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                                     August 2024 |Mahjubah Magazine29At the book of the year award ceremony of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Clohessy was selected as the best researcher in the foreign sector this year for writing these 2 books. This incident caused me to do my best to find him and have a short conversation on the occasion of the death of Hazrat Zainab (PBUH). After a short time, I found him. I did not think that I would be able to establish a close relationship with him soon. When I told him that we featured your book in our newspaper, he was very happy and eagerly agreed to the interview request. The conversation in front of you is a translation of an interview with Christopher Paul Clohessy, an Italian pastor, about his 2 books about Hazrat Zahra (PBUH) and Hazrat Zainab (PBUH) that he wrote in the past years. What was the reason for your interest in studying Islam, especially Shia thought?I began my studies in Arabic and Islamic Studies in 1997 as a way to promote Christian-Muslim relations. As a young pastor working in a predominantly Muslim area of Cape Town, South Africa, I noticed that almost every family in the area where I lived had Muslim relatives or friends, and I thought this was an important issue, especially with Considering their Muslim family members that the church could not ignore or simply ignore because their faith is expressed in a different way. I thought to myself that it is necessary for non-Muslims to have a comprehensive and scientific understanding of Islam and its most important Arabic texts. At first, I thought it would be better to do a master%u2019s in Arabic and Islamic studies, so I studied Islamic theology in Cairo and in Rome.During the classes, we took a short course on the Shia religion, and I became very attracted to [Imam] Hussain bin Ali (A.S.) and the incident of Karbala. Because both of them had a deep connection with the nature of Christianity, especially Catholic Christianity, so I decided to pursue Shia studies in a specialized way, especially since Western researchers paid little attention to Shia studies in Islam at that time. In fact, when I announced my decision to specialize in Shia studies, several of my professors thought it was a waste of time. Of course, now more Western scholars are beginning to study Shia texts more deeply. For this reason, I decided to write my doctoral research about him from the perspective of a non-Muslim as a global model for defending justice. But then I was shocked when I read about Lady [Hazrat] Fatimah (PBUH), because it is hard to find any writings about her. Fatima (PBUH) and her son, [Imam] Hussain (PBUH), are very attractive figures, especially for Catholic Christians, because there is an obvious parallel between them and the personality of Jesus Christ (PBUH) and Mary (PBUH) in Christianity exists; So, I decided to write an academic biography in a Western language, but based on primary Arabic sources. Since then, I have been fully focused on the Karbala event, its history and angles, and I will continue to write about these topics to introduce them to a wider range of English-speaking and not necessarily Muslim readers.In 2009, you wrote a book about Hazrat Fatima (PBUH). After that, you wrote a book about the life of Hazrat Zainab (PBUH). Why did you write books about these 2 prominent Islamic figures?I published 2 books in 2018. The first edition of my book titled %u201cFatima, Daughter of Muhammad%u201d was published in 2009 and the second book is a new one about the life of Lady [Hazrat] Zainab, With the title %u201cHALF OF MY HEART, The Narratives of Zainab, Daughter of Ali%u201d.I was saddened to find that no one has written anything about his mother, Fatimah (PBUH). Of course, there are small books, including the famous Shariati text, but the works written based on the basic study of Shia and Sunni texts and first-hand sources are very few, if any. The writing of the book of [Hazrat] Zainab (PBUH) was done in a similar way; 4 of us Catholic priests who have doctorates in Arabic and Islamic studies were talking one day and we regretted that Islamic researchers have written few academic works about the great women of Islam. For example, as 
                                
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