When writing becomes a fight against forgetting

Zeenat Ibrahim, the wife of Sheikh Zakzaky, in prison and after the martyrdom of her children took up the pen to narrate the history of the Islamic movement in Nigeria; The narrative in the book "To the Light" is an attempt to record the truth.

Guest note, Fateme Hosseinpour: When you read some books, you feel that the author just sat down and wrote; But some books seem to have been born in a hurry and in the midst of fear, pain and anxiety; It's as if the author knows that he may not have much time to write and should put down what he saw as soon as possible. The book "To the Light" is exactly of this type of books.

This book is not just a woman's account of her life together with Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky; It is not only the history of the Islamic movement in Nigeria. "To the Light" is a book to record the truth from the words of someone who was a part of this history; Zeenat Ibrahim, Sheikh Zakzaky's wife, who wrote part of this narrative in prison conditions and after experiencing the repression and martyrdom of her children. For this reason, we know from the beginning that we are not dealing with an ordinary text.

The book "To the Light" with the full title "The prison writings of Sheikh Zakzaky's wife about the Islamic movement in Nigeria", written by Zeenat Ibrahim, translated by the Bidar Art and Literature Office and edited and edited by Masoumeh Ramhormzi, has been published by Surah Mehr Publishing House. The printed version of the book has 188 pages and was published in 1404. But perhaps more important than the characteristics of the book are the conditions in which the text was created.

In prison, Zeenat Ibrahim decides to record the history of the Islamic movement in Nigeria; Not just to remember his personal memories, but so that the narrative of this movement is not distorted and future generations know where this movement came from and what path it took.

At the beginning of the book, he writes with shocking frankness: "I am writing these things in prison." And this exactly shows that the story is different from a normal biography.

One of the most fascinating aspects of "To the Light" is the character of Zeenat Ibrahim himself. At first glance, we might imagine that we are going to read a book about Sheikh Zakzaky, the narrator of which is his wife; But as we go further, Zeenat Ibrahim moves away from the position of a secondary character and becomes one of the main characters of the book.

She is a woman who lived next to a religious and political leader, was present in the formation and continuation of the movement, experienced pressures and arrests, and suffered the loss of her children.

For this reason, her narrative is not simply that of "a leader's wife"; It is a story of a woman who herself was in a struggle. The book "To the Light" is not only about politics and struggle, but in parts of the book, it deals with the role of women in the Islamic movement of Nigeria and the change of the traditional view of the woman's home, and it also finds a strong family and social aspect.

One of the remarkable features of the book is that the author starts from a relatively distant point to explain the Islamic movement in Nigeria. Zeenat Ibrahim first deals with the history of Islam in West Africa, colonialism and the social and political developments of this region, and then gradually reaches the formation of the Islamic movement in Nigeria and the role of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.

In the following, the life and activities of the sheikh, his education, student activities, the formation of the Islamic movement, his trip to Iran and his meeting with Imam Khomeini (RA), the establishment of Fodiyeh schools and various periods of imprisonment and government pressure are narrated.

These sections are very important for the reader who does not know much about the contemporary history of Nigeria; Because they show that the Islamic movement in Nigeria was not formed suddenly and without context, rather the author tries to explain its historical and intellectual roots. With all these historical descriptions, I think the most fascinating part of "Until the Light" is where the big history enters the small house of a family. This is where we are no longer faced with mere names and political currents; We are facing a woman, a husband, children and a family.

Zeenat talks about her life together with Sheikh; From marriage, raising children and being with his wife. But this family life does not flow in normal conditions. The shadow of political and religious activities, detention and repression is always over the family. And then, the tragedy becomes even bigger: the martyrdom of the children.

This is where "To the Light" departs from a historical book and becomes a deeply human narrative. The reader is no longer just looking to know "what happened to the movement?"; He wants to know how a woman who experienced so much loss was still able to write, narrate and continue.

"To the Light" seems like a simple title, but when we read the content of the book, its meaning becomes deeper. The whole book moves in the struggle between darkness and light: prison and freedom, loss and hope, repression and resistance, silence and narration. Zeenat Ibrahim writes in a situation where the future of himself and his family is not clear; But he decides to write so that nothing gets lost in the dark. From this point of view, "enlightenment" is not just a happy ending or a metaphor; Writing itself becomes a kind of illumination.

This book is written by Zeenat Ebrahim, and Masoumeh Ramhormzi edited and arranged the work. Ramhormzi has previously been active in the field of resistance literature and memoirs, and works such as "Last Sunday" and "Where are you helper?" It is written in hand. "Where are you, assistant?" It is also the result of long interviews with the narrator and has been published along with documents and pictures. His experience in compiling documentary and memory-based narratives is also important in "To the Light"; Because the original text had to be presented in a coherent and readable format for the Persian-speaking audience.

Perhaps the biggest strength of the book is that it takes history out of the dry and textbook mode. When we talk about colonialism, the Islamic movement in Nigeria or political developments, everything may seem distant and abstract; But when we read the same history from the mouth of a woman who was the wife of a leader of this movement and lost her children in this way, something completely different happens. History takes shape here. has a family has a mother It has a prison. It has a lack. And this separates the book from a purely informative text.

Zeenat Ibrahim does not try to show himself as a mere heroic figure. In his narrative, there are feelings, fears, family relationships and even personal moments. These parts make the characters go out of the symbolic state and become more tangible for the audience. But in some parts of the book, due to dealing with historical and intellectual contexts, it deviates from the personal narrative, and the reading rhythm may slow down a bit for the reader who is more interested in memories and life stories.

In my opinion, one of the mistakes that may occur when introducing this book is to consider "To the Light" only as a book about "Sheikh Zakzaky's wife". This title tells an important part of the truth, but not all of it. The book is about a woman who lived in a big social and political movement, witnessed its ups and downs and paid a heavy price for her beliefs. For this reason, the audience of the book is not only those interested in the life of Sheikh Zakzaky or the history of Nigeria. Anyone interested in women's memoirs, resistance literature, prison writings, contemporary history of the Islamic world, and personal accounts of major events can find something to discover in this book.

Some parts of this book do not allow us to pass by indifferently. When a woman in prison decides to write history, she is actually fighting oblivion. He knows that if he does not write, others may narrate for him; History may be rewritten from another point of view and what happened to the family and its movement may be lost in the mass of official narratives.

So writing for Zinat Ibrahim is not just a literary work; It is a duty. And maybe for this reason, we should consider "To the Light" more than a book about a leader, a book about memory, standing and the power of narration. What remains in the mind from the book is not only the name of Sheikh Zakzaky or the history of the Islamic movement in Nigeria; The image is of a woman sitting in the dark, not knowing her future, having lost her loved ones, but still writing.

Perhaps "until the light" makes sense exactly here:

Sometimes the light is not something we wait for to come from outside;

Sometimes we have to turn on a light ourselves and start narrating.

And Zeenat Ibrahim, in this book, has done exactly that.