A look to women’s memories in the sacred defense
The first word The war began with the roaring of fighters and imposed other effects on the newborn revolution very soon. Women took guns like men and hurried to oppose the enemy. They were martyred, injured, and evacuated for this. To show the image of women during the sacred defense years, there is no mirror more transparent than their memories. The memories determining the history of this land, forms it, and gives spirit to it.
The first word
The war began with the roaring of fighters and imposed other effects on the newborn revolution very soon.
Women took guns like men and hurried to oppose the enemy. They were martyred, injured, and evacuated for this.
To show the image of women during the sacred defense years, there is no mirror more transparent than their memories. The memories determining the history of this land, forms it, and gives spirit to it. In recent years, some steps have been taken to complete the image of women through the 8-year sacred defense, but we are still at the beginning and whatever has been done are just vague shadows of women’s presence. In this essay, the writer tries to give an analysis of women’s memories in order to provide new ways for the next steps.
A look to whatever is present:
The studies show that, approximately, 170 books have been printed about women’s role in the sacred defense. A considerable number of them are story books, scenarios, essays, and organized speeches in congresses and conferences being held. About 40 books are about memories of women who had stayed in camps, hospitals, and fronts or tied with the war through their husbands and sons and this way, they played their roles.
To more exact review of memories of the mentioned 40 books, we have categorized them in 4 groups in the following table:
1. Books about oral memories and women POWs
2. Oral memories of combatants and women medics
3. Oral memories of warriors’ wives
4. Limited self-written books of women’s memories are categorized.
Oral memories of women POWs:
- POW No. 339, the memories of Khadijeh Mirshekar
- Paper files, the memories of Masoomeh Abadi
- Eye to eye with them, the memories of Fatemeh Nahidi
- A gap to the sky, the memories of Masoomeh Abadi
- The period of closed doors, the memories of Fatemeh Nahidi
- Oral memories of combatant and medic women
- In Khoramshahr allies, the collected memories of men and women present in Khoramshahr resistance
- Women of war, the memories of combatant women
- OPD girls, the memories of the medic, Mina Komaee
- From Chandela to war, the memories of the guardian (Pasdar), Shamsi Sobhani
- Maryam’s boots, the memories of the combatant, Maryam Amjadi
- Bruises meeting, the memories of the medic, Mirzaee
- Silver flower, the memories of the medic, Saham Taghati
- On angels’ wings, the collected memories of the devotee Roghyieh Tadayon and the medic Masoomeh Ramhormozi, the guardian and chemically injured combatant Maryam Yasavol, the mother of the martyrs Khaleghi poor, and the devotee’s wife Zahra Maftooni.
- The series of the books “Days,”? the memories of Khoramshahr women
- Nurses’ memories
- The memories of combatant women in the west and south
- The oral memories of martyred warriors’ wives
- Khoramshahr, where is Jahanara? An interview with martyr Jahanara’s wife
- Morteza was the mirror of my life, an interview with martyr Morteza Avini’s wife
- The unseen half of the moon, Chamran in the tale of his wife
- The unseen half of the moon, Hemmat in the tale of his wife
- The unseen half of the moon, some minutes in the tale of the wife
- The sky, Babayi in the tale of his wife
- Hamid Bakeri in the tale of his wife
- And now the hemlock, an interview with martyr Modegh’s wife
- The grape garden, the apple garden, and the mirror garden, an interview with martyr Mehdi Bakeri’s wife
- The hidden half of a myth, a talk with martyr Hemmat’s wife
- The unseen half of the moon, Zeinodin the tale of his wife
- The self-written book of women’s memories
- Beside the river of blood, the written memories of Ashraf-o-sadat Mosavat, the mother of martyr Sistali
- Fahimeh’s letters, letters of passed Fahimeh Babaiyan poor, the wife of martyr Alireza Sadegh Zadeh
- Wandering shoes, the memories of Soheila Farjam, a war nurse
An analysis of what is present now:
The number of books related to women is limited considering the depth and greatness of the imposed war period, while; there is no sign of some women’s memories who had undeniable roles in the war. There is no sign of evacuee women who migrated from the west and south by leaving their homes and cities and came to big cities. Although there can be found some hints of them in some books and movies, there are no sign in the main and documentary sources of the war. They have not been interviewed and were not asked of their lives in small and poor rooms of evacuees’ dorms and their psychological and physical pressures through that period.
Study, research, and register of these women’s memories are able to review and analyze from the point of sociology, anthropology, and contrast of native subcultures as well as their absorption in culture of metropolises.
From the other hand, related organs have identified a considerable number of woman martyrs. Only in holding some limited congresses about memorial of woman martyrs, some books have been printed in form of essays, speeches, and selected memories of woman martyrs and it has many things to do.
Only memories of three women called Nahidi, Abadi, and Mirshekar have been collected from among female POWs’ memories. Such an effort seems too petty considering the large amount of female POWs’ memories and their deep effect on readers.
