Two new books released

Oral history of combatants and freed POWs of northern Iran continues to be compiled

Mohammad Ali Fatemi
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2017-5-1

The Cultural and Resistance Studies Department of the art centers in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces has released two new books. The books have been published by Sooreh Mehr Publication. The books are entitled: "The Oral history of the Sacred Defense Combatants 5: The Second Narration of Cerise Booklet; Memoirs of Mahmoud Ranjbar", and "Oral History of the Freed POWs of Gilan – The Town of Talesh 2: Paper Haft-Seen: Oral Memoirs of Sirous Bolourian".

The notes turned into memoirs

The narrator of the book "The Second narration of Cerise Booklet" is the faculty member of Gilan University. This 234-page book has 21 chapters. Three preludes have also been written over its text one of which by Alireza Kamari, a writer and researcher in the area of the sacred defense. He writes, "Among the academics who had taken part in the war, one a few have written books or found the opportunity to publish them.  This book is among those few works written in the style of pseudo-fiction which narrates the second dispatch of the narrator to the war fronts and his presence in Operation Valfajr 8".

The book is based on the writer's daily notes in a cerise 200-sheet booklet.  Thanks to this daily notes, the narrator retells his valuable experiences and memoirs. The narration of such memoirs in educational environments especially where the listeners have little imagination from the era of the war and front not only transfers educational and moral teachings to the audience but also can be very effective and useful in creating relation and connection between the middle ages of the first decade of the Islamic revolution and the youth of today and the future.

The book's content has been written in 21 continuous parts and the text content includes various and numerous events and subjects which starts from the fervor the owner of the narrator for abandoning the environment of the house and city and joining the war combatants and ends with his injury and termination of the operation and his return to the city. What is frequently seen and heard is that the book has concentrated on the mood of the people of front and chatting with the comrades and their belief of being in the war and front, clarifying the cultural and anthropological aspects of the sacred defense in comparison with the military and political aspects of the event. Paying attention to the environment of the indigenous life, paying attention to how the retainers think and speak, mixing job and education with each other and participation in the war willingly and eagerly, registration and presentation of reactions to native dialects, precise and delicate filming of the events and the playing of bloody and violent scenes in the war along with the understanding of the combatants' delicate and soft effort, avoiding excessive cover-up (and conservative and smart continence)and and the straight and sound language and prose have made the work's text and content readable and believable.  

In one of the preludes, the narrator says, "I was involved in the war at the age 15…" The reader accompanies him during the narration; from his home in northern Iran till the southern front.  As long as he is there and is concerned about going to the sacred defense fronts, the dialect of his hometown is flowing in the book's pages, and its translation are written under the pages. Then, he was placed in an atmosphere of military training for entering the war fronts and then in Operation Valfajr 8. In this front, the air and chemical attacks of the Saddam's army are considered as special events in the memoirs of Mahmoud Ranjbar and Haj Hossain Basir, the Commander of the Operational Area at that time, and Seifollah Tabrizi, a battalion commander at that time are the special people of the narrator in narrating the battle scenes.

If no memory has yet to be written or expressed…

In an interview with Siroos Bolourian, Amir Hossain Pour has heard the memoirs of the "The Paper Haft-Seen"[1] and has written 36 chapters and 262 pages for this work. He has explained that the book is the result of 41 hours interview.

Apart from the introduction of any book, the beginning of the main text has been and is important for every book. The amount of this significance especially for the writer caused him to have planning. The book “The Paper Haft-Seen” has been included in this planning. The first chapter of the book narrates the moments when Siroos Bolourian was taken as captive, and the second chapter dates back to the night of 12^th of Bahman 1359(31^st of January 1981) when the narrator reached to Sar Pol-e Zahab. From this point on, the narration shows that the time and place have been important for the narrator and writer, because the name of the areas and the date of the days and even the time of departures and events are reminded.

The narration of the fifth chapter ends on the morning of 11^th of Ordibehesht 1360 (April 30, 1981). The narration of the sixth chapter begins from the intelligence department of the Iraqi army and the seventh chapter narrates his childhood years. The reader at the end of the ninth chapter reaches to February 1981 when the narrator moved toward Kermanshah and Abouzr Barracks after spending the military training. The movements are in line with framework of the writer’s planning for the book’s narration and engineering or in other words the creation of a different work so that the reader enjoys it.

In the tenth chapter, the narrator is seen in Anbar Concentration Camp of Saddam’s army while his captivity has started for him. From this chapter on, the memoirs of a camp are narrated in which the atmosphere of captivity and the methods of the resistance of the captives in that atmosphere have been retold by the narrator. Both the narrator and the writer are not neglectful of the approximate time of the events that happened. Although it is almost impossible for a captive in the concentration camps of Saddam’s army to register the time of the events, the reminding of the approximate time of the events is of great importance for picturing up the reader’s mind in studying the memoirs.

Regarding the text and memoirs of “Paper Haft-Seen”, the point is worth mentioning that precision in method of receiving and presenting the memoirs attracts the reader to follow the story.

A little attention to the memoirs published about the freed POWs shows that similarities have been shaped gradually and automatically. This is natural because the atmosphere of the concentration camps and the life of the captives inside them have been confined to almost common characteristics. But the art of the narrator and writer is that behind the highlighting of these, if memoirs have yet to be retold or written, they should make more attempts to reach the things which are not retold or recalled less. This attempt is obvious in this book and its result is the memoirs which seem new.

The initiative used at the end of the book’s text is that the events of the narrator’s life after the termination of captivity and his freedom and returning to home have been presented in the form of timeline; ranging from involving in business and marriage to meeting with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. After this, you can see the images’ album; images from the narrator before captivity and in Qaraviz Altitudes and the years of captivity in Anbar, Mosul 1 and other concentration camps.

The book ends with a list of the texts; this is another difference of the work with other books in the Sacred Defense area. Although everybody agrees with the necessity of including this part in every book, its fulfillment faces with suspicions which finally lead to lack of the list! Hope all of the Sacred Defense books are equipped with this list.