The Last Day of Bloody Year of 1360 (1981)

Letters of Fahimeh: The Eighth Letter

Selected by Faezeh Sassanikhah
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2024-3-28

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, and Him aid we seek.

By the (Steeds) That run, with panting (breath), And strike sparks of fire, and push home the charge in the morning, and raise the dust in clouds the while, and penetrate forthwith into the midst (of the foe) En masse; Truly Man is, To his Lord, Ungrateful; And to that (fact) He bears witness (By his deeds); And violent is he In his love of wealth.[1]

In the name of glorious God... In the name of the one who is greater, kinder, and more powerful than all the people in the world...

He is the one who gave me the power to think about his greatness and he is the one who will show us his straight path and enlighten our eyes with the light of his face, Insha’Allah. It is a little past eleven o'clock on March 20, which means the last day of the bloody and blessed year 1360 (1981-1982). We are sitting in the 40^th Fajr Brigade residence near Raqabiyeh Plain and in our self-made solitary trench, and I am dozing under the sunlight, but the roar and whistling of cannons and mortars of the Baathist enemy, which started at 12 o'clock last night, does not allow me to sleep. Today, we received an order to immediately take down the tents and we should crowd in the individual trenches... because it is possible to bombard the tents due to that the enemy aircrafts see them from above... We have been on full alert for two days until the attack order is issued. The commanders don't move away from telecommunication tent... We miss being on the front, and it is highly probably for us to go to the other side of Susa to attack... In short, whatever God wills will happen. The time of attack is very close and we are waiting for the move.

Today is the first day of the new year, and it seems the transition to the new year was last midnight, and because we were always in the solitary trench during the day, all my head and especially my eyes were filled with sand. That's why I got under the blanket from the beginning of the night and at the time of transition to the new year, I pulled the blanket aside to listen to Imam [Khomeini’s] words, but after hearing the Imam's message, our eyelids did not allow us to listen to the rest of the messages. Today, all the battalions head toward Maleheh which is about twenty kilometers away from Susa, Dezful. Of course, we are going to act together with Al-Mahdi Brigade and after the first line is broken by the army (AJA) and Al-Mahdi Brigade, we will move forward to take the target which is site 4 and 5. Of course, we were very sad to not being present at the beginning of the operation. That's why we discussed a lot with the commander of the brigade (Mr. Asakereh) this morning that if possible, we would go to Najaf Ashraf Brigade, which it highly needed a destruction force, and they will start the operation on the first night.

But he didn't agree at all to go to that brigade, and our argument became so intense that we went to the tent sulkily, and I didn't like eating until the evening; I want to cry harder for a long time. You know it is very hard for a person to go many times for detection for the sake of night of the attack, but in the end, they will say you stay rear until the appropriate decision is made by the authorities. However, this evening, Abbas Mohammadioun, whom I think you know him, from Najaf Brigade, came to us. Abbas is in charge of the destruction team of Najaf Ashraf Brigade. His presence opened our wounds and he informed us that because of Iraqis attack at the night before last—I remembered it now and I will tell you how 16 people from the destruction team got caught by the Iraqis and were martyred— they need more destruction troops… [Mr.] Khayat Veis also came and we tried to convince the officials through commanding of the division so that we can go Najaf Brigade in Fath Headquarters.

