The 367th Night of Memory – 3

Compiled by: Iranian Oral History Website
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2025-6-2

Note: The 367^th "Night of Memory" program was held on April 23, 2025, coinciding with the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (PBUH), at the Andisheh Hall of the Arts Center of the Islamic Revolution. The event featured stories shared by several wives of medical corps veterans from the Holy Defense. The speakers included Mrs. Masoumeh Khatib, Ashraf Fard, Zahra Mazloumifar, Fatemeh Amrollahzadeh, and Fatemeh Habibi.

The fourth narrator of the program was Mrs. Fatemeh Amrollahzadeh, the wife of Dr. Ahmad Shojaei. She said: Before we married the doctor, in our first meeting, he said: “It is possible that I will be martyred or captured. It is possible that I will be away from home for a long time. If you can tolerate these three issues, let’s talk about marriage.” The only thing I said was that I would like to study and live a revolutionary life. He is still working and is not at home. I am still studying and have been doing so for forty years. She continued: When we got married, the first thing I saw in our new house was a large number of tools and devices for duplicating leaflets. That is, instead of household appliances, there was a printing press in the house. Our job was to duplicate leaflets day and sometimes night until 4 am. Later, when newspapers were closed, we would print the news in the newspaper “Payam-e-Nahdat” [The Message of Movement] at home to keep people informed about the news. This newsletter was distributed throughout Iran. One day, the wife of one of the fighters came to our house. She asked, “Do you know where the newspaper is published?” At that moment, the newspaper was being printed in the next room.

During the war, they would go on missions for two weeks and come home for two days. Even though I was alone with three children, I encouraged my husband. We still have those letters.

The narrator continued: “One of my husband’s important tasks was to establish the Shiraz Relief and Treatment Headquarters. This headquarters treated the war wounded during the Iraqi attacks. One day, my wife came home and said, “Today, something sad had happened. They had brought a 2-and-a-half-year-old child from Iraqi Kurdistan. It was unclear what had happened to his family. What should we do?” I, who had a one-month-old baby at home, said, “Bring this child home. He will grow up with our own children.” Then a couple from the relief and treatment headquarters who did not have children adopted this child. After years of correspondence, five years ago, the parents of this child, now a young man of 30, were found. His parents are Sunni, but he himself was raised in a Shiite family.