t was 1982, and Zahed was just 13 when he joined Iran’s Basij paramilitary in Tehran’s fight against neighbouring Iraq. One of the 20th century’s ugliest wars, it would leave the border unchanged and 1.5 million dead. Zahed, a teen runaway, had signed up after a dispute with his father, an embittered and increasingly violent man. Mostly, his anger focused on Zahed, his curious, resourceful, seventh-born child. Unable to live with the cruelty at home, Zahed left. He rode a pistachio truck to the front, hidden among bags of nuts.
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