Services of servants of captives

Service, refers to any activity or benefit that is provided from one party to another and is necessarily intangible and does not entail the ownership of anything. A service, activity or a set of small activities And it is more intangible that during the captivity, services were performed voluntarily by other prisoners in the camps. The services of servants can be divided into the following sections:

A. Selfless services

Such as enduring punishment and torture because of other prisoners who could not endure torture and punishment. Doing some work had a heavy punishment such as execution, but this did not scare the devoted prisoners and they voluntarily undertook these tasks. Keeping many prohibited items would lead to a severe beating and going to jail. Pencils, pens, paper, elements, etc. caused a person to be sent to prison for a long time, sometimes up to a month. But hiding the radio, after torture, had a heavy sentence and might even lead to execution. However, there were prisoners who voluntarily hid these items in the corners of the asylum. They took the risk of getting the news however it was, even by sleeping under the blanket and writing radio news, so that the rest of the prisoners could also be informed about the news of Iran .

B. Risky services

These services included things like standing guard so that others could hold their cultural, religious and sports sessions in complete peace. Holding speech programs, teaching Islamic rules, mourning, and especially holding congregational prayers in an environment that was strictly controlled by Iraqi forces had severe consequences. Cutting the food ration was the least punishment.  Some of the prisoners took on the duty of guarding so that such programs could be held with less risk.

C. welfare Sevices

Like cooking, laundry, cleaning the sanatorium for other prisoners. Some of them volunteered to look after the sick and wounded, which was difficult , especially for the youth; as it involved things like  washing the sputum dishes of patients and the elderly; washing clothes; Bathing the elderly, cleaning their ears, patching their clothes. Some took it upon themselves to clean the sanatorium and the toilet and the pipes of the sewage system, which the Iraqis often neglected, and to fill the water buckets next to the toilets so that people in worse physical conditions could rest more. In this, even doctors and educated prisoners participated voluntarily . Elderly prisoners who were familiar with agriculture, volunteered to grow vegetables such as tomatoes in the gardens of the camp.

Some people volunteered to set up ovens and to run the kitchen. they took charge of everything from cooking food to distributing it. Washing the sanatorium dishes and cleaning the kitchen were voluntary. Some made a vow and to fulfill their vow, they washed the  dishes of all the prisoners or the clothes of the sick and elderly. During the first years of captivity, those who volunteered to get food from the kitchen for hungry sick captives, showed insistence on that charitable work in spite of knowing that they were going to get whipped by the guards as they could not bring themselves to sit by and see their brothers starve to death. The job of some servants was to keep watch in the hospital from night to morning in order to take care of the group that had been  beaten and wounded by the Iraqi forces.

D. Educational services

The services in question included such activities as holding the Quran classes, reading  Nahj al-Balagha, learning foreign languages, etc. With the arrival of educational books of foreign languages such as English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, and Spanish , those interested in the languages in question would refer to captives who knew the languages pretty well and would  start learning them wholeheartedly .

G. Health and medical services

Indicated to what some people who were trained in the field of health and treatment, did for the wounded, disabled or sick prisoners. Some people with some medical knowledge and experience  in health matters formed a health group , identified the sick ,and helped them by making  the camp environment healthy. Due to the limitation of medicine and medical facilities, they  nursed the sick captives  in every way they could, and at all costs, the good fellows managed to provide medicine to them .

E. Cultural-artistic services

Such as copying parts of  the Qur'an, Nahj al-Balagha, Mafatih, etc. on paper sheets and distributing them among prisoners for memorization or recitation; holding competitions and entertaining programs; holding national and religious ceremonies, staging plays and song recitals, in order to set the mood of vitality and cheerfulness among the prisoners.

F. Financial services

Like helping others financially or even working for Iraqis in exchange for money and helping other prisoners who could not work.

J. Sports services

Such as holding sports competitions, teaching different sports and constructing grounds for sports activities. Martial arts were forbidden. If the instructor were caught red-handed , he would be in trouble, and yet the instructors braved every possible danger and  taught interested captives indomitably.

See also

• Servants of captives

• Education

• Healthcare

• Sport