The book Farangis is the story of braveries of Ms. Farangis Heydarpour, a lioness from Gilangharb territory, written by Ms. Mahnaz Fatahi. It is a readable story about the resistance of Iranian women against Ba’ath Party invaders during the Holy Defense. In 1980, after the Iraqi invasion of Farangis’s place of birth, the people fled to the surrounding valleys. Farangis, who was 18 at the time, returned to the village at night with his brother and father to get some food. But along the way, Farangis’s father and brother are killed in clashes with Iraqi agents, and Farangis without a firearm engages with the Iraqi soldiers using her father’s ax, killing one and capturing the other with all the battle equipment and submits him to the command headquarters of Iran’s army. This book has been praised by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the acclaimed it as such: “The untold and important part of the events during the defense can be found in this book thanks to the biography of this brave and devoted lady. The brave Ms. Farangis has spoken to us with the same firm and powerful spirit, and the honest and sincere language of a peasant, and with the delicate emotions of a woman and has shown to us an unknown and important area of the imposed war’s geography in detail. We never knew about the situation of borderline villages during the war and their many disasters and homelessness and starvation and property damages and devastation and heartbreaking fate of their loved ones with the clarity and detail that has been presented in this sincere narrative; neither knew about self-sacrifices by their youth who were the first ones to confront the invading enemy. The story of murder and capture of the enemy by this brave lady is in itself an independent and exceptional tale that happened only once again in Susangerd at the same times. Lady Farangis must be acknowledged and must be thankful to the author of the book - Ms. Fatahi - for her fluent and eloquent pen and the art of interviewing and memoir writing.” Book Expert: In the heart of the night, the sound of tank chains and exploding cannonballs and mortars did not stop for a moment. From Gilangharb, our troops also fired cannons and bombs at Gorsefid. Avehzin and Gorsefid had become the front line. . . ! After the Iraqi invasion of Avehzin Village, people flee to the surrounding valleys, but during the clashes and enemy attacks, nine of Farangis's loved ones are martyred by the Ba’ath soldiers. We were near Avehzin as we reached the river. I was sitting by the river to get some water but I saw two Iraqi soldiers. They attacked us and right in front of my father’s eyes and mine, martyred my brother. I was furiously angry. My brother was the ninth loved one that they took away from me. I had no fear. When they were talking, I picked the ax and raised it and killed one of them with the ax. I captured the other one with all his weaponry, but the flame inside me was not extinguished yet. Farangis without a firearm engages with the Iraqi soldiers using her father’s ax, killing one and capturing the other with all the battle equipment and submits him to the command headquarters of Iran’s army.

Mahnaz Fattahi (1968-Hamedan) Mahnaz Fattahi has a bachelor’s degree in Persian language and literature from Bu Ali Sina University. Her first works as a teenager were published in magazines. During the war, she was working in medical care and treated the wounded and wrote her memoirs of the war. She wrote the story The Bitter Taste of Date and then books Another Ordibehesht and Farangis which tells the story of an Iranian woman named Farangis Heydarpor, who engaged two Iraqi soldiers during the Iran - Iraq war, axed down one and captured the other and submitted him to the Iranian troops. She said her goal in writing this book was to describe the hardships and suffering of women involved in the war. Some of her rewards include: • Top-rated annotation writer of the country for two consecutive years • Exemplary puppet show director of the country in 2005, Hamedan • Successful in the Administrative Festival of Poetry and Story of the country • Top-rated adolescents’ story at the Children and Adolescents Press Festival of the country • Top-rated adolescents’ story at the Adolescents Quarterly Book of the country - the Year 2008 • Nominated for the Islamic Republic Year Book with the book The Bitter Taste of Date • Jalal Al-Ahmad literary prize nominee in the year 2015 • Top-rated adolescents’ story at the 4th round of Parvin Etesami Prize Some of her works include: 1 - The Bitter Taste of Date, 2012, Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults 2 - Another Ordibehesht, 2010, Sureh Mehr 3 - Farangis, 2015, Sureh Mehr 4 - Like Me, 2016, Peykan Publ.