Martyrs’ wife; the main propagators of culture of sacrifice and martyrdom

war was an inevitable situation in a country that rendered thousands of dead. Wives of the martyrs and they children are a product of war that have lived with and understood these epitomes of sacrifice and martyrdom. So they are who can be the first who claim an upper hand in this field is this multitude in present society. But the research has shown that martyrs’ wives often secretly attended the social gatherings and many of them are afraid of being asked about being a martyr’s wife. The question here is that while they have accompanied with their husbands and do this with altruism why today not only don’t they make any effort to present part of the memoranda of martyrs, neither do they preach their lifestyle, but also at circumstances they deny being a member of the great family of martyrs and prefer to be unknown. Interview with these wives and data found from previous work on the issue reveals facts showing that change in lifestyle of society and also in their lifestyle, mismanagement in the part of authorities in early establishment of fund for martyrs (bonyade shahid) and having a trial-and-error policy in this fund has led to social … to this culture.

News ID: ۲۲۰۸۳۱

چهارشنبه - ۰۳ آذر ۲۰۰۹ / 2009 03 September

Abstract: war was an inevitable situation in a country that rendered thousands of dead. Wives of the martyrs and they children are a product of war that have lived with and understood these epitomes of sacrifice and martyrdom. So they are who can be the first who claim an upper hand in this field is this multitude in present society. But the research has shown that martyrs’ wives often secretly attended the social gatherings and many of them are afraid of being asked about being a martyr’s wife. The question here is that while they have accompanied with their husbands and do this with altruism why today not only don’t they make any effort to present part of the memoranda of martyrs, neither do they preach their lifestyle, but also at circumstances they deny being a member of the great family of martyrs and prefer to be unknown. Interview with these wives and data found from previous work on the issue reveals facts showing that change in lifestyle of society and also in their lifestyle, mismanagement in the part of authorities in early establishment of fund for martyrs (bonyade shahid) and having a trial-and-error policy in this fund has led to social … to this culture.
Introduction:
Martyrs and martyrdom are terms that stem from the Arabic root Alshahada meaning being testimony and its example is given by Quran chapter two verses 169 which read those wives that nourished near their God. In a country the word martyr identifies individuals who have been killed in terrorist attacks, police operations against the … groups, drug traffickers in demonstrations during revolution and also in mass destruction during the war (Salaboni:1384, 42). Also, wives of these individuals who have been legally married to them called martyrs’ wives (Heydari 1375, 53). In other words, a woman who, in the time of the husband is dead was his legal wife and now receives tensions and stipends from the fault for martyrs (Salaboni 1384, 72). So, according to definition above, the martyrs’ wives are the nearest kin to them and have been with them everywhere and all times of their lives. For the nearest person to any man is his wife. They have witnessed their nightly prayers, almsgiving, petition the God, making money, and also love and other aspects and in a word, they have been everything to martyrs. On the other hand, culture is an all-embracing concept that includes patterns lived in and thought by the society and are transferred by the way of symbols. Culture, when used for depicting an individual, means a person of education and well-training, but when used for the whole society includes all teachings and taught (Sarukhani 1375, 175). The culture of sacrifice and martyrdom embraces the learned position for defending dignity borders and religion of a country and the sacrifice in this way, when believed to by people (Pourfallah 1381). If one is to accept this definition of culture, he can say that the understanding of life by the martyrs’ wives at times becomes so deep as if they lived together with their husbands as one body. The memorabilia of the martyrs in married life with their wives are ways of transferring the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom to the next generations. Now that two decades has been elapsed, one can testify to a kind of downfall of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom and so it can be expected that martyrs’ wives as the main social interactors take the rule of propagates of this culture revive it. This issue is important in that preserving a culture of sacrifice and martyrdom helps nation build culture on bases stronger and makes them ready to defend country. In the face of national disasters cooperate with the government and take responsibility. On the other hand, the propagating of this culture gives proper role patterns and so leads to a decrease in much social pathology (such as avoiding Hijab, delinquency and unaccepted practices).
Mani objective, question and theory
The main question is that the martyrs’ wives not only do not present their common lived experiences, but they deny their being identified as a martyr’s wife; this question leads to other questions as following:
How is the position taken by the people toward the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom?
Structures where these wives live, and how these structures can have impact on the issue of denial?
How can be the attitude of martyrs’ wives toward revealing being as such?
The main objective is to answer the above questions. This study seeks to find the ways in which the transferring of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom can be effectively achieved by martyrs’ wives and how they can be encouraged for doing so.
