Book Review

Naneh Ali

Razieh Ebrahimi
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

2023-8-7

Naneh Ali is the narrative of Zahra Homayouni’s life, who is the mother of martyrs Amir and Ali Shahabadi, written by Morteza Asadi. In addition to the eloquent and readable content, the difference between the memoirs and other biographies of martyrs' mothers, as well as using the method of retrospect, has added to the appeal of work. This book has 15 chapters which are: Goodbye Spring, Those Two Blue Eyes, The Sword of Zulfaghar, The Birth of a Butterfly, Goodbye Mother, Haj Agha Ruhollah, Jamal Aftab, Amir’s messenger, Hello Sir, Teacher, Day of Farewell, Waiting for Ali, New Bride, the fragrance of God, and Good news of reunion.

This book is the result of several stages of interviews with Ms. Homayoni from 2016 to 2020. The first interviews were conducted in 2016, and at the very beginning the author noticed the difference between the life story of this martyr’s mother and others, but stopped the work, because the reactions of martyrs’ father to the problems and martyrdom of his children were very strange. According to the author, the parents of the martyrs Shahabadi were two opposite points with a striking difference!

After 2 years, as Ms. Homayoni’s phone calls were continued, Mr. Asadi had something on his conscience for leaving the job half-finished. He decided to write the book and complete it. Therefore, he resumed recording the interviews in 2020, and ended the collecting memories by conducting 10 3-hour interview sessions.

The narrator of the book, Ms. Zahra Homayoni, known as “Naneh Ali”, was born in spring of 1947 in Hamedan. As a child, she migrated from Hamedan to Tehran with her family. Despite her young age, Zahra worked side by side with her mother to help support the family. After a few years, she was married to Rajab Shahabadi. Her husband's misbehavior caused Zahra to experience a difficult and turbulent life even after marriage. During the revolution, despite all the strictures of his husband, she participated in demonstrations with Amir and Ali. With the start of the imposed war, Ali and Amir decided to go to the front. Zahra, who was always the scapegoat of her children against their father, this time also she got the father's consent with insistence and difficulty.

After the martyrdom of Amir and Ali, life became more bitter than before. Rajab blamed Zahra for the martyrdom of their children and added pain to her pains. In addition to these two sons, Zahra had three other children named Hossein, Amir, and Mohammadali.

At the end of the book, there is an album of pictures (about 8 photos), which are explained by mentioning the names of the people in the photos. The story book of Naneh Ali was published in 2022 by Hamaaseh Yaran Publishing House in 189 pages, and 1000 copies, in the octavo size, at a price of 79,000 Tomans.