Collecting combatant and medic women’s memories started after a 10-year time distance from the war. The cultural center of Sepah and Intellectual growth Center of Children printed limited books that are not available now in public and expert libraries.
The product of recent years movement is printing less than 10 books about memories of combatant and medic women who were in low age while the war and each one suffered many bruises through the war and a lot of stress after that. After passing of at least 10 years, they have to remember their memories. Although they remember the main structure of their memories structure and it will not erase from their minds and souls, exact reminding of details, dates, logical move, the appearance order of events, names, places, and personalities as well as many other subtle but influential points is hard to remember. If they have a piece of writing of those days, even a short one, they can refer to it in case of oblivion and find a correct source for their memories; otherwise, their memories are fallible to contradiction.
However, among women’ memory books, we encounter a considerable number of memories of martyrs’ wives. They are books called The Hidden half and Memorials and are favored by people a lot.
This collection of memories follows two main goals. First, it is after recognizing and introducing martyred warriors to the society. Second, it is going to recognizing women’s role in the sacred defense through their families and spouses as well as the effect of these women’s personalities on great warriors’ spirits, souls, and efforts. It seems that the primary goal has been actualized completely, but the secondary goal, which is available in the bottom and layers of books, is forgotten sometimes.
However, the second point in reviewing the present memories is only the very limited self-written books that only 4 of whose are written by narrators and their style directly. Of course, the book “Beside the blood river”? and “At six O’clock beside Marivan’s lake”? is small collections of daily writings of a martyr’s mother and wife. Fahimeh’s letters is a collection of letters from a virtuous and sapient who has a world of religious and social knowledge inside her and sends those letters to her husband in the front. Only in the book “Wandering shoes”? or “The writer nurse,”? the first person’s memories are told in a way near to a story.
It is necessary that the related sources try to discover and register notes and handwritten memories. Definitely, the number of what present with people is more than this and the importance of these documents are hidden to everyone. From the other hand, having influential supports from related sources in collecting and registering war memories, we can create more incentives for memory owners to witness more other works.
Features of women’s memories in the sacred defense
Considering the created category, we witness different and special features in memories of each group of women. Although there are all of those common features considering characteristic structures, roles, events atmospheres, and accidents each one of these women are encountered has a great effect on forming their personalities and showing suitable reflections toward the subject. Features and characteristic governing female POWs and their memories are their first problem in facing the phenomenon of captivity. Fearing from being raped and misused is their main fear, otherwise there is not any other threat they fear from. However, these women get rid of that fear resorting to the Prophet’s family and trusting God, and consequently, God keeps them from such a serious harm.
Fatemeh Nahidi expresses her beginning of captivity in the book called “The period of closed doors”? in the page 15 this way: “Iraqi soldiers came to us. One of them got close to reach my hand. I pulled back my hand and told him, “You are alien.”? I could not think for some hours. Surely, I could not escape and I thought the best thing for me was death. With every explosion, I hiked myself up in order to be hurt by its blowup. There was nothing else important to me. I was praying to die. I asked God to forgive my sins and said my prayer; but I remembered that I had a vow to say Imam Zaman’s prayer few days ago. I fell to my knees and fulfilled my vow. After that, I felt a little calmer, but when I remembered Iraqis’ look, I shivered. However, I took myself to my God and resorted to him.
Khadijeh Mirshekar says in the book “POW,”? page 38, “After the primary investigation, I was poisoned in a big rectangular hall that looked like a mortuary and had two iron doors in both sides. Cold concrete walls of the hall mingled with a silence filling the air made me experience a strange fear. I sat down and leaned against the wall. Evil and scary thoughts filled my head. I felt, every now and then, one of those doors would open and I see a rough and evil face of one of those investigators in front of me. Tiredness and fatigue of traveling as well as the lack of sleep had put me under a great pressure, but, as soon as I closed my eyes, fear rushed over me and made me open my eyes and stare at the door. I started to pray, whip, and call the innocent Imams. I was changed. I dreamed the door of the hall opened and someone told me, “Imam Ali has come to see you.”? He looked at me and went away.
I woke up. I was cocksure that I was safe. There was no sign of those evil and strange thoughts in my head. I was not afraid of the wall and doors of the hall anymore. I rendered everything to God.”?
We witness a great courage from these young women in camps while they had a logical fear of loosing their innocence and honor. Masoomeh Abadi, Fatemeh Nahid, Halimeh, and Maryam are four female POWs being captivated in Alrashid Prison in Baghdad who went on a hunger strike while they knew its hard consequences in order to reach their objectives, i.e. transferring to POWs’ camp, using the facilities of the Red Cross, and using the laws related to POWs.
In the page 37 of the book “The period of closed doors,”? we can read the memories of courage and strikes of Iranian young captive girls:
“We told the prisoner that you would have a three-day deadline. If you do not take us to the camp, we would go on a hunger strike. We were calm those three days. They thought we had turned from our purpose. Other cells had told us that our POWs had gone on hunger strike frequently before, but they had been all useless, and finally, they had been forced to break their strike.
