse disappear. We left too.

When he came, he took a look at me and asked me to fix his hair. I started my work. I grabbed his ear from one part and the back of his head from one place; he looked at it and said in Arabic, “What kind of appearance is this”?! And he cursed so bad that I'm sorry I can't say it. It became a film for the camp guys to laugh at. I said, “Seyed Ahmed, excuse me, it has gone bad. Sit down and let me fix it”. Then I took the razor and cut his head with the razor. This caused him to punish me for two or three days. He would beat me and I would look at his head and laugh. Fortunately, the guys' morale also improved.

In continuation of the show, the narrator talked about the creativity of the captives in the camp and said, “All the guys in the camp were jack-of-all-trades. We made the most of the least facilities. I remember that Mr. Mujtaba and Mr. Mohsen Jafari came and invented a furnace with the guys’ hair by Mr. Jafar Rajabi. They took the hairs from me and prepared clay. Then they built a bakery, which made us eat Lavash bread there for the first time because the bread they gave in the camp was called "Khebs" which was too hard to eat. They took the trouble of this furnace.

On the other hand, Ali Darabi, who knew plumbing, started the bathroom. In fact, he opened the first indoor bath for children because we used to bathe in the open area until January. They had built a shower in the middle of Al-Rashid camp, where we had to bathe with great difficulty. Anyone who wanted to take a bath had a three and a half liter gallon of water with which he had to wash his clothes and take a bath. They even came one day and told us that you should shave all your beards. They came and gave us some razors. I took turns doing things. But from the tenth person onwards, everyone who came cried because instead of beards, the skin was peeled off.

The narrator continued, “Even though it was difficult at that time, we took care of each other and created a good environment with each other's help. Compared to other camps, our guys were very cooperative because most of them knew each other and were comrades. Among those days, I have also a very sad memory. One day I was too upset. At night, I dreamed that my wife was in the hospital, but when I went to see her, she died, and I put a sheet over her. We didn't know what was going on in our country on the other side and we didn't even write letters. I wasn’t in a good mood when I woke up in the morning. Kambiz said, “Why are you down today?” I said, “I feel very bad. I had a bad dream last night”. I went and sat behind the sanatorium and muttered to myself. I started saying Azan (the call to prayer) while muttering. This Azan was accompanied by sadness and crying. We had a guard named "Ahmad Mohammad Reza Javad". He was originally from Iran and from Qom and was very kind to others. I remember he brought us Halva (a Persian sweet dense paste) on Ashura night. He said, “You are sad, Mahmoud. What has happened?” I said, “Seyed Ahmad, I had a bad dream”. He said, “God is great. Your problem will be solved, God willing”. I said, “This unawareness is very difficult”.

Gentlemen and sisters; know that when a person is unaware, days are spent with difficulty for him or her. The days when we did not know about our respected families were spent with much difficulty; especially for those who were married and had wives and children. Ladies, God willing, may God protect you for my dear brothers. God willing, every step we took was in the way of God's pleasure. After the performance of the song "Zahra's Homesickness" by Noor al-Hadi group led by Mr. Moulaee on the occasion of the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali (PBUH), the host talked about Mr. Najafpour's words, “Mr. Najafpour mentioned missing his family and being away from his wife, children and parent. The mothers of martyrs and combatants played a strategic role in the war. I remember that during an unveiling ceremony from a book, a senior Iraqi officer who had repented, quoting a senior official in the Iraqi army said, “We did not lose the war to Iranian combatants; rather, we lost to their mothers and wives. Our brave men supported by the brave women participated in the eight-year holy defense and after that they appeared in different arenas”.