Meeting with Zahra Sheikh Sofla, the mother of two martyrs

Altar of patience and faith

Narration of a mother in heavenly color

Oral History website
Translated by: M.B. Khoshnevisan

2025-1-14

The house was simple but it was full of the fragrance of sacrifice and spirituality. When you enter inside it, the first thing that catches your eye is the altar that stands out beautifully in a corner of the house; an altar with railings and a door that seems to bridge between this world and heaven. Inside the altar, four prayer rugs are spread out. Photos of two martyrs, Sadegh and Fakhreddin Mehdi Barzi, next to the picture of the leader of the revolution, catch the eye. This is a house where every corner has kept alive the memory of martyrs and the revolution.
Zahra Sheikh Sofla is a mother of patience and faith; she has a calm face and a big heart of sacrifice. She believes that everything that happened was a test from God. Sadegh Mehdi Barzi, the eldest son, was martyred in 1362 (1983); after returning from the front once. He went to the battlefield again and this time did not return. Four years later in 1366 (1987), Fakhreddin Mehdi Barzi, her other son, who was famous for reciting the Quran, got his wish and was martyred. Every time her children left for the battlefield, Zahra Sheikh Sofla had a dream that she was preparing to lose them.
Nevertheless, she never cried, neither for Sadeq nor for Fakhreddin. Her belief in their path and the revolution was so deep that instead of tears, she had a smile of patience on her face. She says, “My children did their duty, and I did mine.”
The body of Sadegh was brought for the mother ten years after his martyrdom; a piece of bone!
At present, miss Zahra has two sons and a daughter.
Mohammad Kazem, who is older than Sadegh and a retired orthopedic doctor, has two children. Fatima has a child named after her martyred brother, Fakhreddin. Mohammad Hussein is the mother's youngest son, who is her neighbor with 3 children and lives on the top floor of the same house. This family, with several grandchildren, now warms a house where the memory of the martyrs has never faded.
When we talk to miss Zahra, we feel that the spirit of her husband, Haj Agha Hossein, who passed away in 1383 (2004), is still present in this house. She speaks of love, patience, and duty; that the revolution has been and will be more precious to her than the lives of her loved ones. The altar of the house is a symbol of her faith and sacrifice; a place where the memory of the martyrs is alive at every moment. Here, there is a small house on earth and a large mansion in the sky; a place that smells like heaven.