Methods
To measure the variables of the research we have used an eclective method including qualitative, quantitative, field study, library research, which collects and uses previous data and also new statistical data and delves into other research works. It has been our effort to give an insight to the martyrs’ wives using in-depth and non-structured interviews. We have a review of the theoretical bases of the approach of the issue from a functionalist point of view. According to functionalist theoreticians, all organs of the society work as a system in which every organ has a distinctive rule (or function) in this study the martyrs’ family is seen as a system in which different parts have different functions. In my view we expect that martyrs wives as a member of a system should function in her rule which is among them the representation of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in family and society.
People’s interest in sacrifice and martyrdom
If we assume that TV, books , mass communication , media , CDs and cassettes are means of presenting a nation and also of enriching it, which is called culture-means, one can postulate that the level of study hours and interest in books consider as a measure of people’s interest in this culture. With a glance at the bookstores of Tehran, pakta, sadra, shahed, sarir, amirkabir and the great donya library, we can see that books with romantic content have been sold 63 times more than books with martyrs’ memoirs content. Also it can be concluded that, with a visit to Tehran university central library, only o.5 percent of MA and doctorate theses by students relates to martyrs and their families and even to Fund for Martyrs. Other testimonies to this are book baskets in public buses in Tehran. While books like comics, story and tell-tale and history books are among the stolen data-x-items in early hours of the day, the books with memoirs of the famous martyrs and the war are remained unnoticed for weeks and not a single person reads it. If we accepted that the reaction of the agents to the phenomenon and the world is based on their surrounding ( azad armaki; 2002; 18,19), it can be concluded that people as social interactors do not have a positive interaction with the cultural products having contents as culture of sacrifice and martyrdom.
Martyrs, the past, present and the future
But the martyrs’ wives speak differently. Many of them say that when only a young lady, they lost their wives, men who were among the best part of the population. After a rather hard spell of mothering children single-handedly( which was the largest problem in percentage for wives in 1998, 47.2), (daryapour, 1998,11), they now are in a position in which they are asked why they do not reveal their being a martyr’s wife, while Lebanese mothers are proud of reclaiming themselves as martyrs wives?
I in search of an answer, have, in a friendly atmosphere, done interviews with 53 martyrs’ wives and asked them this question. One of them answered: ‘I remember that a day I got on a bus, I heard unintentionally the speech of two young ladies. Their issue was martyrs families and the facilities which granted to them. The first lady said:’ they have been supported more than enough. My cousin, before being a martyr’s wife, suffered many financial hardships in such a way that she was under weight. Now see that always their refrigerator is full of meat. Furthermore, in the New Years Eve, they are awarded a Kerman carpet which is first class, not to mention university entrance privileges. suppose that this guy marries and forgets that she is a martyrs wife, I wanted to accost her and get her cousin’s address to see whether she is really such but I was afraid that I may be belittled in the case of being known as martyrs wife. I wonder if I ever can show that fund for martyrs has never awarded anyone Kerman carpet”?. (First martyrs wife). Another one answered:’ look, I have five girls who are very hard working in their education so that even in the case of not having the privilege of being martyrs children, they would themselves accomplish in best and greatest universities. I am actually suffering from side-swipes as not having any problems and that my children easily go up in social ladder. No one has seen my children hard working days and nights and no one asks if their scores were such and such. Only they see this privilege that has been overemphasized. you may not expect that family next to us who has children of the same age do not show up this to me, but the more painful is that other privileges such as children of university professors and many others have been unnoticed by the public and people are always noticing us a weak multitude in the society’. These kind of confessions are much so that many of the martyrs wives are afraid of being martyrs wives (or sociologically, being labeled) as such. This factor has also affected the extent of their using fund’s facilities ( ahangar salaboni: 2005, 126). The research has shown that 3.64 percent of martyrs’ wives hide their identity as such everywhere, 6.42 percent do this in work place, and 38.8 percent in the neighborhood and 58.6 percent do this in women’s gatherings. The answer becomes obvious when we find that 54.4 percent of the martyrs’ wives were belittled by the society solely for their being martyrs wives. One may not expect them not to do so , while they are actually grappling with life hardships so that the welfare index level of 46.3 percent of these families has been described as average and 31.7 percent of them as low( ahangar salaboni: 2005, 105). Another martyrs wife said:’ how you can expect that any martyrs wife , when revealing her identity as such, not only do not receive any help, but also she must bear the hard consequences of that , speak for the people about her husband?’ with this , one notices fund for martyrs that now has been re-titled ‘ fund for martyrs and the generous’
