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Digging for their children: Desperate mothers, a deadly earthquake, and mounds of rubble
Farshid Aram* authored this report for the Zan Times in Persian, translated into English by Rustam Seerat.
Masouma* and her husband were returning home from a morning shopping trip in the Zendajan district of Herat province when a severe earthquake hit on Sunday, October 7, 2023. A powerful aftershock soon followed. At around 11 a.m., they reached their village of Siaab, but only a pile of dirt and rubble stood where their mud house used to be. Their three teenage children had vanished.
Fearing they were under the collapsed house, 55-year-old Masouma began to dig and push away the soil. Among the large group of local men helping rescue efforts, Masouma was the only woman as she searched the earth with her nails and fists. Her black-and-brown veiled body trembled with fear. Sometimes, she urged the others to hurry and save her children.
Many residents had gathered around the collapsed houses in the village. Slowly, the air of the destroyed village filled with the wailing sounds of survivors who, one after the other, let out cries of despair as they discovered the bodies of loved ones.
