The Way We Used to Die

Abdul-vahid Shariati, middle school principal, Village of Kharaghani, NE Iran, with son, Mehdi, 7.

“I volunteered to go to [Iran-Iraq 1980-88] war when I was 15. For the next eight years, we would go for specific battles and then return home.

“It was a different time and feeling. Death was everywhere. I saw people get killed in front of me many times.

“I remember one time, we were trying to capture a hill but every person who’d get up would get shot. There was this one guy who said he could outrun the bullets. He got up and started running. Then I saw him get hit directly by RPG. I saw him turn into powder in front of my eyes.

“Seeing the carnage didn’t bother me. Just the opposite, we had been so conditioned that we all wanted to die. Those who survived were upset that it wasn’t us who had been the shahid [person who dies in defense of Islam].

“Death was expected. Living was the unexpected. During one battle, of the 450 who went from this area, only 30 returned.”

“No, not at all. It’s a different time today.”