A MEMORY

      I remember that I was just 12 years old when I heard the first explosion of  
a huge bomb in the middle of my town.
While I was holding my mother's hand and shaking as if I was naked in north pole, I asked mama why we were hiding in the basement.
She said, "It is safer down here, honey."
Mama held me and my two younger brothers tightly and added, "There will never be another war."
But, I believe that was the first sign of the long war between Iraq and Iran.

       Finally, the bombing ended and it was quiet.  
       We came up from the basement and heard  people running and screaming.
               Someone had been shot. 
                      This became daily life in Qasre Shirin.       
Everyday some family lost a loved-one or became homeless. Lots of people left the town, moving to the far east in Iran. But my family had no chance to make this way. My mama married my father when she was seventeen. She used to say that she and my father built their house with their bare hands.
When they moved to the area, there were just fruit gardens all around and no water-pipe system. She had to bring water one kilometer from the river 2 times a day....
The house was theirs after all and they could not just leave it there. At that point, the Islamic revolution in Iran had been going on for a year. A bloody war, which was started between revolutionary guards
and the Kurds from early days of revolution, still raged on in my area. I used to hear about relative and friends who went to the mountains
to fight for Kurdish faith ...