Seyyed of Quarters 15 (11)

Memories of Iranian Released POW, Seyyed Jamal Setarehdan

2016-12-24

Seyyed of Quarters 15

Memories of Iranian Released POW, Seyyed Jamal Setarehdan

Edited and Compiled by: Sassan Nateq

Tehran, Sooreh Mehr Publications Company

‎2016 (Persian Version)‎

Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

I had sat inside the trench when a soldier brought me a letter. Karim Daneshparvar had sent it from Ardabil. I opened the envelope. He had written Karbalaـ5 operation completed successfully. At the end he had put down: "Jamal, Naser ali Sufi martyred. Rahim Rezaie died a martyr. Ahed Gholami got his old wish. Sadeq Hamedi attained martyrdom."

I read the letter and tears flowed from my eyes. I was in a mood. The face of my martyred friends came to life in front of my face and their memories struck. I was choking because of having a lump in my throat. I went out of the trench. I was like someone who looked for something but didn’t know what it is. I went down from a valley which was near the trench. Now I had been away from the rest. I shouted the name of my martyred friends one by one and cried my eyes out. 

I performed my ablutions and went to prayer room at the time of noon and evening prayer. The battalion commander or ideological or inspection commander often were the leader of congregational prayer. Sometimes battalion commander asked me to be the leader of praying, but I refused. That day he said, "Seyyed, today we want to follow you."

"Please don’t want me to do this." I said.

• Now that so, I order you to be the leader of prayer.

I became the leader of congregational prayer for that day and also two or three days later by command of battalion commander, but asked him let me not to be anymore. I didn’t consider myself in such position that they wanted to follow me. Sometimes, when soldiers raised their question about the religious issues for him and the ideological commander, they sent them to me and said, "Go to Seyyed. Anything Seyyed Jamal says, it is true."

Again it was my turn to monitor and coordinate the posts and performance of watchers. I took the watchers to their posts and came back to my trench. It was very warm. I had taken out my boots and put on my slippers. I went out and wandered among trenches. I wanted to test one of the watchers. I took out an odd slipper; hold it up in front of a trench and shook it.  Suddenly, the soldier shouted: "Oh, Abolfazl! Oh, Abolfazl! What the hell is this?"

I showed myself and said, "Don’t scare, this’s me."

He put his hand on his heart and said: "Seyyed, you gave me a fright!"

Approaching midday, the heatـwaves of sun made the trench very hot. As I entered it, my face got heated. I started to think to find a solution. From here and there I gathered thorns and put them in front of the window. I placed a twenty liters water container in such way whose water dripped on thorns. With the slightest breeze or wind, wet thorns acted like air conditioner and the inside of trench cooled.

We had a donation box in the ideological trench of battalion. When the soldiers settled their account, three or four thousand Tomans gained. One of the officials said soldiers, who had settled, to donate a few Tomans. I disagreed with him over the issue. "You shouldn’t force soldiers to donate." One day I told him.

He said: "They give it as charity, so that's okay."

Sometimes he took some money from the box and bought something for himself or the trench. I told him: "Spending this money is harder than embezzling an orphan’s money. You’re really giving yourself hell."

He didn’t listen to me and kept on. One afternoon, he took some money from the box. "Why do you look at me? I want to buy something for the guest who is coming here." He said to me when he saw I have stared at him.

A clergyman came to give a speech in battalion every now and then. We took the clergymen to companies and they preached soldiers and spoke about religious issues. Some of them had guts and went to the ambush trenches, but some stayed in the staff and did their jobs there.

That officer called one of the soldiers. He entered the trench and saluted. The officer gave the money to the soldier and said: "Go to TaghـoـToogh and buy some grapes."

I said, "Don’t go shares with that soldier in your sin!"

The soldier, who did not know what was happening, stared at us. Seeing the procrastination of that soldier, the officer said: "don’t worry. Go and do what I said."

"TaghـoـToogh" was located between Gilan-e Gharb and Qasr-e Shirin. Most of those who lost their homes in the bombing of Qasr-e Shirin and Gilan-e Gharb resettled there and had run business in small stalls. The soldiers occasionally would go there and buy greens, cucumber, tomato and lettuce to make salad. The soldiers, who returned from vacation, also bought various comestibles and chocolate and biscuits for their friends.

A clergyman, who was Seyyed, came to our battalion. "So we are cousins!" he said laughing when he found out that I am Seyyed too. It was near noon and the sun was shining strongly. We all sweated, but the inside of the trench was cooler. The trench officer pointed to a soldier to entertain. The soldier put the grapes, which had kept into an ice container, into a tray and placed it in front of the clergyman. "There you go, cousin." The clergyman said.

•  I don’t have it.
• Eat, cousin. In this air it gives enjoyment.

The clergyman insisted that I ate the grapes, and I refused. He reached out and grabbed a grape cluster when saw I didn’t eat. I couldn’t bring myself not to tell him the story. "First, let me ask you something and then you can have it if you want." I said.

• Ask, cousin.
• Given that we are under Iraqis ‘fire and it is a difficult situation, if we buy something for ourselves or for entertaining the guests with charity money, what is the edict?" I asked.

He who did not know what is my point, said, "anything which is bought with that money is as like as fire."

I said, "so this grape you want to have is as like as fire!"

He put the grape cluster into the tray immediately and exclaimed with surprise: "it has been bought with charity money?"

• Yes.

The officer of trench did not know what to say. Anger and sadness waved in his eyes. I explained our argue case in full for the clergyman, and continued: "I can’t work with him anymore. Send me wherever they think there are harder jobs."

To make doubly sure, I picked up my stuff and pitched a tent in the center of staff grounds. A few minutes later, the battalion commander came and said: "Seyyed Jamal, what are doing?"

• I don’t move from here until you make clear my assignment.
• We are responsible for your action. Now, go inside until I’m investigating.

He ordered to send me to company-2, when saw I insisted firmly. The same day I picked up my things and went to company-2 in Qasr-e Shirin. The position of company-2 was tougher than the others. It was closer to the Iraqis and the number of martyrs and the wounded were too much. The mission of company-2 was serving under the command of armored battalion and the tank battalion was stationed behind the company-2.

I introduced myself to Capt. Mustafa Batuyee, the commander of the second company of 768^th Infantry battalion. Batuyee was young and came from Kermanshah. After greeting, he said, "Where did you serve?"

• In ideological and inspection company.
• Didn’t comfortable there? Why did you come here?

Without any mention to the occurred problem, I said, "I want to serve here for a while with my call."

He wrote something in the bottom of my introduction letter and ordered me to introduce myself to Sergeant Ali ashraf Nazarabadi, commander of platoon no.3. Nazarabadi came from Sarpol-e Zahab. I got a RPG from platoon no.3 and settled into one of the trenches. I climbed up the hill in the evenings, called the faithful to prayers, and we all performed congregational prayer. The soldiers of company-2 thought that I am an ideological and inspection agent; therefore, they avoided making joke and saying some certain things. "You leave that comfortable place and have come here to do what. The food sometimes is delivered too late or isn’t delivered at all." they said.

They were right. The food was delivered late sometimes or was not at all. We had to make a living with dry bread and everything we had. Still there were some doubts about my presence. We were close to each other when we socialized a few days and they found out that I am someone like them and haven’t gone there to investigate a special problem. At the first opportunity, I looked out for Iraqis’ position with binocular. They were about two kilometers away from us and I could see their traffic.