SABAH (40)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2020-12-15

SABAH (40)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami

Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

Published by Soore Mehr Publishing Co.

Persian Version 2019

Chapter nine

The eleventh day had started with burial of Ali Hosseini; it was a difficult day. The Iraqi artillery was targeting the surroundings of the mosque constantly. This situation had made the mosque so insecure that rescue had no meaning at all since the lives of those stationed in the mosque was also in danger. Since two three days ago, when the attacks to the surrounding streets started, there was a whisper going around that the location of rescue team will change from mosque to a dentist office called Dr. Sheybani, located at the intersection of Fakhr Razi and Enghelab avenues, opposite to Jameh mosque. Considering the conditions, there was a possibility that Iraqis might target Jameh mosque sooner or later and staying in the mosque was not safe for anyone.

I had seen Dr. Sheybani’s office before. Three four years before that, once I had taken Mohsen to his office when he had tooth ache. His office was a good and quiet place for rescue; meanwhile there were a number of rooms and the limit of Mahram & Namahram[1] could be observed and one room could be allocated to girls to lie down and rest for one hour without interruption. Dr. Sheybani was still in town, staying in the mosque with the rest of us. When Mr. Farrokhi asked him to allocate his office to the rescue team, he opposed at the beginning but later he changed his mind and told Mr. Farrokhi that he agrees.

The team and Dr. Sa’adat started packing our supplies. Medicines and first aid items for rescue were compiled and put in a corner in the mosque. While I was working, I tried my best to show care and attention to Zahra. I tried to be around her and not to leave her alone but she was introvert. She was trying to keep herself in a good shape but the sorrow of losing her brother was not a pain to be forgotten very quickly.

I was packing the supplies when uncle Hossein entered the mosque holding the hands of my sisters and brothers. I was surprised to see them. I called mom and Shahnaz and Fouzieh. Mona hugged my mom and started crying. She had missed her a lot. Uncle Hossein said: “sister we did everything we could to keep your children with us but they insisted to return to Khorramshahr. God knows how difficult it was for me to get here by bus.”

He was right. It was God’s will that their bus had not been targeted. My mom looked at Ferdows with wide eyes and said in an angry tone: “Couldn’t you bear two days?!” Ferdows said: “I could not do anything. Children were restless?”

At the same time my father arrived. He would come to check on us every chance he would get. Last time that my uncle was here, my father visited us too. He was also surprised to see my uncle and the children. Poor man was thinking that his children are kilometers away from this fire and chaos and are in a secure location. He was not aware that they had forced my uncle to bring them back to Khorramshahr. My father asked Ferdows:” Why have you returned? Is a feast going on here?”

Ferdows answered him without hesitation: “Why have you stayed?! To fight? We also want to stay and fight like you…”

Mom glared at Ferdows. My father was angry to see his children there and the answer he received from Ferdown, so, he slapped Mohsen unexpectedly. Mohsen was shocked. Poor boy did not understand why he was slapped! My father did not have the habit of being violent with girls; therefore he slapped Mohsen to blow off steam.

Uncle Hossein was very upset and turned to my mom and said: “May God forgive us … sister this city is at the verge of siege. There are no strong army forces here. Why don’t you leave? For God’s sake, please stop this and come with me. What can you do here with bare hands?!”

My father turned to my mom and said: “Mr. Hossein is right. You go with the children. In this way I will be sure of the children’s safety.”

My mom had weakened emotionally during this time and it was really good for her to be away from all this tension and commotion for a few days. But she wouldn’t agree to go with the children and her brother. My uncle got upset and left the mosque. Elaheh and I followed him. I told him to wait until tomorrow and promised to convince my mother to go.

My uncle agreed. We talked to mom all night until she agreed to go. Ferdows was quite upset. She had to go too. Poor girl had thought that she can stay. Next day, early in the morning, we said farewell to my mom and the children. My mom was crying and advising all of us. She was constantly asking us to let her know our and Ali’s whereabouts. I wished from the depth of my heart that Ali could be here and say goodbye. A few moments later, uncle, my mom and the children left. We were praying for their safe journey.

We took our supplies to Dr. Sheybani’s office. Hossein Eydi assisted us. The main entrance of the building opened to a short hall. At the end of the hall, there was a small space with four rooms. Two rooms on the left and two on the right and each about twelve square meters. We arranged one of the rooms for injections and dressing and we stored all the equipment of Dr. Sheybani in another room and locked the door.

