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00:00:15of of
00:00:20a
00:00:24hello and of
00:00:25of welcome to atrition, i'm your host omar gazmi and in this show we delve
00:00:29into the forces of war,
00:00:30of imperialism and zionism, exploring their impact on our world and what
00:00:34it will take to overcome them. I've just returned
00:00:37of from nearly month-long trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran. I
00:00:41of traveled
00:00:41of there at the beginning of July to attend the historic funeral
00:00:43of the martered leader of Iran's Islamic
00:00:46a Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Sayid Ali Khamenei. unexpectedly, I
00:00:50stayed longer than originally
00:00:52of planned. While I was in Iran, I had the opportunity to speak to various interesting
00:00:55people, some of whom I interviewed for this show, and those
00:00:59of episodes will be coming... soon later in this show you'll
00:01:02of hear from journalist and anti-imperialist activist kalo Walsh who was also in
00:01:06Iran for the funeral. But
00:01:08of first, I want to share some of my own reflections about the trip.
00:01:12My time in Iran began with my attendance at the
00:01:14a largest funeral in history for the mata Imam Khamunity. It
00:01:18was a deeply emotional, spiritual, and I must say,
00:01:22of beautiful experience to be among millions upon millions of people, all
00:01:25gathered for the same purpose. I
00:01:28of had the opportunity to visit the Imam Kom. the blessed
00:01:32bodies of Imam Khamenei and his family members who are martered alongside him
00:01:35lay in
00:01:36of state. day and night,
00:01:38of a continuous throng of people flooded into the masalah to catch a glimpse
00:01:42of their
00:01:42of coffins, and on the 5th of July to participate in the first
00:01:46a funeral in prayer. of it was a great blessing for me to be able to stand and
00:01:50participate in that prayer. the next day I joined a
00:01:53huge procession in
00:01:54of Tehran accompaning Imam Khamenei's body through the city. millions
00:01:58of people gathered in the street. under the blistering sun to give their
00:02:03a farewell. Let's look at the short report that I filmed that day. I just had the
00:02:07opportunity to get very close to the coffin. I was about
00:02:10two meters away and emits all the people it
00:02:15of a of was of impossible to move more than a couple of inches a time. It
00:02:19took
00:02:19of me of around 30 minutes just to get out from the immediate
00:02:23of vicinity
00:02:23of the coffin which is now making its way towards
00:02:27this area. Well,
00:02:28of of course it is moving. very soly with the streets absolutely
00:02:32packed, full of people, it was got
00:02:35of wrenching to be able
00:02:37of to see the coffin
00:02:39of the one who I thought one day, perhaps
00:02:42I would pray behind, perhaps I would catch a glimpse of his
00:02:45smile a sermon that he was delivering
00:02:49and said we were seeing his coffin, that of his 14 month old
00:02:52granddaughter and his other family members being marched through
00:02:56Tehran, there are people
00:02:59in a deep state. of morning, crying, beating
00:03:03their
00:03:03of chess, of but also there is a strong sense of defiance. there are
00:03:07thousands of upon thousands of red flags being carried, that is
00:03:11the red flag of revenge and plenty of placards, not just in
00:03:15Persian, but also in English calling for revenge
00:03:19against the US president Donald Trump and against the prime minister
00:03:23of the zionist entity, Benyamin
00:03:26a Netanyahu, people are chanting death to America, death to Israel, even
00:03:30heard death to Britain, people's antipathy and indeed righteous
00:03:33anger and hatred against the United States of America and
00:03:37the Zionist entity cannot be disputed.
00:03:41What all of this demonstrates, yes again, is the power
00:03:45of the Shia Islamic morning tradition, in which grief, sadness and
00:03:49tears are not signs of weakness, but in fact are signs of
00:03:52strength, faith, resilience and capacity to
00:03:56keep going and to keep fighting. After the...