When their time was up, we wanted the prison’s official. They told us that we had to wait. We did not want to wait anymore. We all agreed with starting a strike. We did canonical bathe of martyrdom. Then, we said aloud from behind the door, “We are four Iranian girls who must not be here. From now on, we begin our hunger strike so that you send us to Iran or introduce us to the Red Cross. International organizations are responsible for whatever happening to our lives or honor.”? We were on the hunger strike for 17 days. Maryam fainted. Masoomeh and Halimeh were shouting and crying “Ya Hossein!”? I put maryam’s head on my lap. I was so exhausted that our shouting looked like moaning. Maryam and Masoomeh’s stomachs were bleeding, but we were still on strike. Iraqis were frightened, and at last, after 17 days, the Red Cross members came to visit us by our persistence. They took snapshots from us and handed us a blue and yellow sheet to write our families letters. By gaining such a hard-to-catch victory, we were sent to POWs’ camp from Alrashid Prison.
The thing that is clear in captivated women’s memories is the combination of fear and courage as well as patience and resorting to God.
However, memory books of combatant and medic women are categorized in the second place after POWs’ books from the point of attractiveness in content. We witness different and contrary roles of women in supporting the front. One of things being read in these memories is these women’s effort for proving themselves and presenting in the front. In the early years of the war, women’s capabilities and talents were hidden behind a dark and thick curtain and the society’s atmosphere did not let them to remove it. Everyone, from male members of families to most of male combatants, considered women’s presence as a kind of trouble. Young girls who had religious commitment and jealousy had to resist and stand against them in order to reach their canonical and logical wish. Of course, most of disagreements were because of worrying about probable repetitive harms and rapes from the enemy, but there were other reasons that are not suitable to talk about here.
In the book called “Khoramshahr allies,”? that is one of the first books about the war memories; we read a memory quoted a Khoramshahri combatant girl in page 178:
“To stay in Khoramshahr and defend it, I was faced my father’s disagreement severely so that I had to stand against him. I, being so sensational and when being given a nasty look, I started to cry, stood against him that day while accepting such a behavior was too hard from me.”?
In the book of OPD’s memories, we read a memory quoted from one of Abadani medic girls, “We were working in Firooz Mosque. My elder brother came to us one day and said, “You have to get out of the city.”? However, we could not make us go. I said, “We are needed here. We have to make food for casualties and combatants. My brother got angry and kicked my face so that under my eye was black and blue and swelling for 20 days, but I did not leave the city.”?
One of the most prominent points of combatants and medic women’s memories is their liveliness and spirit. They had an extraordinary energy that freed by a phenomenon called war, and made a human full of passion, love, and movement out of a woman who had always been accused of weakness, physical deficiency, and mental problems.
In the 80th memory of the book “Days, the 4th volume,”? it is written this way: “We had a feeling that cannot be expressed. We just wanted to keep one more person alive as much as we can. It was not important that our shoes or scarves become bloody. We did not understand. There was no stretcher-bearer either. Then, we hold each injured who died immediately and took them to the mortuary.”?
We read in the same book in the 26th memory, “We rested a lot in 24 hours. In two or three hours, everybody was restless. Some people were working as a back. They made clothes, cooked food, and packed food after 12 O’clock to submit them to the staff in the morning.”?
In the 57th memory, they express their spirit this way:
“Our spirits are very high, especially we women. We worked 48 hour, 72 hour, and sometimes four successive day and nights, but when we met each other, we seem not to see each other for a hundred years. We hugged, kissed, and greet each other and started kidding. Even in the ultimate of tiredness, we told jokes for each other and burst out laughing.
Medic and combatant women had such a spirit because of direct presence in the battlefield and being happy of such presence. They saw their activities’ effects directly. They felt being useful and influential immediately and witnessed their efforts results while making those efforts. They did not wait to see what the result of the war would be, but they knew themselves as important elements in the determining the final destiny of war.
By supports being given from Imam Khomeini through the 8-year sacred defense of their presence and role in the fronts, they felt hope and liveliness strengthened in them.
However, the last category of women’s memory books in the sacred defense is the memories of martyrs’ wives. These memories are different from the other books from the point of content and women’s role, since, these memories express an indirect but very influential role of women in the sacred defense. They were women who sent their husbands to the fronts with honest and loving supports and tolerated every dangers and harms.
In all of these memories, we face a kind of deep and divine love. It is a love not having earthly and materialistic origin and its roots must be searched in the heaven.
Ghadeh, martyr Chamran’s wife, talks about her acquaintance beginning in the book “The unseen half of the moon”? in page 15 this way:
“I saw a painting from him. It has a complete black background and in the middle of this darkness, a candle was burning whose light was very petty comparing to this darkness. Under that painting, he had written, “I might not destroy this darkness, but I can show the difference between the darkness and light, and rightness and vanity by the same small light. The one who is after light will find it very big in his heart although that light is very small. When I saw his painting, I cried a lot and I felt that this light had filled throughout my heart.
