NAME: Laden and Laleh Bijani

AGE: 29

NATIONALITY: Iranians

CLAIM TO FAME: Brave conjoined twins who are no more.

UNITED throughout their lives, the conjoined Iranian twins were brought to their final destination in separate coffins after a marathon operation to separate the two ended in failure last week. Laden and Laleh Bijani were born to peasant parents and a family of ten, in southern Iran. They were kept at a nearby hospital, under the care of US doctors. The twins survived the chaos of the 1979 revolution and the subsequent war with Iraq. They were adopted by Dr Alireza Safian, after having been abandoned at the hospital on the eve of the revolution.

Determined to live separate lives, the twins decided to undergo surgery, despite full knowledge of the risk involved. Operations to separate conjoined twins are usually done at a young age. With age, the brain develops very intricately enmeshed blood vessels and it becomes increasingly dangerous to attempt a separation. The girls’ adopted father had been against the operation because it could mean sacrificing one for the the other.

The media had been giving maximum coverage to the twins’ surgery. The Iranian public’s reaction to this operation varied. While a few understood that life was unbearable for the two if they remained conjoined , others thought an effort to separate the twins would be tantamount to interfering with God’s decisions. Despite the fatwa issued by the late Ayatollah Khomeini against the operation, President Mohammad Khatami had vowed on Monday, to pay all expenses of the surgery, amounting to about 300,000 dollars. Once the sisters had taken the decision to proceed with the operation, they were admired for their courage. Many Iranians were glued to their television screens, while they prayed for their safety. Dozens of Iranian twins held an overnight vigil for the same purpose.

The tragic outcome of the historical operation performed in Singapore by a team of 28 specialist, left the Iranian public in despair, many of whom had been praying for the twin’s safety. The twins died within 90 minutes of each other from excessive blood loss, while doctors tried to separate the tightly enmeshed blood vessels of their brain.

The Iranian state television interrupted its regular broadcast to announce the twins’ death. Many government ministers apart from the general public also expressed their grief and offered condolence to the family and friends of the sisters.