Da (Mother) 97

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Conditions had become so dangerous and the Iraqis had advanced so far there was no longer any need for me to beg to be taken to the front. Our front lines were falling one after another, and more and more of the central parts of the city were becoming battlegrounds. Because it was too hard to transport the wounded by car, aid workers who could ...

Da (Mother) 96

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

I was in a strange mood these days. I was lost to myself. Everywhere I went, whatever I was doing, father and Ali were always with me. More often than not it was Ali’s face that appeared before me. I didn’t know why. Maybe being more recent, the searing pain of his death was more vivid to me. I was beside myself missing him.

Da (Mother) 95

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

After father’s death, working at Jannatabad was no longer a priority. The number of corpses had decreased, and to me keeping the living alive was more important. Nevertheless, whenever I did stop by and there was a body to attend to, I would do what was necessary. The searing pain caused by the death of father and Ali had made it more difficult to tolerate the work.

Da (Mother) 94

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Hoseyn Eidi, now standing behind me, confirmed what I was telling the old man and tried himself to win the man over. We finally persuaded him to go. Although convinced we were right, the old man still had a hard time coming to grips with leaving his home. He lingered in the doorway, which was made of wooden beams and covered by sheets of metal ...

Da (Mother) 93

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Most of the city’s inhabitants had been evacuated, but there were still some holdouts. The boys in their travels would come back, reporting that, unlike most other areas in the city, in the Arab neighborhood of Mowlavi many people had remained behind. They said folks in the neighborhood stayed because they thought the Iraqis wouldn’t ...

Da (Mother) 92

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

One afternoon seven or eight of us left the clinic and headed for the front lines. Dr. Sa’adat was with us. We walked to the end of the Mowlavi neighborhood and ran into defense forces scattered here and there in the alleyways. A little farther away near Sentab, the fighting got heavier. Our forces would fire from one section, then run to another position and fire from there.

Da (Mother) 91

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Several days had passed since mother and the kids left, but I still had no word from them. I didn’t know where they were or what they were doing. I was very worried about mother, especially because she might have heard about Ali. This was always on my mind. If she found out, I thought, she’d definitely have a heart attack or go mad and run off into the wilderness.

Da (Mother) 90

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

We were in the area around Arya Lane in a truck with three wounded we were taking to the Taleqani Hospital when we saw a man standing beside the road waving his arms. The driver stopped and the man stepped forward. I knew him vaguely. He worked at the Jannatabad mosque. “We found a body here,” he told us. “We were bulldozing and it came up in the blade.”

Da (Mother) 89

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

I didn’t find working at the clinic, gathering the dead, and tending the wounded in the town all that satisfying. The weapons they gave us to fix were useless, which was even more infuriating. I felt that none of these tasks was vital. What I really wanted to do was to go to the front. I knew that there’d be more work to do there. Zohreh Farhadi was like me, restlessly expecting something else to do.

Da (Mother) 88

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

I felt really sorry for him. We waved and said goodbye. Somewhere along the way, the mosque boys got out, and Yaddi and his runner friends took us to the home of an old man and woman. They were very happy to see us. The old woman said, “You go and wash, while we get the food ready.”