Welcome back, Hero by Omid, Kurdistan/Iran

Today I was checking the news and I saw a report that was unbelievable and shocking for me. Even to this day, it surprises me. The news was shocking as I read, someone sacrifice himself for saving a dog.

In the Kurdish region of Iran, civil society activities are very diverse despite the harsh pressure from security agencies.

A wide range of NGOs from environmental protection to the human rights exist in this region. Especially in the town of Mariwan, despite it being a small town populated by around 170,000 people.

A soldier who lost one of his legs from a landmine while trying to save a dog from the winter cold has received a hero’s welcome in his hometown of Mariwan, in Iranian Kurdistan. A Kurdish 19-year old soldier “Mohammed Bakhtar” was guarding an outpost in Tabriz about a week ago when he noticed a puppy trapped in the barbed wire outside his military base. He first tried to save the puppy without walking over the barbed wire, but he failed to reach the puppy, his father told the media.

“He then took the risk to save the puppy by disentangling it from the barbed wire. On his return to the base, Bakhtar stepped on a landmine which shattered his leg” his father said.

Doctors in several hospitals failed to save his leg and had to amputate it as the last resort. After he was discharged from the hospital, locals in his town of Mariwan gave Bakhtar a hero’s welcome, holding posters in Kurdish and Persian.

“A high example of humanity, welcome back to the homeland of love,” read one poster held up by a Kurdish boy. Others held posters which welcomed him home as “the ambassador of kindness.”

It is worth noting that Kurdish-inhabited area in the Middle East is one the most densely mined regions of the globe, annually dozens of people are injured or even lost their lives due to explosive landmines.