Nafiseh Zarei is a media activist who began writing seriously with short tales and poems around ten years ago.

The book "A Khaki Wrestling Singlet," which is about the life of the martyred athlete Asghar Manafizadeh, is this author's first significant contribution to the genre of defense literature.

* What of your works, Ms. Zarei, have been released so far? Did you decide to write about Asghar Manafizadeh on your own?

Because narrative is so important to me, the majority of my writings are in the form of academic articles, research, and literary critique. A combination of an offer that was made to me and a decision I made on my own almost led to the publication of this book. Among the subjects suggested when the wrestling federation contacted me to write a fictional piece with a narrative theme, Asghar Manafizadeh caught my interest due to factors including the subject's originality and the possibility for narration.

* How did you write this book?

I made the decision to present a new narrative and close to the new narrative literature of the martyr's life by establishing a connection between today and yesterday due to the dearth of fictional works about the holy defense appropriate for teenagers and young people, as well as harms like sloganeering, a distance of the works from the truth.

* What do you as the first audience for these works believe to be the most crucial aspect of it?

The audience does not become aware that the hero of the story is a martyr until the end of the first chapters. It was only after accompanying the story and right at the endpoint that the audience saw the direction and the narrator changed that the audience became aware of the essence of the story. Perhaps the difference is in the type of narration and the story that the martyr is not in the center of the narrative from the beginning.

* In what part of the martyr's life is this piece set?

Manafizadeh competes in wrestling, coaches, and teaches physical education in a secondary school throughout the time period depicted in this work, which is set at the start of the 60s in Iran.

* Did his family supply you with the documentary materials, or did you acquire them somewhere else?

A significant portion of the resources came to me through the martyr's family, including the devoted assistance of his wife and child, while a smaller portion came through his friends.