The miracle of knitting needles
Wars are not only defined by the roar of artillery and front lines of fire; History sometimes scrolls behind simple windows and on faded tiles, where a white-haired woman places the intersection of love and will in a row.
According to Ambassador Arjan's report, Aaghat newspaper wrote: Fatemeh Falkian, the calm and patient old woman whom our modern history knew as Nene Esmat, passed away on the 21st. But what remained of him is not just a nostalgic memory of the war days. He was the standard-bearer of a deep and transformative meaning: redefining the field of Jihad with empty hands. Nene Esmet showed that there is no need to wear combat uniforms and fire mortars in order to stay in the ranks of history. In the corner of a humble house, a mother can be turned into an irreplaceable weapon against the coldness of the times. A woman who, with yarn and two knitting needles, extended the geography of resistance from the embankments of the West to the trenches of Beirut and Damascus.
In the world's military literature, logistics support is defined with giant fuel convoys, transport helicopters and strategic warehouses. But in the lived logic that Nene Esmat made, logistics was rooted in emotion. It all started from a bone-burning winter in the early 60s; In the days when the news came, the searing cold of Marivan and Bazidraz penetrates to the marrow of the children's bones, and the guns stick to their hands due to the severity of frostbite. At the same moment when many people put their hands on their hands with regret, "what will happen to us", a simple-hearted woman opened her clothes.
The constant clatter of metal knitting needles was the unassuming symphony of support lines all those years. He envisioned the numb fingers behind the mattresses and watchtowers; He saw a warrior whose cold Kurdistan avalanche took away the ability to stand. Nene Esmat, without any claims, took the poles so that the claws of the security guards of this land would stay warm. His work was neither planned in the joint headquarters nor had an organizational directive; This was the inner boiling of a mother who, when her heart trembles for the children of her country, dedicates her whole life to their peace. With each knot, he hid his prayers and the warmth of his soul in the taropod of the braids to reach the embankments.
The biggest mental error of contemporary man is to look at unattainable heroes; It is a delusion that standing against oppression or victory of the right is a huge project that can only be done by superhumans, famous strategists or men of steel. Nene Esmat rose up against this statement. He broke this historical illusion with his stooped stature and eyes that grew smaller year by year. His silent message to all generations was clear and unmistakable: to be effective, you don't need fancy jobs, astronomical budgets, and elaborate organizations.
In Nene Esmat's system, everyone is a soldier of a great front with any tool in his hand. If medicine, with your specialty; If you are a writer, with your words and if you are an old woman staying at home, with the same spool of yarn. Nene Esmet taught us that efficiency is defined in the ratio between possessions and honesty in sacrifice. He brought all his capital to the field; Two metal rods, a few balls of colored thread and a heart as big as a country. Not reducing the duty to the lack of means was a great lesson that was issued from the small four walls of his house to the whole community: no power to help is small, as long as the intentions are big.
A forgotten virtue called persistence
The imposed war ended, the victory marches and acceptance of the resolution were broadcast from the loudspeakers, and the cities gradually forgot the taste of fire under the daily dust; But Nene Esmat's desires did not stop. The most amazing aspect of this lady's personality was continuity; A rare gem in a world where everything is seasonal, exciting and fleeting. Nene Esmat did not see her work as a project; He defined resistance as a biological pathway.
The war was over, but she knew there were border guards who wouldn't bat an eyelid in the subzero cold, Alvathan and Mako, so that this land would sleep peacefully, so she continued to knit. Her thin figure became more bent, but the weaving did not stop. Whenever an earthquake shakes the urban soil, Nene's gloves reach the crisis areas; Whenever a border was threatened, the coils were rewound. This unshakable loyalty over four decades transformed Nene Ismat from a momentary kind face into a living moral school: the virtue of being tireless in the way you believe is right.
Breaking borders and motherhood without a passport
Perhaps the most impressive chapter of this note is the climax of Nene Ismat's connection with the natural extension of his thought; Where the concept of the front went beyond the framework of geographical borders. With the emergence of Takfiri terrorism in the region and the resurgence of war in Shamat and Iraq, the same black winters came again; This time, not in Arvand and Shalamcheh, but in Aleppo, Khan Toman and the heights of Tadmar.
For Nene Asmat, the oppressor was the oppressor and the defender was the defender. She showed that true motherhood does not recognize conventional boundaries, dialects and languages. The gloves were knitted, packed, and the cartons were written in shaky script: "For the Warriors of Islam." In those days, a young warrior in the cold desert of Palmyra or a ruined house in Aleppo used to wear a glove whose taropod was woven with the prayers of an Iranian woman in a simple house. Her gloves went to Damascus, reached Nabatieh in southern Lebanon and became a symbol of female and human solidarity; A resistance that became international because its emotional roots were cross-border.
When a symbol becomes a weapon of cognitive warfare
At a time when huge media machines try to reduce the concept of sacrifice to blind prejudice or political decisions, a phenomenon like Nene Esmat disrupts all equations. The western world and the mainstream media have always represented the image of women in the geography of resistance as a passive character and on the sidelines. Nene Asmat was a decisive and objective answer to this fake portrayal: an active, history-making and impactful woman who does not wait for changes, but becomes an integral part of the changes.
The value of Nene Asmat's gloves was not only in keeping the hands warm; Its value was in giving the gift of meaning and hope, motherhood and support. That soldier who stood guard in the cold in the morning twilight, when he touched Nene's glove, he knew that he was not alone; He felt that millions of people were behind him, praying for him to stand up. This is the highest level of mental rehabilitation in any battle; An emotional capital that cannot be built with any advanced weapon.
Farewell to the woman who defined resistance
The 21st of Mehr was the day of silence of this mother's hot hands. He went to rest in the company of young people who had once lived at night to keep their trenches warm. But the lamentation for Nene Ismat should not take the color of despair and ending. His departure is not the end of a history, but a retelling of the mission he carried throughout his life. Nene Esmet taught us that the battle between light and darkness is going on at any level and with any talent. At a time when Gaza is resisting under the rubble, South Lebanon is under fire, and the arteries of jealousy are boiling in the veins of the nation, the legacy of Nene Asmat is louder than ever: no one is excused. Everyone has problems; One coil is language and pen, another coil is skill and knowledge, and another coil is property. We must get to work, tie knots, bring Nene Nusrat's fabric and chain to the front lines.
Nene Esmat passed away from us, but her knitting needles will never remain on the ground. She gave life to a way of life: how to be a mother, not just to one's own children, but to all the free who stand up against oppression in every corner of this earth's geography. As long as it is cold and the fortifications are standing, the spirit of Nene Ismat's warm hands will keep the fingers on the triggers warm until victory is reached.
With the passage of time, this pure action transcended the borders of the battlefield and geography and acquired a cultural identity. Nene Esmet's gloves have become one of the main and enduring symbols of the Ammar Film Festival in recent years; A special and unpretentious award titled "Nene Esmat's glove" was given to some of the chosen ones in this field in order to establish a meaningful link between committed art and self-sacrifice.
Well-known figures such as Masoud Dehnamaki and Behrouz Afkhami, along with a group of young documentary makers and filmmakers and anonymous narrators of border lines, were honored by receiving the statue of this pashmin weave. The message that this award carved into the text of our culture was clear: in an era where the glamor of conventional film awards fills the eyes, a statue made of handwoven wool of a mother is the highest mark for those whose camera lens is an extension of the concerned eyes of the public. This glove drew a null line on the distance between the front and the media; He reminded that people of pen and image will not have a share in this battle if their art does not contain the warmth of people's lives.