A Victim’s Story: Martyr Zulfa Khezri

 

 

 

Martyr Zulfa Khezri

 

“Guest of Paradise”

Martyr Zulfa Khezri

9 year old child

Date of martyrdom: December 18, 1980

 

Childhood memories were mostly filled with beautiful games in the streets, family parties, and children’s games. In their childhood world, children played many adult roles. They put themselves in the role of adults and tried to be kind parents, good doctors, good pilots, good teachers, and all of this was very beautiful and sweet in childhood.

 

When several children gathered together, everyone played their own role and no one tried to ruin another’s role. Even though they knew that it was all a game, they immersed themselves in their roles as seriously as possible. Family parties were where these games took place more than ever. Back then, it wasn’t like now, when families were all glued to the TV and phones. There wasn’t that kind of thing, and most of the people’s pastimes were family parties. They would get together, have dinner, and spend time together with tea and raisins. They were happy. Parents would talk to each other, talk about what they had done, and talk about their plans. The children were also on their own and played. At dinner, everyone would sit around a big table and live their lives in the sweetest way possible. The children were also in their own roles, and in that small room, they were dreaming for themselves as big as the world.

 

Zulfa was the only child in the family and was 9 years old. When her parents told her they were going to a party, she was shocked. She was in the third grade and her third-grade exams were about to start. This was the last time she could play with the other children in her family. Zulfa would go through her day with great excitement until her parents got ready and took her to the party. Like many children her age, Zulfa was dreaming of her childhood and had no idea about the world of bombs and blood.

 

She was an innocent girl who was living her 9th birthday, with the love and affection of her parents and the hope in her eyes, and her parents lived with that hope.

 

Her parents often saw her as an adult, successful, and had beautiful dreams for her. Zolfa was born on September 20, 1977, and her entire life was surrounded by the sweetness of her family and parents. She was her parents’ sweet dream.

 

Zulfa had many friends at school. She also liked their new teacher very much. When she went to school this year, she had learned a lot of new things by then. She wanted to improve in the future. That’s why she studied very seriously and tried to always do her homework on time. That day, the party decided to finish her homework early so that she could relax and play freely.

 

Zulfa’s classmates loved her very much because she was a kind and beautiful girl. During recess, in the hustle and bustle of school, they played with each other and had fun. When they got their new books at the beginning of the year, they all opened their books and smelled the new book and made a lot of new memories together. But three months had passed since school began and everyone had gotten used to school and were thinking about their semester exams.

 

On December 18, 1980, Zolfa and her parents set off for Rahnama Street to visit their relatives. Zolfa was very eager to get there, because at that time, family visits were one of the best pastimes for families. The children always enjoyed themselves much more than the adults. The adults might sit and talk about their problems and daily events, but the children just played and enjoyed the innocent world of their childhood.

 

But the hypocrites had planted a bomb on their way and on the street. As usual, they had no goal other than to kill innocent people, and their only reason for bombing was to take victims from ordinary people; to avenge their own defeats on people elsewhere.

 

The bomb planted in the street suddenly exploded as Zulfa’s family was passing by. Zulfa’s parents were not seriously injured by the explosion, but Zulfa was severely injured and fell to the ground in front of her parents. Her parents rushed their injured child to the hospital, but the injuries she had sustained were so serious that Zulfa could not bear it and was martyred.

 

Sometimes the story changes suddenly from one place to another. The party was ruined that night, but there was a party for Zulfa in heaven, and she continued her innocent world in heaven.

 

The school chair and classroom were empty of Zolfa’s presence. For her friends, only the memory of Zolfa’s laughter remained; the days they talked and laughed with each other, the days they did their homework together, the days they chased each other in the schoolyard and rejoiced. Zolfa’s playmates had lost one of their roles and now they had to feel her empty place when they played. Zolfa’s empty place in children’s games was never filled again.

 

These were all unfinished stories that the heartless hypocrites wrote for the people of this land. Unfinished stories of innocent children and the lost dreams of fathers and mothers…