For a few moments, I was as happy as Larry because suddenly I saw dear Hossein Qudousi! You don't know how happy I was. But Iraqis attacked; I think it was Friday night. It was around 12:30 a.m. when the Iraqi fired heavily as we couldn't sleep. At first, we thought we had attacked, and we were very sad that we were left behind again! But in the morning, we were informed that the Baathists wanted to take the lead and they had come as far as our second line, but for them as the hapless, haste made waste, and they were so hard-hit by the guys of AJA and IRGC that in the plain in the opposite side of Raqabiyeh, as far as the eyes could see there were Iraqis; according to the estimated number given by the comrades, more than seven hundred people of them perished and they left. on Friday, Jahad’s loaders and trucks were used and mass graves were amassed from their dirty bodies. It's a pity that my camera didn't have a film. What a beautiful has been said that God has created our enemies from fools... Today is the second day of Farvardin (March 22) and we are stationed in Abuzar town, Susa. Last night it was at 2:30 a.m. when they came by car and told us, “get ready, we want to go to Susa.” We quickly came out and got ready. When we looked at the front, everyone was surprised because there were flares shining in the sky and it was a sign of the attack by Islam army. We got ready with great enthusiasm and headed towards Susa, but with another car that has been brought from the brigade, because our car had got stuck on the sandy hill by my effort that because of that, as a guy said, I should have been received an award as I had been able to climb the car to the top of the hill. Anyway, we came to Susa and quickly went to the front, because we didn't know the path, we passed a wrong path and we reached Tappe Sabz. We went to the last place we could go by car; as far as that we were under the sight of enemy snipers, and there were cannons, mortars, and RPGs bombarded us. We looked for Fajr Brigade for a quarter of an hour but they were not there. Several martyrs and wounded were brought within the same quarter. I saw a soldier with a grenade had exploded in his hand, his gun had been broken, and his guts had been spilled out... We decided to return and find the guys by wireless before our troops were lost gratuitous. Finally, we returned to the town and waited until around 10:00 a.m. when the brigade deputy came for two battalions of soldiers, and we followed them. This time we went to the front of Maleheh and waited there for the commander's decision. Words of the wounded and guys who would come back from the front showed that the situation was not very interesting and that we had many wounded and martyrs... Once the brigade commander came and informed that our battalions will come back a bit to stabilize the positions, and as a result, the destruction group was not needed at the time... It happened to us as we expected, and we got in the soup... Therefore, we turned back and we are waiting for what God the Most Merciful, All-Knowing, and Expert (Khabir in Arabic) will do, and as the saying goes we are satisfied with your satisfaction, and are surrendered to your order... they guys are impatient for going forward and they put pressure on me and the others, and this is not strange because each of them joined the group with the hope of active presence in the front. By the way, one of the good brothers of our group, who worked in another part of Susa, along with ten destruction troops at the night of Eid, while they were laying an anti-tank mine, the mine is exploded due to the shrapnel of the mine, and only three of the eleven members of their group were saved. I had many photos with him, maybe if you look at the photos, you will recognize him; Hosseini in the photos of Dasht-e Abbas!!... I hope he will be placed in heaven... It is 6 o'clock in the evening on the third day of Eid; how were we feeling today! In the morning, we thought we would no longer participate in the attack, and we went to the brigade commander, we talked, and he agreed to send half of the group to Najaf Brigade, which has not yet operated, and they are going to operate tonight. We were happy and divided the guys. Let me remind you that you see my letters take several days from start to finish, the reason is that these will be pages from my diary, because I don't have time to write these diaries again, and even if I do, I don’t know where it will be delivered, so you will collect it yourself and it will reduce my trouble... I was very happy when I received your letter last night through one of the guys. Thank you very much for your good actions for the house, and I pray God to help you will be successful (و من الله التوفیق) ... Let me tell you a little about the victory in these few areas that we have been. Karbala Brigade has acted in Raqabiyeh and has surrounded two sites, and God willing, we will rush to help them in this direction, of course, if God would be kind and consider us... they are constantly bringing groups of prisoners from the fronts... The letter became long and I got tired too as I repeatedly sat down and wrote; I will write the rest in the next letter if I had time! I hope the sweet and delicious victory of the army of Islam will make everyone happy, and don't think too much about me that these selves are not even an iota compared to the victory of Islam and Muslims. Say my warm hello to your nice mother and my mother. As I know them, I hope they won't think that I return at all, and you can cover for me well; and honestly, if you were not, I think they would have felt my absence more!!... Our marriage itself was a God's grace, and God willing, it will have fruitful results and we will walk on the road of prosperity and salvation. As a good omen, I will present a stanza for the martyrs whose bodies cannot be collected on the ground![2]

The concept of restlessness was burnt in appointment

Your blood is always flowing in the context of epic

It always blooms in the foliage of the trench

Fountain of your veins is like a spring tulip

From the tides of your blade, there is your unsparing self-sacrifice

A mortal wound has grown on the crown of the wicked

The hyenas escape your immediate combat

The bats run away from fire of your gun

It is the interpretation of successive verses of Jihad

Bang of your machine gun in the chest of the desert

You who are like the Sarbedars in the battle with the Tatars

You revived hefty the creed of Sarbedars

The rainbow of your blood has drawn a rosy line

From the evening of self-indulgence to the morning of self-sacrifice

You are drunk with the wine of a last that pray the Truth in this way

We are in phantom of drunkenness in the end of a hangover