Iranian Fisherwoman Recounts Life Turned Upside Down by War
Fatemeh Karimkhan
Khadijeh Bandari, a 28-year-old fisherwoman from Iran’s Hengam Island, tells Al Jazeera how US and Israeli airstrikes upended her family’s fishing and tourism livelihood. She describes the fear, displacement, and destruction that have forced islanders to flee, while some still risk their lives to fish. She calls for replacing lost boats, repairing homes, and restoring security so residents can return to a normal life.
Khadijeh Bandari, 28, a fisherwoman living on Hengam Island in southern Iran, has told Al Jazeera about the upheaval in her life and that of the island’s residents since the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against the country.
Bandari said that from a young age she went to sea with her mother and learned to fish. As she grew up, she acquired her own boat and came to regard the marine trade as part of her identity. After marrying, she and her husband moved to Hengam Island, where they opened a small guesthouse and sold fish through social media. The couple also ran a seaside restaurant serving fresh fish they caught themselves. She has a three-year-old son named Keyhan, which in Persian means “world.”
Life began to get difficult when the internet was cut for several weeks in January, keeping tourists away and halting online fish sales. When connectivity was restored, her family thought things had returned to normal, but that was not the case.
On February 28, her mother, who was fishing offshore, shouted: “The war has started.” The sound of American bombs quickly reached Hengam Island, and a nearby village was hit. The coast guard immediately told residents to clear their stalls and stay away from the beach.
At first, people hoped the attacks would last only a few days or weeks, as in the past. But the war continued day and night. One by one, families began leaving the island. Jetties were closed for fear of bombing, fishing boats could not go out because they might be targeted by airstrikes, and passenger travel between islands was banned. Fishing, once part of everyday life, suddenly became a dangerous activity.
Bandari’s mother and family moved to her sister’s home on Qeshm Island, while her father stayed behind to tend to the goats. Their home was far from the jetty, so they thought it would be safe, but the island remained full of dangers. Every night, people discussed how much longer they could stay. A month after the war started, it was clear the conflict would not end soon. To help her son cope with the fear of bombs and gunfire, she and her husband devised stories and games to distract him.
Her mother, who had once called crying and urged her to leave the island, has now returned to Hengam to fish. Every time she heads out to sea, the family worries and calls constantly, unsure when the next airstrike will strike.
After a while, her husband decided to take the family away from Hengam for a few days to visit relatives. A day after they left, the island was attacked again. The jetty, where they used to bring food for her father and where children played, was destroyed in the attack that killed three people. Phones and the internet were down, and it was not until evening that they learned the extent of the destruction.
Many islanders lost all their savings, often in the form of boats destroyed in airstrikes. Bandari mentioned cases such as Hava Arbabí, who lost her boat and home; Aref Arbabi, who lost a newly built house and a boat bought earlier this year; and Soheil Hormozi and Abutaleb Zarei, who spent years paying off wedding loans for boats that were destroyed. Many other homes on the island were damaged or completely ruined.
Business and livelihoods on the island ground to a halt from the early days of the war. With no tourists and the sea unsafe, many people still felt compelled to go out because fishing was their only source of income. Her mother and brother continued to fish despite the danger, as there was no other way to make a living.
Bandari’s family lost their business and had to start from scratch. She began selling shell jewelry while her husband looked for work in the north. They moved to the northern coast a few months ago but still long for Hengam Island, thinking every day about returning.
“We lost our homes because of the war, but I don’t want the people of Hengam to be known only for that. We have always earned our living through fishing, tourism, and our own labor. But now we are being deprived of the ability to work on our own land. We need to get back to life. To do that, we need to replace the destroyed boats, repair the damaged homes and lost livelihoods, and, above all, restore security so that people can return to normal life,” Bandari said.
