One Woman's War: Da (Mother): The Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseyni

One Woman's War is many things. Part autobiography, part oral history of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), the work is the story of Zahra Hoseyni, a female descendant of the Prophet Mohammad (thereby termed a Seyyedeh), whose Kurdish family found refuge in Iran after being expelled from their native Iraq. There are three parts to the book. The first speaks of the author's early life--her childhood in Iraq, her family's emigration to Iran, and their struggles adapting to life in Khorramshahr, a port city on the Persian Gulf. The second and largest part deals with Zahra Hoseyni's experiences during the first three weeks of the Iran-Iraq War (September 22-October 13, 1980), including her activities as a collector of body parts and washer of corpses, her role as a nurse to wounded civilians and soldiers, and her activities as a combatant in the defense of Khorramshahr. The final part of the book is devoted to Zahra Hoseyni's recovery from shrapnel wounds received on the battlefield and to her married life, spent in two homes: one in a suburban area of southwestern Iran within commuting distance of the front and the second in an urban apartment house in central Tehran. [publisher]