00:04:00procession in Tehran, I visited the Holy City of Mashad in the northeast
00:04:04of the country, home to the shrine of Imam
00:04:06of Radha, Shia Islam's
00:04:08of emam. It was within that shrine that Imam Khamenei's body was laid to rest
00:04:12alongside his martered family
00:04:14of members, following an enormous funeral procession that filled the city
00:04:17streets. The expansive, enchanting and beautiful
00:04:20shrine is fitting final resting place for towering
00:04:24personality, whose concrete contributions, not
00:04:26in of of just to the Islamic
00:04:31of of world, but also across the globe, will be felt. for generations to
00:04:32of come. After the funeral, I spent more time exploring and enjoying the beauty of
00:04:35Iran. As a great lover of Iranian carpets, I was
00:04:39in particularly delighted to visit Tahran's Grand Bazar to see some
00:04:42of the fine examples of Iranian artistry and handicrafts on
00:04:45display. I also visited many of Tahran's beautiful cafes,
00:04:49at various times
00:04:50a watching World Cup matches, alongside Iranians whose love for the game was
00:04:54clear despite the despicable treatment their own team received from
00:04:57of FIFA of and the United States. One
00:05:00of the places I was overwhelmed to finally visit was the holy city of Qum
00:05:04just south of Tahran which host the shrine of Saida
00:05:07Fatima, the daughter
00:05:08of the seventh imam of Shia Islam, Imam Musa al-Kazim, and this sister
00:05:12of Imam Radha who was buried in Mashad. I offered my
00:05:16salutations upon this great personality whose shrine is visited by millions
00:05:20of people from around the world every year. While I was in qu
00:05:24I stopped by Jam Karon Mosk, huge complex on the outskirts the
00:05:27city, which is believed to have been built on instructions from Imam Mahdi,
00:05:31Shia Islam's awaited savior and 12th imam. And before I
00:05:35left com, I saw the ruins the assembly of experts building and I
00:05:39filmed a short report there. I'm here. outside the
00:05:43majlist, the assembly of experts, which
00:05:47has many constitutional roles in Iran, but one the most important is
00:05:51electing the leader the Islamic Revolution, it's a
00:05:5588 member council composed of Learnard and
00:05:58noble scholars and on the 3rd of March
00:06:012026, the vicious genocidal zionist
00:06:05regime acting on faulty intelligence tried to blow
00:06:08up and kill all of those 88 members the Council.
00:06:12as they gathered to elect a new leader in the wake the martidom
00:06:15of ali husseini khamini who was killed just few
00:06:19days before, but thankfully their intelligence was wrong, but the entire
00:06:23building was raised to the ground and damage was caused to neighboring buildings
00:06:27as well. the council was able to meet just few days later and they
00:06:30elected the new leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution, ayatullah
00:06:34sayid Khamenei, successfully thwarting the
00:06:38enemy's plans and actually ensuring that the
00:06:41phrase of...
00:06:46is the leader, continues to be one the many
00:06:49slogans the Islamic Revolution.
00:06:53Back in Tehran, I attended some the nightly demonstrations at Inqalab
00:06:56Square, where millions of people have gathered since the third imposed war began on
00:07:00the 28th of February. The demonstrators expressed their support for the war
00:07:04effort, carried red flags in call for revenge against Trump and
00:07:08Netanyahu, highlighting their righteous and ceaseless anger at the
00:07:11killing of... and the aggression that the zionists have launched against
00:07:15Iran. In one of my final nights in Tahran, I visited Tabiat
00:07:19Bridge, where an open air exhibition was being held called unfinished
00:07:23homework, dedicated
00:07:24to the more than 400 children matured as result the recent US sienist
00:07:28aggression against the country, including Imam Khamenei's granddaughter
00:07:32and the school children of Minab. It was poinnant reminder the
00:07:36enemy's sick brutality and the scale of sacrifice endured by the
00:07:40Iranian people. There were many..." the vignettes from my time in the Islamic
00:07:44Republic of Iran, but I want to conclude my reflections by saying that Iran is a
00:07:48deeply misunderstood and underestimated nation, and I encourage those
00:07:52with an open mind to visit the country and to learn about it for themselves, as well
00:07:56as to experience the richness of its landscapes, architecture, cuisine,
00:08:00people and culture. I'd also caution the warmongers in the
00:08:03west that if it wasn't clear already, Iran and its people are not
00:08:07easy targets, their 300-year old civilization, their
00:08:11Islamic revolutionar. ethos and their resolved to be free, sovereign and
00:08:15independent, runs deep and strong. They've already landed
00:08:19many defeats against the US zionist empire, and they will continue
