An Exceptional Haft‑Seen Table
Selected by Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by Kianoush Borzouei
2026-3-31
I wanted to celebrate the new year with my family. Together with two relief workers I boarded buses designated for transporting the wounded to Choubideh and received our mission orders. We waited for a helicopter to take us to Bandar Imam Khomeini. I was stationed near the helicopter’s touchdown zone and was slight in build. As the helicopter was about to land, I could not steady myself; the breeze generated by the rotor blades lifted me off the ground. I began to laugh and thought to myself how fortunate I was not to have fallen into the nearby ditch.
The night before the New Year I arrived home. At 20:33:31 on Friday night the year was to turn. We were to gather in Dada’s room—he was our eldest—at the moment of the new year. The Haft‑Seen table they had laid was very modest, displaying only apples and senjed; there was no red goldfish in a crystal bowl. Surprised, I asked, “Then why is your Haft‑Seen set up like this?! There are so few ‘seens’ (items beginning with S)!”
Ziba‑khanum replied, “This year we do not celebrate. With so many martyrs we have lost, who can bear to lay out a festive Haft‑Seen? We set this table for the children.” Then, jokingly, she added, “Of the seven ‘seens’ we have five: Sib (apple), Senjed, Sofreh (the spread), Samovar, and the sabad (fruit basket)!”[1]
[1] Source: The City’s Lit Lamps, memoirs of Zohreh Farhadi; Faezeh Sasanikhah (ed.), Tehran: Sureh‑Mehr Publishing, 2nd ed., 2019, pp. 359–360.
Number of Visits: 118
The latest
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 6
- Memories of Farshid Eskandari
- Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 28
- An Interview with Members of an Iraqi Mawkib Present at the Gatherings in Tehran
- Memoirs of Manizheh Lashkari
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 5
- 100 Questions/27
Most visited
- 100 Questions/26
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 5
- 100 Questions/27
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 27
- An Interview with Members of an Iraqi Mawkib Present at the Gatherings in Tehran
- Memoirs of Manizheh Lashkari
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 28
- Memories of Farshid Eskandari
The Editor's Missing Place on the “Deck”
The book From Deck to Heaven offers a relatively fresh approach to examining the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Navy (AJA) during the eight years of the Sacred Defense, published under the “Oral History of the Islamic Revolution” series. To compile this book, the esteemed author has utilized documentary research (referring to relevant archival centers and selecting documents) and field research ...An Exceptional Haft‑Seen Table
I wanted to celebrate the new year with my family. Together with two relief workers I boarded buses designated for transporting the wounded to Choubideh and received our mission orders. We waited for a helicopter to take us to Bandar Imam Khomeini. I was stationed near the helicopter’s touchdown zone and was slight in build. As the helicopter was about to land, I could not steady myself; the breeze generated by the rotor blades lifted me off the ground.Spring under the shadow of war
Composing the Spring special for the new year in the past years was mostly along with hope, nature’s rebirth and the promise of renewal of life. Spring has always been a reminder for returning of life and peace after the Winters’ cold. This year though, another atmosphere has settled over our land in the last days of Esfand (March).Excerpt from the Memoirs of Mohammad-Hadi Ardebilli
I registered for Konkour (university entrance exam), following the conclusion of high school. I was accepted into Tehran’s polytechnic (Amirkabir) university and began to study chemical and petrochemical engineering. There was a building named Jordan in the faculty in which religious students had prepared a small room as a house of prayer and did the noon and afternoon prayers in there.