In the book called “Fahimeh’s letters”? in page 140, we see a letter from Fahimeh to her husband, which is full of a divine love:
“I am like a lover who is ready to take every risk for the sake of her beloved. I love you very much, but according to some people, my fault is that I love your God more than I love you.”?
This woman prepares herself to remain, fight, and be absorbed by God expressing her love toward her husband who is in the front and her love to God.
Clean love of the sacred defense ambitious couples burns their souls until the time of martyrdom and after that and creates a strange sorrow.
In the book “The unseen half of the moon”? volume 4 page 54, we read the memory of martyr Daghaeghi’s wife: “I opened his will after his martyrdom and I was restless to find my own part to see what Ishmael had written for me. When I read that part, I was shocked. He had written, “If I gained the paradise, I will be waiting for you.”? He had told me the same word the last night of his visit.
Another feature of memories of warriors’ wives is their adaptation to different circumstances. They were not assuming and they lived with the least facility of life. They were all the time moving from one city to another and their only consolation in life was accompanying God’s men and no more. martyr Zeinodin’s wife writes in pages 20 and 21 of the 4th volume of the unseen half of the moon about the memory of going to Ahwaz this way:
“Ahwaz was a new and pretty place for us. We put our furniture into a Land Cruise Toyota. Not all of our furniture could fill even a half of the van. Ahwaz was nearly close to the frontline. My family was worry about me inQom. I went to Zeinabiyeh, the fortification base of the rear, and did tailoring and sometimes wash vegetables.”?
Martyr Babaee’s wife also tells her memory of migration from Qazvin to Dezful in page 23 of the book “The heavenly book”? this way: “We had to leave my hometown, Qazvin, and go to Dezful with Abbas. Dezful was a pretty and old town. I was in blues for the first few days. I was a teenager who had become apart from her parents. I cried most of the time and Abbas became my family in that alien city. We read in Ghadeh’s memories that she had always following Mostafa from one front to another. She spent some days in the basement of the prime ministry. She has been beside her husband in the hard days of Kurdestan in Paveh and Sardasht. She spent the beginning months of the war in the office of war commandment staff in Ahwaz until Dr. Chamran’s martyrdom. Honesty and love in the lives of great warriors whose fame is because of their belief and faith to Islam and Quran is a great lesson for young couples. These memories have capability of being changed into great novels that prove loving God to be a cause of being beautiful and lover throughout the world and faithful people are full of tenderness and kindness.
Handwritings of wartime are safe from oblivion, entering of imagination element into the memory, etc. because of being written at the same time with occurring the event. In these handwritings, features of the accident time are kept. Most of written memories have an ambitious and creed atmosphere related to the sacred defense. Although readers of these writings cannot recognize personalities and may consider them idealist and unreal people because of not seeing ambitious around them, but they accept that existence of such thoughts in the years 59 to 67 was inevitable and they were an influential element in conquering Islam combatants. In Fahimeh’s letters which is a precious document of the sacred defense history, Fahimeh does not dare of expressing her ambitions and beliefs. In those days society, no one is asked for his being propagandistic and ambitious. She talks in her letters to her young husband like an old woman teaching religious knowledge to a wayfarer who has started a way and needs guidance.
It is not significant for them at all. Maybe, nobody loves those two trees but you and me and pays no attention to them, but I write since you ordered.
The last word
1. In a cold and wet corner of the cell, Masoomeh, Fatemeh, Maryam, and Halimeh sit beside each other. A big mouse is walking around them. They have an old and lousy blanket on their legs. Their nails have grown up. Today, they have to lend nail clippers and shorten not only their nails, but also their hair. Once in a week, they are given nail clippers and they cut their nails and hair together. Every day someone delouse someone else’s hair to prevent from louses generation. In the head’s cell, there is the warm and beautiful thought of visiting their home. They practice a chant together. they are familiar and quiet whispers that they have to sing for their Imam in the first meeting.
2. The hospital is under a heavy bombardment. Every moment, the burst of explosion approaches. Many glasses are broken. All halls and rooms are full of sick casualties needing blood. The city is under siege of the enemy and there is no way to enter the city. What should we do? Farkhondeh who has a skinny face stares at an injured man with her honeyed eyes through the window of the surgery room. His body is torn and his skin looks like corpses’ skin in graves because of loosing a lot of blood.
Farkhondeh goes to the blood bank with her green uniform of the surgery room and gives blood as usual, like the last week and the last month. Her heart is happy that if she is a woman and cannot bleed in the front by fire bullet, she can grant her blood to the one whose blood is spilled by a fire bullet to make him the savior of the fronts once again.
3. A young woman stares at streets through the wooden shade hung over the window for hours hoping that Mahdi may come. She is so calm and shy that whenever she sees mahdi’s shadow from a distance in the street, she goes aside from behind the window and starts doing something. She pretends not to be waiting at all when Mahdi enters home.
That night, she stared at the street hoping to see her beloved for hours. It was late at night and her eyes were tired, but suddenly, she heard something from behind. Fear filled her. When she turned, she saw the beautiful face of Mahdi. How much he was lovely when he laughed. Mahdi told him with a smile, “These streets have become tired of your looking. Let them go!”? the woman looked down bashfully and wondered how Mahdi knew her secret.