00:08:22to do so. And with that, let's turn to the interview
00:08:26that I conducted with Kyla Walsh. Kala is a journalist and
00:08:30anti-imperialist activist, originally from the United States and she now works
00:08:34with vocal politics in Lebanon. Just recently, she became the target
00:08:38of letter to the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the US attorney
00:08:41general. written by Jewish zianist US congressman Randy
00:08:45Fine. The letter called Kala a traiter and terrorist asking for
00:08:49her to be potentially executed for attending Imam Khamenei's
00:08:52funeral. I give Kalaal my full solidarity in the face of
00:08:56such barbaric threats. Let's watch the interview
00:09:00now. Kala, thank you very much for joining me on
00:09:04attrition today here in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It's so
00:09:08great to be on the show in person with you and to be in Iran with you, although I wish
00:09:12we could be... here under better circumstances. Kala, we've witnessed
00:09:16the historic, momentous funeral the martered
00:09:19leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution. Hayatullah Sayid Ali Husseini
00:09:23Khamenei. What have been your impressions the funeral and have
00:09:27you been surprised by the size of it and the turnout? I think
00:09:31I did expect there to be huge turnout. I mean everyone was saying
00:09:35before it started that this would be the biggest funeral in history the
00:09:39world or one them, and I think it certainly beat that record. uh, what
00:09:42especially surprised me, I guess, was that 10 million are
00:09:46estimated to have attended in Iraq, a country that
00:09:50was uh, a US-backed war, imposed war on Iran uh,
00:09:54just few decades ago, I think that is absolutely incredible, the
00:09:57solidarity between the Iranian and adaqi
00:10:00peoples. I've never been in crowd this large in my
00:10:04entire life. It's impossible to put into words, I don't think it's
00:10:08something I will process for years
00:10:10and... just to see people of
00:10:14all ages of all walks of life, men,
00:10:17women, people of different races, even people of different religious
00:10:21backgrounds, sobbing, crying for say.
00:10:25uh, he wasn't just this head of state or this figure head that
00:10:29the western media paints him to be, he was the father of this
00:10:33nation, he was the father of umma, and he was
00:10:37the father of all anti-imperalist people around the world who uh
00:10:40support the resistance who are struggling for liberation, and so
00:10:44people are crying as if they lost their own father. you said lot there
00:10:48about how khamini resonates with people a general
00:10:52level, wanted to ask you, what did say Ali
00:10:56Khamenei mean to you and what do you think that the left
00:11:00in western nations can learn from his life? I think
00:11:04people on the left who, as we've spoken about
00:11:07before, have this fetishism of secularism, who
00:11:11refuse to take any religious perspective seriously, write his
00:11:15work, his thought off all together, or maybe they only support him as
00:11:18a militant, but not actually for his thought and his
00:11:22contributions to revolution. revolutionary theory,
00:11:25anti-imperialist theory, and I think simply we have to
00:11:29read what he wrote. I mean, for me, reading what he
00:11:33wrote about say the movement in the US, his his work was truly
00:11:37universal, but he also spoke about so many different nations, different
00:11:41struggles outside of Iran, whether is Africa, Latin America. He
00:11:45addressed several letters to the western youth, in regards to the
00:11:49black lives matter movement back in 2014, and then also during the
00:11:52Gaza Solidarity encampments uh... adressing the western youth,
00:11:56supporting their struggle, recognizing that people in the west who support
00:12:00Palestine who are against empire also repressed by their own
00:12:03regimes, which is incredible hand of solidarity to extend to
00:12:07people a country that has been bombing and sanctioning your country and
00:12:11eventually assassinated you, so we've been extended
00:12:15this this hand of solidarity, of partnership
00:12:19in resistance, and so I think it's really worth listening to the words of Saith
00:12:22Khamene, reading his works and
00:12:26understanding the universalism of his message and how he was this
00:12:30leader for all anti-imperialist people around the
00:12:34worlds. Kala,
00:12:35you will have seen as I have, countless
00:12:39placars, thousands them saying, "kill Trump, death to
00:12:43trump, we will kill Trump, variants of that
00:12:46kind." It seems that the Iranian people have spoken when it comes to what they
00:12:50consider to be a just resolution to the crime
00:12:53the... what
00:12:57do you think the responsibility is the people in the United
00:13:01States when it comes to meaningfully
00:13:05holding to account the US president Donald Trump?
