The Oral History Weekly; A New Window

Mohammad Mehdi Abdolah Zadeh
Translated by Mandana Karimi

2025-8-28

The ups and downs of everyday life sometimes cause me to forget certain duties and missions, including oral history—especially its form related to the Holy Defense! But when Wednesday comes and I receive an issue of the Oral History weekly journal, a new window opens before me. Each title, article, viewpoint, and memory becomes a chapter for reflection in that realm.

Although the scientific aspect of the journal is useful to me, its psychological value improves my mood even more. For years, the friends who run the journal have remembered me and continuously send it to me without any expectation, which strengthens my bond with the large family of oral history. This very fact has made me consider myself a member of this journal and share my opinions about its content on occasion.

Once, I wrote to the journal’s officials asking why the weight of theoretical content in the journal is weak. By reading more content titled oral history, I realized we are still at a crossroads and perhaps this is exactly the path this weekly journal is taking. Because with the occurrence of the Islamic Revolution and the Holy Defense, the need to document events from these two occasions led many people—who had only heard the name oral history but had neither read an article or book about it nor attended a class—to enter the circle of oral history.

 I am confident that with the continuous development of theoretical and practical knowledge among scholars and practitioners of oral history projects in our country, the effects will become visible in the quality and quantity of the content in this weekly journal.