This is our home, our life—you wish to see it destroyed
Narration of the war from within
Jila Baniyaghoob*
English translation: Raha Sabet Sarvestani
IRWomen**
Translator’s note: Despite the atmosphere of war and repression, the narration portrays women not as passive victims but as active social actors. It shows how war reshapes urban life and gender relations. This is part of the narration translated into English:
‘ Yesterday, around sunset on the fifth day of the war, I walked for a long time along Valiasr Street in Tehran. It is the same place where, every year in the evenings of late Esfand (the last month of the Iranian calendar before Nowruz), I used to walk and watch the excitement and energy of the people. Street vendors would multiply during this month, especially women. I always tried to buy more from the women vendors. Some of them had traveled from distant towns to Tehran to sell their products in the weeks leading up to Nowruz. One woman had come from Birjand, selling beautifully colored dried plums, puffed ghareh-ghoroot, dried dill, and mint. A young girl promoted her embroidered scarves, saying, “You won’t find these anywhere at this price.” Some had already begun selling Haft-Seen decorations, painted eggs, pillowcases, and tablecloths they had sewn themselves. The voices of male and female vendors blended with the chatter of customers. People joked, bargained, and asked for discounts. And again and again you could hear the phrase: “Use it with joy.” But yesterday, on the fifth day of the war, on the 13th of Esfand, Valiasr Street was silent and empty. So silent that it felt as if a cloud of sorrow was being scattered over me. There were no street vendors at all. Only a few shops were open, and almost none had customers. The scenes before my eyes kept colliding with my memories of Esfand evenings in past years, but they no longer matched. These days, wherever I look, I cannot find the city I once knew. A lump formed in my throat. Where did our vibrant and energetic Esfand go? Where are all those street vendors whose only hope was their New Year sales? How much harder must their already difficult livelihoods be now, under the shadow of war?… I said to myself: This is our home, our life, .why would anyone wish for its destruction?’ Tehran, 14 Esfand 1404
*Former political prisoner, banned from journalism for thirty years by Iran’s Revolutionary Courts
**Iranian Women’s Center