00:13:09well, one, I think the chances death to America kill
00:13:12Trump, I think those are moderate stances at this point. I
00:13:16think that is like the most basic stance we could have if we are against
00:13:20genocide, if we are against wars of aggression, if we are against global
00:13:23empire, of course we should be uh opposed
00:13:27to the existence the US empire as it is, and of
00:13:31course, it's completely logical for people whose leader was
00:13:34assassinated by Trump to want Trump's blood. I mean, what could
00:13:38you possibly expect, how could Trump be surprised by
00:13:41this? um, I think Iranians
00:13:44whenever they chant,
00:13:45you know, Margbar Amrika, of course, the
00:13:49Zionist, imperialist media in the west freaks out,
00:13:53but truly they've always... empasize so much, and there's direct quotes from Imam
00:13:57Komeini, Imam Khamenei, about this, they don't mean all the people
00:14:01in the US, they mean the system of global arrogance and
00:14:04oppression and genocide, and as I
00:14:08said before, they've always recognized that there are struggles for liberation
00:14:12within the US, whether it's black people, whether it's indigenous people, they
00:14:16recognize how the US was founded upon genocide and chattle
00:14:19slavery, and that there are people fighting for their liberation in the US, and
00:14:23I think we also see this with the brilliant communication uh
00:14:27by Iranian military units during the war, mean dedicating
00:14:30missiles to the victims of Epstein Island, to Alex Preddy
00:14:34and Rene Good who were killed in ice shootings, to black revolutionaries like
00:14:38Tupac, they have this deep deep understanding of US
00:14:41culture, society that the US leadership obviously does not
00:14:45have as it regards Iran, because if they had understood Iran they would
00:14:49not have thought they could win this war a couple days or a couple
00:14:53weeks. Kyla, you come from, leftist
00:14:56political background, what does the left in white western
00:15:00nations have to learn from shia islam when it comes to
00:15:04combatting jewish supremacism and genocidal
00:15:08American war crimes? i think we need to
00:15:11engage with Islamic and especially Shia Islamic
00:15:15liberation theology, not just in
00:15:19supporting the militancy, but also engaging in study the
00:15:23thought and ideology. I think there is so... much to learn from as it
00:15:27pertains to how leftist movements, particularly western leftist
00:15:31movements have failed. I mean, something I think about lot in
00:15:34regards to Iran is how far
00:15:36it is in the trajectory. of its revolution, it's
00:15:39been
00:15:41uh 50 years and
00:15:42at that point in say soviet history or Chinese history, there had
00:15:45been revisionism, like there had been kind of a condemnation
00:15:49the revolution's own history, its past leaders, there had been a walking
00:15:53back of its support for militant liberation
00:15:57movements abroad, there had been just this focus on building socialism in
00:16:01one country, and Iran, I think why it
00:16:04is so successful
00:16:06is one,
00:16:07it has never... engaged in such historical revisionism, and again, I'm not undermining
00:16:11the important role Russia and China play now in in making uh
00:16:15Iran's uh military, it's economy possible in terms
00:16:18the global like economic delinking from US imperialism, but if we're
00:16:22talking about building revolutionary state that is supporting broader liberation
00:16:26movements, Iran has never walked back its support for the
00:16:29other axis of resistance, nations and movements, and I think that is huge
00:16:33key to why it is so successful now, it could have... just
00:16:37you know stop supporting Palestine, stop supporting Lebanon, the sanctions could have been
00:16:41lifted, and it never made that choice because in
00:16:45Iran, supporting the oppressed is required in the
00:16:48constitution, and I don't think there's a single other constitution on earth with such
00:16:52clause as it requires supporting the oppressed,
00:16:55and third, I think there is a really important aspect
00:16:59the resistance in Iran, in the
00:17:03hasseini tradition, in the tradition the battle of
00:17:06Karbala where...