Fund for martyrs; the past, present and the future
When on e review the biography and memoirs of martyrs, one finds that no one of the martyrs’ fought for any earthly power position. But the emergency of the situation made it necessary that families of those in the war fronts have welfare. So in 1980 with the decree of Imam Khomeini the fund for martyrs was founded for supporting martyrs families (briefing report, 2002). And up to now it has been active. The budgeting of the fund by the government has been in pace with inflation rates, so that it has increased from 216 billion Rls. In 1991 to 5014 billion Rls. In 2003(quarter century report 2004, 286). The fund staff, these anonymous agents of Imam of the Time, verily, has been working hard to fulfill their hard job. They attended to the farthest villages in the country in order to visit martyrs families and many measures has been taken to keep the level of welfare of these families. But, like any other revolutionary institution, fund for martyrs was young and practiced in a trial-and-error manner. There was not any antecedent for using it as patterns of future actions. In the early years, most activities of the fund were the distribution of every day provisions. For example, if any martyrs family wanted to give alms for him, the provisions such as rice and meat were ready for them and the memorandum was held in the presence of the fund agents. But the direct helps in kind for families like TV sets and refrigerators, if unnoticed by the officer of the fund that it was noticed by any neighboring households, caused many misconceptions in their parts that we have seen in the interview of martyrs wives above. It must be noted that in later years the agents gradually learned how to offer helps to the martyrs family, for example, they learned to deliver helps in kind in mid-day time that there may not be many people in surrounding or at night. Furthermore, they also came to the fact that it was better to give martyrs family greater power of purchasing in order to avoid these consequences. So they did this by creating job opportunities and the jobs created in 1993 were 2860 which rose to 14130 in 2002(quarter century report, 2004; 286). Despite these contextual changes, there was no change in people’s mind set and active interactors in society also did not fully understood the giant of university entrance examination facing the youth and because there was no authority describing the mechanisms of this privilege granted to martyrs families, these families became the bÃªte noir and so in circumstances like this, they did not have any option but to hide their true identity as such. What has been said until now was only a tiny part of martyrs’ wives problems. Like life problems and the peace and welfare that they can bring to the home for their children. There are many martyrs wives who work themselves in order to make a life, but the expectation of tackling their problem seems unreal in the face of heavy inflation rates and a stipend of $270 for martyrs’ family. On the other hand, working outside home spoils martyrs wives nerves, not to mention coping with the people’s reactions to them and feeling the duty of offering their husbands experiences in the war. The circumstance is yet to be compounded by the antics of the fund. I myself witnessed one episode during which in 2005 fund held a religious pilgrimage tour to Syria under the name of Paradise Garden. Although the Martyrs family had paid more than 75 percent of the expenses and it was very rejoicing trip, probably the grand leadership representative , fund and other institutions spent much so that we could settle in a great hotel, even we had a nightly session of cleaning Her Majesty Zeinab shrine, but the camera of the state-run TV station did not left us even for a moment alone and they broadcasted this puppet show in TV, or another case , every year the Judiciary holds a gathering in the Week for Government and calls for all martyrs wives around the country. They treat the families of martyrs of 7 tir( which I really appreciate them) completely differently and it is biased , even in their facilities like programmes , buses used to collect them and visit to the grand leadership which is a privilege only to families of martyrs of 7 Tir . These situations brings this question in the minds of common martyrs wives that weather, as these institutes behave martyrs differently, do God also grants martyrs different ranks or position?
All these circumstances lead to the disbelief of martyrs’ wives, but not to a growth in their thought.
THE POWERFUL MUST GIVE ALMS
THOU NEVER CANST EMULATE THEM
FOR GIVING ALMS, ZEKAT AND PRESENT
IS HARD FOR THOU, BUT 2 PRAYERS
AND WITH HUNDREDS OF STRESS
IF THOU BE STRONG IN GIVING AND GENEROSITY, THE RICH HAD BETTER TO CLEANSE THEIR PROPERTY, CLEAN CONGREGATION, SAFE DISCOURSE, FREE INSIDE AND STRENGTH OF HEART LIETH IN THE GOOD FOOD AND THE RECTITUDE OF PRAYER IN CLEAN ATTIRE. SO IT IS OBVIOUS THAT A HUNGRY INSIDE CANST HAVE WHAT STRENGTH AND AN EMPTY HAND, WHAT GENEROSITY AND PENNED FOOT WHAT MOVEMENT AND A HUNGRY, WHAT GOODNESS.
References
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3) Pourfallah, Akbar (2002). Examination and comparison of effectiveness of culture of martyrdom on society; Rasht the head quarters of fund for martyrs, guilan province
4) Heidari, sadroddin (1996). The examination of the effects of martyrs schools on the mentality and ethics of martyrs children student in schools of Tehran.MA thesis. Guiding professor: gholam abbas tavassloi, consulting professor: alireza mohseni tabrizi , azad university ; central Tehran
5) Daryapour, Zahra (1998). Examination of socio-economic position of martyrs wives in Tehran. Tehran, the research and propagation council ling agent, fund for martyrs of Islamic revolution
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10) Interview with martyrs wives, field study No 14.
11) www.womennews.org( may, 11, 2005)