One room turned into drug store and we placed all medicines we had in there. The other room, which had a window with a street view, was transformed into our emergency room. The drug store had a door opening to a petit yard. The yard was small but pleasant. We placed a carpet on the floor of the drug store so that we could rest. In the small hall of the office, we placed a bed which was originally in the office. This bed was to place the injured waiting for examination and assistance.

This transfer and moving took very long until evening prayer. After the evening and night prayers, we all went to the yard. Dr. Sa’adat brought his prayer’s booklet and started reading the begging prayer from the depth of his heart with the help of a weak light torch. Little by little, the whispering voice of: “O you who believe! Be careful of Allah and seek means of nearness to Him and strive hard in His way that you may be successful”[2] started. Only God knows that how reciting this prayer in those days, helped us to deal with our sorrow and lightened our spirit.

The situation of the city, the insecurity of people, the oppression of our fighters, the scene of the injured and the martyrs had put a big load on our hearts; A load that everyone was hiding to avoid discouraging each other. But now Dr. Sa’adat was doing a great job helping us to relieve ourselves of that load by reciting the Tawassul prayer.

We all cried a river. It was as if we were looking for a chance to relieve our grief. Except for Dr. Sa’adat, Hassan Sorkhou and Khalili, there was another young man among us called Dr. Mostafavi. He had come to the mosque the day before and had joined the rescue team. According to him, he was studying medicine and was from Shiraz. He very quickly became popular as Dr. Mostafavi among us. Hassan Siyah (black Hassan) was a soldier from Abadan who was fighting in Khorramshahr. Little by little he became close to the rescue team guys and especially Dr. Sa’adat. Returning from the fronts he would come and find us. He had by chance come to the office that day.

The next day, Belgheys’s niece, Mahin, came to office too. It was decided for Belgheys and Mahin stay there. A little bit later a young girl, student of agriculture and from Khoramshahr called Akbari whom we had met a few days before in the mosque, joined us. Ms. Akbari was an active girl, ready to help any way possible. She was patient and placid. She was a sample of a knowledgeable and religious university student. Mehrangiz was also with us in the office. She was a very kind girl with a cute name. Her name went well with her character. I knew her since high school although we were not classmates.

Besides us in Dr. Sheybani’s office, another group had gathered together in Abadan. Others like Maryam Kohandel, Zohreh Eyvazian, Mozhgan and Mozhdeh Ambashi spent most of their time in aiding the injured in the maternity hospital. They usually acted quickly when there was need to transfer an injured from Khorramshahr to Abadan. At that time, the Quran school was still open and people like Saham Taghati, Khadijeh Abedi, Fakhri Taghati were there. Saham was with Shahnaz Mohammadi and Shahnaz Haji Shah when they were martyrd. In that explosion, she had been hit by a shrapnel in shoulder and heel but she had returned again.

Parallel to the moving of rescue team from the mosque to the office of Dr. Sheybani, the kitchen also moved from the mosque. It was due to safety concern. Their new location was in a half-built bank structure parallel to the mosque and near the river.

It was about two days that we had moved to the office that a young man from Dezfoul called Joneshan came there. He had studied in seminary and was an assistant to the prosecutor in the Revolutionary Court. He had a thick Dezfoul accent. He told everyone about his past working experience and his activities and showed them lots of cards and legal secondment documents. He claimed that he had been very active in the Kurdistan conflict and once he had heard about the war in Khorramshahr, he had come here. Although all his documents proved that he is telling the truth, but we could not believe him somehow.

His manner and behavior was special. Unlike other men who were there and we were working together, Joneshan had the habit of staring in your eyes when talking. We were all bothered by this habit and we all tried to change our way when we saw him coming towards us. He kept advising all when he had the chance, saying: “sisters, you should walk in a way that the earth trembles under your strength! Try to keep your cover as much as you can, even in the time of war”!

His advice would make us angry. He could see that we all observed our cover and the distance between Mahram and Namahram. We were all even careful to have the buttons of the sleeves closed at all times so that our wrists won’t appear while working. In many circumstances, we were very tired and needed to rest, but since there were men in the surrounding, we did not lie down to rest. We all were the same.

To be continued …