00:17:07where it is justified to resist, it is required to resist,
00:17:11even if you are the last man standing or last woman
00:17:15standing, whereas think a lot of western marxism is
00:17:19characterized by this constant delaying the
00:17:22responsibility of resistance, this constant waiting for the perfect material
00:17:25conditions, which when most people say that they mean waiting for the western working class
00:17:29to be organized, and when we look at the western working class it is
00:17:33bought off by the breadcrumbs from imperialism, the breadcrumbs from
00:17:37we can't understand the western working class, albeit oppressed by its own ruling
00:17:41class, we can't understand it without understanding how it was engineered and propped
00:17:45up by imperialism, and so I think this constant
00:17:48deferral the responsibility to resist bears start
00:17:52contrast with the constant
00:17:54embrace the role of resistance,
00:17:58not as something to be feared, but as sacred duty, whether it ends
00:18:02in victory or martterdom, each is considered victory, and this
00:18:06understanding of... revolution as transcending one's own lifetime
00:18:10carried on generation, generation, generation. um, i think the
00:18:13western left the movement as a whole, leftist movements as a whole, have
00:18:17lot to learn from this, because the left has
00:18:20ultimately in almost every place in the world, put down its
00:18:24arms, stopped resisting, stop fighting, and that is frankly why it is
00:18:27irrelevant on the international scene today, and that is why
00:18:31Iran, the axis of resistance, stand as the forefront of
00:18:35global resistance to imperialism, zionism and
00:18:39is this new poll the world that countries are gravitating towards and people
00:18:42are gravitating towards because of what it represents and not just what it says,
00:18:46but
00:18:47what is what it has shown it is materially willing to do in sacrifice for
00:18:50liberation. i think that lot of what you said there has
00:18:54actually made me think about Venezuela and the treatury
00:18:58that's going on there now under the presidency of
00:19:02Delhi Rodriguez and the comparison of course between the Islamic
00:19:05Republic of Iran and... Venezuela which
00:19:09has really not put up a fight when it comes to counter
00:19:12revolution uh, following the removal
00:19:16of Nicholas Maduro, someone I consider to be hero as the president of
00:19:20Venezuela, someone who was deeply aligned with the resistance alongside his
00:19:24predecessor Hugo Chavez, and now we see Delti
00:19:27Rodriguez uh among her the many things that she has
00:19:31done now welcoming in officials
00:19:35from the Israel occupation forces. to help when it comes to
00:19:39Venezuela's earthquake, getting people out
00:19:41of rubble, because of course the Israel occupation forces are experts are getting
00:19:45people out the rubble that they have produced in Gaza,
00:19:49south Lebanon and elsewhere, and also helping
00:19:52Venezuela to embark a plan for reconstruction. Tell me
00:19:56what you think about this and the comparison between
00:20:00Venezuela and the Islamic Republic? Absolutely. I
00:20:04mean, I tried to give Delsi Rodriguez and her...
