Memoirs of Manizheh Lashkari
2026-4-29
Monijeh Lashkari, the wife of the late freed POW (Prisoner of War) and martyr Hossein Lashkari, was a guest at the 282nd session of the “Night of Memories” program (August 2017). She spoke about her memories of her husband’s return home.
Mrs. Lashkari married pilot Hossein Lashkari in 1979. They lived together for only one year and four months. After that, Hossein Lashkari spent eighteen years in captivity under Saddam’s army. He was released in 1999 and passed away in 2009.
Monijeh Lashkari said:
The years after Hossein’s passing have been among the hardest years of my life. Even during that one year and four months at the beginning of our married life, we were apart for about seven or eight months. Because of my condition during pregnancy and the birth of our son, I was in Tehran while he was stationed in the south of the country.
It is very difficult for me to speak about the hardships of those eighteen years when my husband was in captivity. But despite all those hardships, it is actually the years after 2009 that have bent my back and weakened my eyes. From that time on, I have lost both my physical and emotional health.
When he returned from captivity, he was a man who had suffered greatly. He wished to do many things, but he couldn’t. He wanted to eat many kinds of food, but he couldn’t. Yet despite all this, I was happy with him. Although my husband had endured immense pain and hardship, he was very self‑restrained. Even though I was the closest person to him, he could not truly communicate with me. He only tried to make sure that I was calm and happy.
Hossein had endured profound loneliness and had spent ten years in solitary confinement. I provided him with all the peace and comfort that a woman can create in her home, but even so, I could not truly help him. God sent him to this world for a short time as a lesson for others. He remained in the history of my country as a lasting symbol.
What had made Hossein happy during his years of captivity was a letter he received from me in 1995. This happened when the Red Cross had finally learned of his captivity. For about sixteen years, we had no news of him. I sent him a photograph of myself and our son. After he was freed, whenever we looked at that photograph together, he would say to me: ‘When I saw this picture in prison, for two days I couldn’t eat anything. I couldn’t believe that the baby who had been three months old was now taller than his mother.’”
The narration continues.
So far, 377 sessions of the “Night of Memories” program on the Sacred Defense have been held by the Center for the Study and Research of the Culture and Literature of Resistance and the Office of Resistance Literature and Art at the Art Bureau. The next session will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2026.
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