From Miniskirt to Hijab by Jacqueline Saper

Author:Jacqueline Saper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO026000 Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, BIO022000 Biography & Autobiography / Women, HIS026020 History / Middle East / Iran
Publisher: Potomac Books

17

The Sacred Defense

Local coverage of the Iran-Iraq War was constant. We were barraged 24-7 with news footage of buildings flattened to rubble and dead bodies scattered about and covered in dust. Tens of thousands of people had already been displaced. Refugees from the Iranian province of Khuzestan, which shared its western border with Iraq and was along the right bank of the Arvand Rud, had fled to Shiraz. Khorramshahr (meaning “verdant city”), the main city of Khuzestan, had been captured by the Iraqis. The effort to retake the city was the focus of the early days of the war and became known as the “Battle of Khorramshahr.” In commemoration of the carnage, the Iranians renamed the city “Khuninshahr” (city of blood). The reach of the war was spreading to the interior of the country. The urban areas of Isfahan and Tehran were targeted, but due to the proximity of Shiraz to the border, we were at considerable risk. This war was not going to be ending soon.

At sundown, our homes, too, fell into darkness and gloom. Ebi and I used a small candle as our sole source of light. By radio, we were introduced to the air-raid siren. The screeching sound warned citizens that bombing was imminent, and to take shelter.

All media publicized safety tips, including how to apply duct tape—diagonally in the shape of a large X—to our windows to minimize glass shattering. My first evening home from the hospital, Mom, Ebi, and I, with our newborn in my arms, sat under the cold staircase of the house. Our neighbors had not yet joined us.

Ebi gave me some words of comfort, “We will get out of this mess. I will find a way to get us out of here.”

We decided to name our daughter “Leora,” derived from the Hebrew word “ora,” meaning “light.” However, I soon learned that, due to the regime’s desire to purge the country of Western influence, the Iranian sabt-e ahvaal (registrar’s office) maintained a list of acceptable Arabic and Persian names to choose from. Non-Muslims, however, were exempt from this imposed restriction, and we were able to name our child as we wished.

Needless to say, Dad never joined us in Shiraz. A few weeks later, Mom left with two of our friends who were driving to Tehran. My mother-in-law, Malka, took a bus from Isfahan to Shiraz to visit us. Malka, like Mom, was a source of great comfort and help.

The revolutionary fervor had taken on a renewed urgency with the Iran-Iraq War, known as the “Sacred Defense.” Patriotic Iranians volunteered to defend the country against the aggressors. Ayatollah Khomeini declared that Iran would not cease fighting until Saddam Hussein’s regime toppled. It was every Iranian’s sacred duty to participate in the country’s defense and to push the Iraqi forces back across the borders. Hundreds of thousands of young and old men from far-away towns and metropolitan cities were either drafted or volunteered to go to war. In noncombat roles, women, too, participated in the war effort.

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