00:20:07administration lot the benefit the doubt despite all the reporting coming
00:20:11out that even in October she was in these conversations to kind of take
00:20:15over if it came to it and uh have a
00:20:19more US friendly uh
00:20:21administration and my approach it's not been like
00:20:25I'm not coming up with some grand conspiracy about what happened I think it's pretty clear what
00:20:29happened just looking at how the policy the Venezuelan
00:20:32government has changed um allowing oil to be sent
00:20:36even indirectly. to the Israeli occupation, condemning
00:20:39Iran's retaliatory strikes on US military basis whilst
00:20:43not condemning the US Israel war of aggression on Iran, um,
00:20:47even like the domestic economic... reforms are more
00:20:51justifiable or explanatory, but kicking out Cuban
00:20:55doctors, cutting off ties and trade with Cuba,
00:20:58Iran, uh, China, Russia, and
00:21:02deporting Alex Sab and making up these insane excuses for what
00:21:06Alex Sab needs to be deported that he had fake ID when he was granted an
00:21:09ID and diploma on behalf the Venezuelan government. I mean, it's
00:21:13absurd, and I think we're offending ourselves if we're not admitting this
00:21:17reality for what it is. I think the western left. has made lot of
00:21:20excuses, i see all the time when these critiques are raised, oh it's this
00:21:24only the western left making these critiques and you're just
00:21:28being shoveness and you don't understand they're making a tactical retreat and what do you want the
00:21:32venezuelans to do all just die? um, and again i'm
00:21:36i'm not saying what should or shouldn't have been done, but living in Lebanon for
00:21:40example, speaking to people in the community the resistance, it's
00:21:44incomprehensible to people that even if your leader,
00:21:48your army commander told you to stand down and not resist the
00:21:51empire, if that happened in Hezballah, if the leaders said stop
00:21:55fighting Israel, the fighters, the community, the base the
00:21:58resistance, they would keep fighting, they would kill their leadership, and so I think there
00:22:02is like huge distinction, and again, like I'm from the US, I'm from the country
00:22:06that has been at war against Venezuela that it staged this coup and
00:22:09invasion, it makes me very sad thinking about Nicolas Maduro and his wife
00:22:13sitting in solitary confinement every day, but this, my
00:22:17perspective, it's based on conversations with people, in Venezuela, in Latin
00:22:21America uh, about you know this ultimate betrayal, and
00:22:25as I said earlier, Iran's strength has really been in never abandoning
00:22:29its allies, even when Iran has been under imposed wars under these
00:22:33immense sanctions regimes, and of course Latin America is different context
00:22:36being more directly under the boot of US empire, but at the same time I think
00:22:40we can attribute what happened in Venezuela, like it's not
00:22:44just the fault of one individual Delcy, and it would
00:22:47be um, it would be... just mistaken to blame it on that or
00:22:51attribute it to that, it's also result of Mexico,
00:22:55Brazil, Colombia, taking these really cowardly stances
00:22:59that ultimately delegitimize Maduro's uh legitimacy
00:23:02and and sovereignty and election results, the same governments
00:23:06who of course are abandening Cuba right now and letting Cuba be strangled
00:23:10in this economic blockade, um so I think it's it's really
00:23:14shameful what has happened and that the US thought that
00:23:18the same thing would happen in Iran, is a fundamental difference in the
00:23:22understanding of Iran, and that's not to downplay the
00:23:25immense successes the Bolivarian revolution, but the
00:23:29Bolivarian revolution was this more like social revolution, this
00:23:32electoral process, and I think even the Cuban
00:23:35Revolution has very different character because it was one
00:23:39through uh many years of gorilla warfare of
00:23:42actually uh completely consolidating a one-party revolutionary
00:23:46state and ousting the opposition, outing...
00:23:50the war criminals, the US-backed war criminals that ruled before, and of
00:23:54course the Iranian revolution also had its own unique process, but of a
00:23:57militant revolution that really like reestablished an entire
00:24:01new system, and I don't think the bulvarian revolution was ever that
00:24:04consolidated or completed to that end, and I think
00:24:08that can explain some of what we've seen today, but I
00:24:12think probably out of all the betrayals and
00:24:16counter-revolutionary setbocks that we've seen since January 3rd, Iowa
00:24:20leaders sitting a table with Delsi Rodriguez
00:24:24planning not just their expertise and home demolition, which they know
00:24:28because they're committing genocide in Gaza and South Lebanon, but
00:24:31also Delsi is asking them to present an entire national
00:24:35reconstruction plan for the future, um, I mean, how
00:24:39more bletent does this get, how many more excuses can we make
00:24:43before we recognize that this is a counter revolution,
00:24:45and I don't think pretending that it's not helps anyone, I'm also interested in carry.
00:24:50on the Boulevarian Revolution, I'm not so quick to say that it is dead, but it's up to the
00:24:54masses, it's up to the communes, it's up to the people to take it back into their own
00:24:57hands and sees it from this leadership that is selling it out
00:25:01to the Epstein regimes. Well Kala, you provided lot of food for thought
00:25:05there, I'd love to carry on engaging in this conversation, but I know that we're
00:25:09both very tired, it's been a long schedule here for the
00:25:12funeral the blessed matatullah
00:25:15Khamini, and I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.
