Da (Mother) 139

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Sa’id was in a song and theatre troupe, which was part of the High School Student Corps. The leader of the troupe, Seyyed Javad Hashemi, a movie and television actor, wanted to take it on a tour of the front. The boys in the group were all between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. I went to the Cultural Institute on Horr Square and, with mother’s ...

Da (Mother) 138

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

When I saw my stay in Tehran would drag on indefinitely, I raised the issue with the Martyrs Foundation. The Foundation wrote to the superintendent of the building, who put two rooms at our disposal. Habib was always annoyed by my constant need for things. He was even opposed to accepting gifts. He would say, “Be thankful for God allowing me to serve at the front.”

Da (Mother) 137

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

The army would occasionally have women gather in one home for safety. Because of the threat posed by Hypocrites, they warned us to be more vigilant when we were alone or out and about. I had heard Hypocrites would monitor the movements of soldiers and took advantage of their absences to decapitate their wives and children.

Da (Mother) 136

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

With me being in Abadan and my family far away in Tehran, what was happening to my little sister and brothers was a concern. I constantly worried about what were they up to. Who were their friends? I would call regularly to keep tabs on them, asking Hasan to tell me about Mansur and vice versa. I didn’t worry about Sa’id, who always had been a quiet, obedient child.

Da (Mother) 135

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

The news was a real shock. It was unbelievable. The dark-faced boy with frizzy hair, whom I had known since childhood, was gone. I recalled the first time I saw Hoseyn and Abdollah working at Jannatabad. I didn’t think they’d be of any use, but they turned out to be more sympathetic to the grieving and worked harder than all the others. Hoseyn and I were about the same age.

Da (Mother) 134

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

About to give birth, I naturally went to the Taleqani Hospital on the Abadan-Khorramshahr highway, but the operating rooms were reserved for wounded soldiers. The doctors advised me that under the circumstances it would be better if I went to a hospital in another city. It was September and I had Zeynab, Sa’id, and Hasan with me, as they had come to Abadan during the school summer vacation.

Da (Mother) 133

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

With Khorramshahr liberated, I begged Habib to take me there as soon as he could. I desperately want to see my city, but they had yet to give permission to civilians to inspect the damage and take up residence. When Habib finally said, “Let’s go and see Khorramshahr,” I couldn’t contain myself. After almost two years, I was going home. I thirsted to see it, imagining it was the same old place I had known.

Da (Mother) 132

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

Mrs. Musavi and Mrs. Eqbal Pur had gone to Ahvaz, but I was left homeless in Abadan. We found a place in Braym, a spacious neighborhood with a desert feel to it, where workers for Abadan radio and television had been housed. There were seventeen houses in all: eight pairs of attached duplex villas and one home larger than the others, apparently the residence of the network head.

Da (Mother) 131

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

After spending a few hours with mother, I got up from the floor and was about to do my ablutions before evening prayer, when I overheard people talking about a family bereft of a father and a son, who now had just lost another loved one. They didn’t say the name. Dumbstruck, I stared at mother. I didn’t know how we would go on. How was I to break the news to her if it turned out to be one of us?

Da (Mother) 130

The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

I was hospitalized for about eight days, being injected twice a day with penicillin. Mohsen had no idea what had happened to me. I had told Habib I was coming to Abadan with Mohsen, but I wasn’t able to contact him for several days. Habib was responsible for a district in the city called Moharrezi.
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Baqubah Camp: Life among Nameless Prisoners

A Review of the Book “Brothers of the Castle of the Forgetful”: Memoirs of Taher Asadollahi

"In the morning, a white-haired, thin captain who looked to be twenty-five or six years old came after counting and having breakfast, walked in front of everyone, holding his waist, and said, "From tomorrow on, when you sit down and get up, you will say, 'Death to Khomeini,' otherwise I will bring disaster upon you, so that you will wish for death."

Tabas Fog

Ebham-e Tabas: Ramzgoshayi az ja’beh siah-e tahajom nezami Amrika (Tabas Fog: Decoding the Black Box of the U.S. Military Invasion) is the title of a recently published book by Shadab Asgari. After the Islamic Revolution, on November 4, 1979, students seized the US embassy in Tehran and a number of US diplomats were imprisoned. The US army carried out “Tabas Operation” or “Eagle’s Claw” in Iran on April 24, 1980, ostensibly to free these diplomats, but it failed.

An Excerpt from the Memoirs of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi

As Operation Fath-ol-Mobin came to an end, the commanders gathered at the “Montazeran-e Shahadat” Base, thrilled by a huge and, to some extent, astonishing victory achieved in such a short time. They were already bracing themselves for the next battle. It is no exaggeration to say that this operation solidified an unprecedented friendship between the Army and IRGC commanders.

A Selection from the Memoirs of Haj Hossein Yekta

The scorching cold breeze of the midnight made its way under my wet clothes and I shivered. The artillery fire did not stop. Ali Donyadideh and Hassan Moghimi were in front. The rest were behind us. So ruthlessly that it was as if we were on our own soil. Before we had even settled in at the three-way intersection of the Faw-Basra-Umm al-Qasr road, an Iraqi jeep appeared in front of us.