The experience in Syria

The author makes clear the degree of influence wielded in Syria by Lebanese Hezbollah, which operates side by side with other Iranian-backed forces on the ground.

“At the beginning of the war, the Iranian military advisers went to Damascus. The Iranians had promised Assad to stand at his side. In light of the Arabs’ weakness, Syria became their backyard. Syria’s gates stood open for the Iranians. They brought Hazaras from the environs of Mashhad, Tehran, and Qom to Syria. At first, little attention was paid to the Hazaras. But when they recognized their value in battle, the Iranians sent more and more from us. Lebanese Hezbollah provided strategic forces; Iran took care of the management and provided the money. The Afghans and Pakistanis were part of the ideological army. Iran started the killing of Arabs with the hands of the Hazaras.”

The author also points to the religious frame that the Iranians created to explain their actions. According to his experience, the Fatemiyoun fighters’ demands for justification were met by a ready Iranian supply of religious rationale.

“We were accessible mercenaries. Bought with money. Religious, subjugated Shiites. With little money they were able to hire the best fighters. They chose the unit’s name wisely: Fatemiyoun. They say that Omar killed Fatemeh, the daughter of the Prophet. Now they gathered us to take revenge for Fatemeh’s death on the Sunnis.

Even the uneducated Hazaras who came to Syria as mercenaries knew that they had come to the wrong place. So they desperately looked for a justification, for a way to deny their being mercenaries. They sought shelter in the Quran. They calmed themselves with the written word, even though they didn’t understand its meaning. They relied on random passages of the Quran that suited them.”

However, the thousands of young men who lived in humiliation in Iran appear to have gained strength and received appreciation for their roles as fighters.

“In the beginning, we enjoyed that the residents of Aleppo looked at us. For years, we had avoided to be recognized. Being recognized meant getting detained. Getting blackmailed. All the laws in Iran were against us. The only law that you have to obey as a refugee in Iran is to hide. For years we were torn out of buses and transferred to deportation camps in Afghanistan. (…) But in Syria, we cruised through the cities in cars, proudly presenting our weapons. They called us intimates and brothers.”

While Mohammad Jalil Dinsta says he wasn’t lured in by the deceptive feeling of self-worth that the Fatemiyoun Division provided, others were.

“A mercenary in the bed above me once told me: ‘Every time I got arrested in Iran I got into debt of four million Toman to pay the bribes. I couldn’t buy bread for my wife and my child. I didn’t have a choice but to come here. Now I have legal documents, I have a mortgage for a house. My life has an order. I was a dirty Afghan, now I am a master.’”

The author seems to be completely shocked and disgusted by the reality with which he was confronted in Syria.

“In Syria, we are getting killed, just as the Arabs. But it is the homes of the Arabs that get destroyed. It is their cars that burn out. It is the Arab women and children who are made homeless. They kneel before the good and the evil guys to get weapons so that they can defend their property. So that they can fight us mercenaries in their own country. We don’t have the right to do so.”

He looks back on the indoctrination with revulsion and describes his struggle to preserve his feeling of humanity.

“They told us that our enemies are disbelievers. They wouldn’t show mercy to us Shiites. That it would be god’s will to shed their blood, even more than to shed the blood of cows or sheep. I didn’t care that they would chop me into pieces when I fell into their clutches. Instead, it was important to me to remain human as long as I am alive. On both sides of the front the people are sick.”

Further, Mohammad Jalil Dinsta draws parallels to the situation facing the Hazaras in Iran. He chastises the Iranian forces for using the soldiers of the Fatemiyoun Division as cannon fodder and for receiving better supplies.