Commemoration Ceremony Held for Young Tehran Poet, Parnia Abbasi, Who Lost Her Life with Family in Israeli Attack
According to cinemadrame News Agency, a commemoration ceremony for Parnia Abbasi, a young Tehran-based poet who lost her life along with her family in an Israeli attack, was held on Friday evening at the Iranian Artists’ Forum.
Based on the received report, the memorial, which took place during the “Enlightened Evening” session on the topic of “The Impact of War on World Literature,” began with Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabaei discussing the history of letter-writing in modern wars, focusing on the love letters of soldiers and the letters of partisan fighters executed during World War II.
Furthermore, Fazel Jamshidi—singer of the National Orchestra and the Symphonic Orchestra—spoke to the attendees about the mutual impacts of music and society in critical situations, including wartime conditions, by providing relevant examples.
Hamidreza Shekarsari—poet and critic—also spoke, elaborating on the differences between poems composed during the Iraq War and those related to the Israeli conflict. He emphasized in his speech: “Poetry in this period has not taken on any propagandistic tone at all; it is mostly based on emotion and sentiment.”
Subsequently, the Persian translation of a message from Dimitris Kraniotis, introduced as a Greek poet and President of the World Poets Society, addressed to this session, was read by Afsaneh Hassanieh. The message, under the title “War in Poetry and Literature,” stated: “Through poetry and literature, the battlefield transforms not only into a place of conflict but also into a mirror reflecting the deepest struggles of the human soul. Poetry and literature ensure that even in the darkest moments, the human story is not lost.”
However, a significant portion of the session was dedicated to honoring the memory of Parnia Abbasi, a 24-year-old poet who, along with her parents and 15-year-old brother, was martyred in their home in Tehran’s Sattarkhan neighborhood on the first night of the Israeli attack on Iran. Parnia’s cousin read a text on behalf of her relatives, and Parnia Abbasi’s fiancé also spoke about her bright world and his feelings regarding the incident. His words about Parnia Abbasi, his university classmate, stating that “she loved life but met such a bitter fate,” deeply affected the atmosphere of the ceremony.
In this part of the ceremony, a video message from Lee Sang-ki, introduced as a Korean journalist and founder of the Asia Journalists Association (AJA), was also played, and its Persian translation, addressed to Iranian poets and journalists, was read by Alireza Bahrami. In Lee Sang-ki’s message from Seoul, emphasizing that “Parnia Abbasi’s name has now become an enduring poem, and her death was not in vain at all,” it stated: “The death of Parnia and many beautiful Iranian souls during the 12 days of war is not just a tragedy, but a serious reminder of how easily we forget the value of life and become indifferent to violence. But we will always remember them, and in their name, we will speak again of truth and peace, seasoned with poetry and solidarity.”
Bahrami also, after playing an audio message from Ashraf Abouleyzid, introduced as an Egyptian poet and Secretary-General of the African Journalists Congress, read the Persian translation of his message from Cairo to the attendees, which stated: “Parnia Abbasi wrote her poems in a silence resembling the breaths of dawn. By publishing her poems at a young age, it was as if she held a thread of light in this heavy world, but the missile of betrayal landed, and she perished before sunrise… Let us oblige our hearts to keep writing, so that poetry is not bombed again. Poetry does not die, nor do poets.”
Saber Sa’adipour, Saeed Fallahfar, Saeed Islamzadeh, Saeed Zare’mohammadi, Sadaf Derakhshan, Amir Fallah, Moheb Babaei, Mahboubeh Rad, Gandom Shahmoradi, Maria Salmani, and Omid Chavoshi were among the poets who read their works at this session, honoring Parnia Abbasi and other martyrs from the fields of culture and art who lost their lives during the Israeli aggression against our homeland.
