The 340th Session of Night of Memory

Trace of blood

Adjusted by Leyla Rostami
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2023-6-30

The 340^th session of night of memory, titled “Radd-e Khoon (trace of blood),” aimed at memorializing security {defense} martyrs was held in Hozeh Honar’s Sooreh Hall on Thursday, October 27, 2022. In this session, Mrs. Azarvand, the wife of martyr security defender Hossein Taghipour, Mrs. Rezvaneh Dabagh, the daughter of the late Mrs. Marzieh Hadidchi Dabagh, and Sardar (General) Mohammad Kothari shared their memories and words. Davood Salehi was presenter of this night of memory.

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The first narrator, Mrs. Azarvand, the wife of security martyr Hossein Taghipour, began her speech with the words of martyr Hajj Qassem Soleimani and said, “We are the nation of Imam Hossein, we are the nation of martyrdom.” He continued these two sentences had a great impact on my life. Martyr Hossein Taghipour died a martyr on the night of the death of prophet Muhammad (blessings of God be upon him and grant him peace) and I was informed on 28th Safar (2022-09-25) at 12:30 p.m. that he had died a martyr. The funeral was also on the day of martyrdom of Imam Reza (AS). Because I have a young child among the group of generation 2000s (1380s SH)[1], it is important for me to direct my life with the hadiths of the Twelve Imams and use them in raising my child.

I say the sentence “We are the nation of Imam Hossein” had an impact on my life because Hossein requested his martyrdom from the lord Imam Hossein (AS) on the day of Arbaeen and in response to that his friend asked in video call what do you want as a souvenir? He said, “I just want to be died a martyr and pray for martyrdom. He died a martyr approximately ten days after that and on the night of the Prophet Muhammad's death.

He would like to be died a martyr as a defender of the shrine in Syria, and I expected the news of his martyrdom from Syria not from inside Iran. He talked so lovingly and sincerely about martyrdom and the path of Islam that he got his wish. He was a very jealous person. He showed me zeal in the best way. When rioters were beating his friend he went to survive him, but the rioters fell on Hossein and hit his head with brass knuckles, bricks, stones, fists, and kicks that led to martyrdom of Hossein within ten minutes.

I would like the youth of my country, the guys of 2000s and the 1970s (1350s SH)-because Hossein was born in 1979 (1358)- to learn to be jealous of their friend, their brother, their territory, their country, their leader, their Islam, and their religion. The martyrs who died for this revolution all died out of jealousy.

Then, Mrs. Azarvand explained events of the day and night of the martyrdom and how she was informed about the news of martyrdom of Hossein Taghipour and said, “The previous morning at 5:30 am, I convoyed them for their work. I will never forget; When he was putting on his shoes, he turned back and said, “Haj Khanum! I'm going out, just forgive me and forget. I said, “Where do you want to go? You are going to work and will come back in the evening, aren’t you?” He said: I am a human, I'm going, maybe I wouldn't come back at night. I said, “Inshaallah, you will come back”. He said, “To put it briefly, forgive me.”

  He used to call every one or two hours. We had frequent calls until two and three p.m. He sent a message at 4:31 p.m.: Hello, good job, forgive me, see you on the Day of Judgment. I called at 4:30 p.m. and found out that he had punched the clock and gone out to participate in the Basij call. After this message, I called and greeted. I said, “Are you coming?” He said, “No, I'm going out with the guys, don't worry, maybe I won't come at night.” I said, “What was that message?!” He said, “Well, we are human beings, I am going out, maybe a car hit me on the street.” I said: Insha’Allah, it won't happen like that. He called me continuously until 19:52. His last call was at 19:52 at night.

He asked mostly about our son, “Where is Arshia? I said, “He is exercising, he went to the gym.” He said, “You shouldn’t let him go; it's crowded outside; he's a child, a teenager.” I said, “You yourself know the child, he goes and comes back soon.” He said, “Call me whenever he would come so I would be at ease.” At 9:30 p.m., when Arshia came from the gym, I called, but unfortunately she didn't answer. I texted, but he didn't answer. He died a martyr around 10 p.m.

Because he was a colleague of my sister, they called my sister in the midnight and my sister went to the hospital. At seven in the morning, I saw he did not come. I called consequently, but he didn’t answer. Of course, my phone rang first; before that I can pick the phone up, my son answered, “They said we are your father's friends, we want to take you on a pilgrimage to Mashhad, please send us the documents so that we can reserve the tickets. We have few tickets and we have a limit otherwise the seats would be filled. Arshia hung up and gave me the phone; I called the same number again, I said I can't give you information or send you documents until I talk to Mr. Taghipour. They said we are his friends; we are going to take Basij member’s families to Mashhad. They insisted and I rejected.

I used to call Hossein every hour. Until the guys answered Hossein’s mobile and said he would come late last night and slept in the prayer room, and because they are not allowed to take the phone inside, the phones were left in the locker. I said again no problem, let me talk to Mr. Taghipour, but unfortunately, I did not manage to talk despite too much insistence. Bringing a charge home to each other and saying that wait for one more hour, and that they said he will be home at 2 a.m. and Mrs. Taghipour don't worry, I saw my sisters were coming; I was praying at 12:30; the guys of IRGC, Basiji, the governor, etc. came to our house and told the news of martyrdom of Hossein.

At the end of her speech, Ms. Azarvand said, “I have tried not to cry until now, if I did cry, it was only for Imam Hossein (AS), otherwise I would not cry for my own Hossein. My Hossein wished to be died a martyr.

To be continued…