00:25:19Thank you.
00:26:05This week on expose we examine the stories shaping public debate
00:26:08from political profiteering allegations covered by ms now
00:26:12economic anxieties highlighted by PBS News
00:26:16and the framing of war coverage by CBS News and
00:26:19Al-Jazira English. We explore how users on X are
00:26:23challenging official claims. While American latent satire
00:26:27turns political statements into moments of scrutiny, a journey through
00:26:31media numbers and public reaction reveals the forces shaping
00:26:35perception in turbulent times, the cost of conflict on
00:26:39expose.
00:26:50It was just after 10 o'clock in the evening, the Imam Hassan
00:26:53community gathering in the city of Ray had began empty.
00:26:57Eightyear-old avin Amir Khashani, a little girl with brown hair, dimples
00:27:01and bright eyes. was walking hand in hand with her
00:27:04mother, without warning, the night sky turned yellow,
00:27:08deafining explosion from the nearby oil refinery shook the
00:27:12ground beneath them. "mum, mom, run, run!", avina
00:27:15screamed. then came the dust, the smoke, and the
00:27:19silence.
00:27:21the night before avine
00:27:23had written in her diary, "dear leader, I want to become a martter like
00:27:26you." less than 24 hours later she died in her
00:27:30grandmother's arms. this, is story of Oven's brief
00:27:34life told through the memories of her mother Lasek who was
00:27:38herself seriously wounded in the attack. When the war began,
00:27:42Leila recalls I rushed to collect Ovine from school. Two fighter jets
00:27:45flew overhead and she kept asking what was happening. I told her, I
00:27:49think America has attacked, but don't worry, you're safe.
00:27:53Nothing will happen to you. As Laila reaches the
00:27:57night the explosion, her voice begans to shake. That
00:28:00evening, after breaking our fast, we went. shopping for new year's
00:28:03clothes, we bought avine new pair of trousers, they were a
00:28:07little too long, i plan to shorten them later, yet
00:28:11never happened, her husband dropped Laila Vene and her younger
00:28:14brother at her mother's house, together they walked to the nightly
00:28:18gathering, avin happy carried picture the marted
00:28:22leader. on their way home, everything changed, the
00:28:25refinery was struck, the flash was blinding, people scattered in
00:28:29every direction, ofvin kept shouting mom run, run, i can
00:28:33still hear her voice. when the dust settled, i realized my hand had
00:28:37been hit by sharpnow and my left leg had been severed below the
00:28:40ankle. her mother was holding ovine. she looked peaceful.
00:28:44there wasn't a scratched on her face. we thought she had simply lost
00:28:48consciousness. a stranger picked her up and ran towards the
00:28:52hospital. kept screaming, don't take ovin away, but i
00:28:55couldn't move. i couldn't even hold my own daughter one last
00:28:59time. for 10 days while la lay in hospital. everyone told her
00:29:03Ovine was intensive care, only the day before the
00:29:07funeral did they tell her she had died, despite the pain, Laila smiles
00:29:11when she remembers her daughter,
00:29:13she was like a bottle of perfume, whenever she entered her room,
00:29:16she filled it with warmth, every one loved her, today, perhaps no one
00:29:20feels Ovine's absence more deeply than her six-year-old brother,
00:29:24Amir Ali, who was also injured that night, he didn't just lose
00:29:28sister, their mother says he lost his closest friend.
00:30:11This hour's top headlines: the Yemani armed forces say they have
00:30:15carried out strikes on Saudi back troops in the Mariba province
00:30:19of
00:30:19Yemen.
00:30:23Yemen's four ministry says no coalition can deny the Yemani
00:30:27people their legitimate rights following a Saudi Turkish Pakistani
00:30:31defense pact signed. in
00:30:32Mecca,
00:30:36and finally, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson has hit back at
00:30:39Trump's claim of taking Iran oil, saying, before you claim the
00:30:43spoils of war, you have to win the
00:30:45war.