The war began with the roaring of fighters and imposed other effects on the newborn revolution very soon.
Women took guns like men and hurried to oppose the enemy. They were martyred, injured, and evacuated for this.
To show the image of women during the sacred defense years, there is no mirror more transparent than their memories. The memories determining the history of this land, forms it, and gives spirit to it. In recent years, some steps have been taken to complete the image of women through the 8-year sacred defense, but we are still at the beginning and whatever has been done are just vague shadows of women’s presence. In this essay, the writer tries to give an analysis of women’s memories in order to provide new ways for the next steps.
A look to whatever is present:
The studies show that, approximately, 170 books have been printed about women’s role in the sacred defense. A considerable number of them are story books, scenarios, essays, and organized speeches in congresses and conferences being held. About 40 books are about memories of women who had stayed in camps, hospitals, and fronts or tied with the war through their husbands and sons and this way, they played their roles.
To more exact review of memories of the mentioned 40 books, we have categorized them in 4 groups in the following table:
1. Books about oral memories and women POWs
2. Oral memories of combatants and women medics
3. Oral memories of warriors’ wives
4. Limited self-written books of women’s memories are categorized.
Oral memories of women POWs:
- POW No. 339, the memories of Khadijeh Mirshekar
- Paper files, the memories of Masoomeh Abadi
- Eye to eye with them, the memories of Fatemeh Nahidi
- A gap to the sky, the memories of Masoomeh Abadi
- The period of closed doors, the memories of Fatemeh Nahidi
- Oral memories of combatant and medic women
- In Khoramshahr allies, the collected memories of men and women present in Khoramshahr resistance
- Women of war, the memories of combatant women
- OPD girls, the memories of the medic, Mina Komaee
- From Chandela to war, the memories of the guardian (Pasdar), Shamsi Sobhani
- Maryam’s boots, the memories of the combatant, Maryam Amjadi
- Bruises meeting, the memories of the medic, Mirzaee
- Silver flower, the memories of the medic, Saham Taghati
- On angels’ wings, the collected memories of the devotee Roghyieh Tadayon and the medic Masoomeh Ramhormozi, the guardian and chemically injured combatant Maryam Yasavol, the mother of the martyrs Khaleghi poor, and the devotee’s wife Zahra Maftooni.
- The series of the books “Days,”? the memories of Khoramshahr women
- Nurses’ memories
- The memories of combatant women in the west and south
- The oral memories of martyred warriors’ wives
- Khoramshahr, where is Jahanara? An interview with martyr Jahanara’s wife
- Morteza was the mirror of my life, an interview with martyr Morteza Avini’s wife
- The unseen half of the moon, Chamran in the tale of his wife
- The unseen half of the moon, Hemmat in the tale of his wife
- The unseen half of the moon, some minutes in the tale of the wife
- The sky, Babayi in the tale of his wife
- Hamid Bakeri in the tale of his wife
- And now the hemlock, an interview with martyr Modegh’s wife
- The grape garden, the apple garden, and the mirror garden, an interview with martyr Mehdi Bakeri’s wife
- The hidden half of a myth, a talk with martyr Hemmat’s wife
- The unseen half of the moon, Zeinodin the tale of his wife
- The self-written book of women’s memories
- Beside the river of blood, the written memories of Ashraf-o-sadat Mosavat, the mother of martyr Sistali
- Fahimeh’s letters, letters of passed Fahimeh Babaiyan poor, the wife of martyr Alireza Sadegh Zadeh
- Wandering shoes, the memories of Soheila Farjam, a war nurse
An analysis of what is present now:
The number of books related to women is limited considering the depth and greatness of the imposed war period, while; there is no sign of some women’s memories who had undeniable roles in the war. There is no sign of evacuee women who migrated from the west and south by leaving their homes and cities and came to big cities. Although there can be found some hints of them in some books and movies, there are no sign in the main and documentary sources of the war. They have not been interviewed and were not asked of their lives in small and poor rooms of evacuees’ dorms and their psychological and physical pressures through that period.
Study, research, and register of these women’s memories are able to review and analyze from the point of sociology, anthropology, and contrast of native subcultures as well as their absorption in culture of metropolises.
From the other hand, related organs have identified a considerable number of woman martyrs. Only in holding some limited congresses about memorial of woman martyrs, some books have been printed in form of essays, speeches, and selected memories of woman martyrs and it has many things to do.
Only memories of three women called Nahidi, Abadi, and Mirshekar have been collected from among female POWs’ memories. Such an effort seems too petty considering the large amount of female POWs’ memories and their deep effect on readers.
Collecting combatant and medic women’s memories started after a 10-year time distance from the war. The cultural center of Sepah and Intellectual growth Center of Children printed limited books that are not available now in public and expert libraries.
