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| Inset photo: Zaman and me, Laguna Nigel, CA, 2016 |
This painting by Zaman Zamani inspired me to make prayer beads with skulls. His painting, Mr. Zamani explained, is a memorial to the many boys who died during the Iran-Iraq war.
According to the “Foundation for Preserving and Promoting the Values of the Sacred Defense,” an affiliate of the Iranian Armed Forces’ General Headquarters, during the eight-year war with Iraq, more than 33,000 high school students were killed, 2,853 were injured and 2,433 were taken prisoner. According to a report by human rights organization Child Soldiers International, “boys as young as nine were reportedly used in human wave attacks and to serve as mine sweepers in the war with Iraq.”
from: Iran Wire, The Lost Youth of Iran's Child Soldiers, Aida Ghajar, July 21 2017