The product of recent years movement is printing less than 10 books about memories of combatant and medic women who were in low age while the war and each one suffered many bruises through the war and a lot of stress after that. After passing of at least 10 years, they have to remember their memories. Although they remember the main structure of their memories structure and it will not erase from their minds and souls, exact reminding of details, dates, logical move, the appearance order of events, names, places, and personalities as well as many other subtle but influential points is hard to remember. If they have a piece of writing of those days, even a short one, they can refer to it in case of oblivion and find a correct source for their memories; otherwise, their memories are fallible to contradiction.
However, among women’ memory books, we encounter a considerable number of memories of martyrs’ wives. They are books called The Hidden half and Memorials and are favored by people a lot.
This collection of memories follows two main goals. First, it is after recognizing and introducing martyred warriors to the society. Second, it is going to recognizing women’s role in the sacred defense through their families and spouses as well as the effect of these women’s personalities on great warriors’ spirits, souls, and efforts. It seems that the primary goal has been actualized completely, but the secondary goal, which is available in the bottom and layers of books, is forgotten sometimes.
However, the second point in reviewing the present memories is only the very limited self-written books that only 4 of whose are written by narrators and their style directly. Of course, the book “Beside the blood river”? and “At six O’clock beside Marivan’s lake”? is small collections of daily writings of a martyr’s mother and wife. Fahimeh’s letters is a collection of letters from a virtuous and sapient who has a world of religious and social knowledge inside her and sends those letters to her husband in the front. Only in the book “Wandering shoes”? or “The writer nurse,”? the first person’s memories are told in a way near to a story.
It is necessary that the related sources try to discover and register notes and handwritten memories. Definitely, the number of what present with people is more than this and the importance of these documents are hidden to everyone. From the other hand, having influential supports from related sources in collecting and registering war memories, we can create more incentives for memory owners to witness more other works.
Features of women’s memories in the sacred defense
Considering the created category, we witness different and special features in memories of each group of women. Although there are all of those common features considering characteristic structures, roles, events atmospheres, and accidents each one of these women are encountered has a great effect on forming their personalities and showing suitable reflections toward the subject. Features and characteristic governing female POWs and their memories are their first problem in facing the phenomenon of captivity. Fearing from being raped and misused is their main fear, otherwise there is not any other threat they fear from. However, these women get rid of that fear resorting to the Prophet’s family and trusting God, and consequently, God keeps them from such a serious harm.
Fatemeh Nahidi expresses her beginning of captivity in the book called “The period of closed doors”? in the page 15 this way: “Iraqi soldiers came to us. One of them got close to reach my hand. I pulled back my hand and told him, “You are alien.”? I could not think for some hours. Surely, I could not escape and I thought the best thing for me was death. With every explosion, I hiked myself up in order to be hurt by its blowup. There was nothing else important to me. I was praying to die. I asked God to forgive my sins and said my prayer; but I remembered that I had a vow to say Imam Zaman’s prayer few days ago. I fell to my knees and fulfilled my vow. After that, I felt a little calmer, but when I remembered Iraqis’ look, I shivered. However, I took myself to my God and resorted to him.
Khadijeh Mirshekar says in the book “POW,”? page 38, “After the primary investigation, I was poisoned in a big rectangular hall that looked like a mortuary and had two iron doors in both sides. Cold concrete walls of the hall mingled with a silence filling the air made me experience a strange fear. I sat down and leaned against the wall. Evil and scary thoughts filled my head. I felt, every now and then, one of those doors would open and I see a rough and evil face of one of those investigators in front of me. Tiredness and fatigue of traveling as well as the lack of sleep had put me under a great pressure, but, as soon as I closed my eyes, fear rushed over me and made me open my eyes and stare at the door. I started to pray, whip, and call the innocent Imams. I was changed. I dreamed the door of the hall opened and someone told me, “Imam Ali has come to see you.”? He looked at me and went away.
I woke up. I was cocksure that I was safe. There was no sign of those evil and strange thoughts in my head. I was not afraid of the wall and doors of the hall anymore. I rendered everything to God.”?
We witness a great courage from these young women in camps while they had a logical fear of loosing their innocence and honor. Masoomeh Abadi, Fatemeh Nahid, Halimeh, and Maryam are four female POWs being captivated in Alrashid Prison in Baghdad who went on a hunger strike while they knew its hard consequences in order to reach their objectives, i.e. transferring to POWs’ camp, using the facilities of the Red Cross, and using the laws related to POWs.
In the page 37 of the book “The period of closed doors,”? we can read the memories of courage and strikes of Iranian young captive girls:
“We told the prisoner that you would have a three-day deadline. If you do not take us to the camp, we would go on a hunger strike. We were calm those three days. They thought we had turned from our purpose. Other cells had told us that our POWs had gone on hunger strike frequently before, but they had been all useless, and finally, they had been forced to break their strike.
When their time was up, we wanted the prison’s official. They told us that we had to wait. We did not want to wait anymore. We all agreed with starting a strike. We did canonical bathe of martyrdom. Then, we said aloud from behind the door, “We are four Iranian girls who must not be here. From now on, we begin our hunger strike so that you send us to Iran or introduce us to the Red Cross. International organizations are responsible for whatever happening to our lives or honor.”? We were on the hunger strike for 17 days. Maryam fainted. Masoomeh and Halimeh were shouting and crying “Ya Hossein!”? I put maryam’s head on my lap. I was so exhausted that our shouting looked like moaning. Maryam and Masoomeh’s stomachs were bleeding, but we were still on strike. Iraqis were frightened, and at last, after 17 days, the Red Cross members came to visit us by our persistence. They took snapshots from us and handed us a blue and yellow sheet to write our families letters. By gaining such a hard-to-catch victory, we were sent to POWs’ camp from Alrashid Prison.
The thing that is clear in captivated women’s memories is the combination of fear and courage as well as patience and resorting to God.
However, memory books of combatant and medic women are categorized in the second place after POWs’ books from the point of attractiveness in content. We witness different and contrary roles of women in supporting the front. One of things being read in these memories is these women’s effort for proving themselves and presenting in the front. In the early years of the war, women’s capabilities and talents were hidden behind a dark and thick curtain and the society’s atmosphere did not let them to remove it. Everyone, from male members of families to most of male combatants, considered women’s presence as a kind of trouble. Young girls who had religious commitment and jealousy had to resist and stand against them in order to reach their canonical and logical wish. Of course, most of disagreements were because of worrying about probable repetitive harms and rapes from the enemy, but there were other reasons that are not suitable to talk about here.
In the book called “Khoramshahr allies,”? that is one of the first books about the war memories; we read a memory quoted a Khoramshahri combatant girl in page 178:
“To stay in Khoramshahr and defend it, I was faced my father’s disagreement severely so that I had to stand against him. I, being so sensational and when being given a nasty look, I started to cry, stood against him that day while accepting such a behavior was too hard from me.”?
In the book of OPD’s memories, we read a memory quoted from one of Abadani medic girls, “We were working in Firooz Mosque. My elder brother came to us one day and said, “You have to get out of the city.”? However, we could not make us go. I said, “We are needed here. We have to make food for casualties and combatants. My brother got angry and kicked my face so that under my eye was black and blue and swelling for 20 days, but I did not leave the city.”?
One of the most prominent points of combatants and medic women’s memories is their liveliness and spirit. They had an extraordinary energy that freed by a phenomenon called war, and made a human full of passion, love, and movement out of a woman who had always been accused of weakness, physical deficiency, and mental problems.
In the 80th memory of the book “Days, the 4th volume,”? it is written this way: “We had a feeling that cannot be expressed. We just wanted to keep one more person alive as much as we can. It was not important that our shoes or scarves become bloody. We did not understand. There was no stretcher-bearer either. Then, we hold each injured who died immediately and took them to the mortuary.”?
We read in the same book in the 26th memory, “We rested a lot in 24 hours. In two or three hours, everybody was restless. Some people were working as a back. They made clothes, cooked food, and packed food after 12 O’clock to submit them to the staff in the morning.”?
In the 57th memory, they express their spirit this way:
“Our spirits are very high, especially we women. We worked 48 hour, 72 hour, and sometimes four successive day and nights, but when we met each other, we seem not to see each other for a hundred years. We hugged, kissed, and greet each other and started kidding. Even in the ultimate of tiredness, we told jokes for each other and burst out laughing.
Medic and combatant women had such a spirit because of direct presence in the battlefield and being happy of such presence. They saw their activities’ effects directly. They felt being useful and influential immediately and witnessed their efforts results while making those efforts. They did not wait to see what the result of the war would be, but they knew themselves as important elements in the determining the final destiny of war.
By supports being given from Imam Khomeini through the 8-year sacred defense of their presence and role in the fronts, they felt hope and liveliness strengthened in them.
However, the last category of women’s memory books in the sacred defense is the memories of martyrs’ wives. These memories are different from the other books from the point of content and women’s role, since, these memories express an indirect but very influential role of women in the sacred defense. They were women who sent their husbands to the fronts with honest and loving supports and tolerated every dangers and harms.
In all of these memories, we face a kind of deep and divine love. It is a love not having earthly and materialistic origin and its roots must be searched in the heaven.
Ghadeh, martyr Chamran’s wife, talks about her acquaintance beginning in the book “The unseen half of the moon”? in page 15 this way:
“I saw a painting from him. It has a complete black background and in the middle of this darkness, a candle was burning whose light was very petty comparing to this darkness. Under that painting, he had written, “I might not destroy this darkness, but I can show the difference between the darkness and light, and rightness and vanity by the same small light. The one who is after light will find it very big in his heart although that light is very small. When I saw his painting, I cried a lot and I felt that this light had filled throughout my heart.
In the book called “Fahimeh’s letters”? in page 140, we see a letter from Fahimeh to her husband, which is full of a divine love:
“I am like a lover who is ready to take every risk for the sake of her beloved. I love you very much, but according to some people, my fault is that I love your God more than I love you.”?
This woman prepares herself to remain, fight, and be absorbed by God expressing her love toward her husband who is in the front and her love to God.
Clean love of the sacred defense ambitious couples burns their souls until the time of martyrdom and after that and creates a strange sorrow.
In the book “The unseen half of the moon”? volume 4 page 54, we read the memory of martyr Daghaeghi’s wife: “I opened his will after his martyrdom and I was restless to find my own part to see what Ishmael had written for me. When I read that part, I was shocked. He had written, “If I gained the paradise, I will be waiting for you.”? He had told me the same word the last night of his visit.
Another feature of memories of warriors’ wives is their adaptation to different circumstances. They were not assuming and they lived with the least facility of life. They were all the time moving from one city to another and their only consolation in life was accompanying God’s men and no more. martyr Zeinodin’s wife writes in pages 20 and 21 of the 4th volume of the unseen half of the moon about the memory of going to Ahwaz this way:
“Ahwaz was a new and pretty place for us. We put our furniture into a Land Cruise Toyota. Not all of our furniture could fill even a half of the van. Ahwaz was nearly close to the frontline. My family was worry about me inQom. I went to Zeinabiyeh, the fortification base of the rear, and did tailoring and sometimes wash vegetables.”?
Martyr Babaee’s wife also tells her memory of migration from Qazvin to Dezful in page 23 of the book “The heavenly book”? this way: “We had to leave my hometown, Qazvin, and go to Dezful with Abbas. Dezful was a pretty and old town. I was in blues for the first few days. I was a teenager who had become apart from her parents. I cried most of the time and Abbas became my family in that alien city. We read in Ghadeh’s memories that she had always following Mostafa from one front to another. She spent some days in the basement of the prime ministry. She has been beside her husband in the hard days of Kurdestan in Paveh and Sardasht. She spent the beginning months of the war in the office of war commandment staff in Ahwaz until Dr. Chamran’s martyrdom. Honesty and love in the lives of great warriors whose fame is because of their belief and faith to Islam and Quran is a great lesson for young couples. These memories have capability of being changed into great novels that prove loving God to be a cause of being beautiful and lover throughout the world and faithful people are full of tenderness and kindness.
Handwritings of wartime are safe from oblivion, entering of imagination element into the memory, etc. because of being written at the same time with occurring the event. In these handwritings, features of the accident time are kept. Most of written memories have an ambitious and creed atmosphere related to the sacred defense. Although readers of these writings cannot recognize personalities and may consider them idealist and unreal people because of not seeing ambitious around them, but they accept that existence of such thoughts in the years 59 to 67 was inevitable and they were an influential element in conquering Islam combatants. In Fahimeh’s letters which is a precious document of the sacred defense history, Fahimeh does not dare of expressing her ambitions and beliefs. In those days society, no one is asked for his being propagandistic and ambitious. She talks in her letters to her young husband like an old woman teaching religious knowledge to a wayfarer who has started a way and needs guidance.
It is not significant for them at all. Maybe, nobody loves those two trees but you and me and pays no attention to them, but I write since you ordered.
The last word
1. In a cold and wet corner of the cell, Masoomeh, Fatemeh, Maryam, and Halimeh sit beside each other. A big mouse is walking around them. They have an old and lousy blanket on their legs. Their nails have grown up. Today, they have to lend nail clippers and shorten not only their nails, but also their hair. Once in a week, they are given nail clippers and they cut their nails and hair together. Every day someone delouse someone else’s hair to prevent from louses generation. In the head’s cell, there is the warm and beautiful thought of visiting their home. They practice a chant together. they are familiar and quiet whispers that they have to sing for their Imam in the first meeting.
2. The hospital is under a heavy bombardment. Every moment, the burst of explosion approaches. Many glasses are broken. All halls and rooms are full of sick casualties needing blood. The city is under siege of the enemy and there is no way to enter the city. What should we do? Farkhondeh who has a skinny face stares at an injured man with her honeyed eyes through the window of the surgery room. His body is torn and his skin looks like corpses’ skin in graves because of loosing a lot of blood.
Farkhondeh goes to the blood bank with her green uniform of the surgery room and gives blood as usual, like the last week and the last month. Her heart is happy that if she is a woman and cannot bleed in the front by fire bullet, she can grant her blood to the one whose blood is spilled by a fire bullet to make him the savior of the fronts once again.
3. A young woman stares at streets through the wooden shade hung over the window for hours hoping that Mahdi may come. She is so calm and shy that whenever she sees mahdi’s shadow from a distance in the street, she goes aside from behind the window and starts doing something. She pretends not to be waiting at all when Mahdi enters home.
That night, she stared at the street hoping to see her beloved for hours. It was late at night and her eyes were tired, but suddenly, she heard something from behind. Fear filled her. When she turned, she saw the beautiful face of Mahdi. How much he was lovely when he laughed. Mahdi told him with a smile, “These streets have become tired of your looking. Let them go!”? the woman looked down bashfully and wondered how Mahdi knew her secret.
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