An interview with Shafigheh Niknafs

Plans of Oral History Group of National Library

Shima Donyadar Rostami
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2018-10-31

Shafigheh Niknafs, the Head of the Oral History Group of the National Library and Archives of Iran in an interview with the correspondent of Iranian Oral History website said, "Books from the memoirs of Farideh Hadadian (a pioneer in girl's Islamic schools) and Hasan Taherdel (in the area of usury-free banking) and Mahmoud Bazargani about the Islamic revolution campaigns are under preparation and publication.   

She said, “One of the active plans which is now advancing very well in the group is the registration of “Oral History of Children and Youth Theater” which is carried out according to a Memorandum of Understanding signed between “Child Show Foundation” and the “National Library and Archives of Iran”.

Expressing that the plan’s executor is Davood Kianian, Niknafs added, “In this plan, Kianian invites the artists who are active in the area the children and youth theatre or every individual talks in two or three sessions. The interviews are usually conducted by him once a week.

According to her, the production of the interviews has started since the end of July 20, 2018 and is scheduled to be interviewed in total with 21 artists. The output of these interviews, which lasts for up to 18 months, will be a book.

The Head of the Oral History Group of the National Library and Archives of Iran also explained about another plan which is followed by the group for recording the memories of the immigrants of the years of the imposed war, and said, “”Several interviews had been conducted with the people in war-torn areas in the form of a project called “Oral History of Imposed War Immigrants”, but it is now stopped due to some reasons.”

Pointing out that some interviews are also conducted in the military areas, she said, “Of course, these interviews are not followed comprehensively and they are character-oriented”.   

She also explained about the works which are going to be published by the Oral History Group of the National Library and Archives of Iran and said, “Several books are supposed to be published and they are still in the stage of preparation; in view of the fact that we are approaching the fortieth anniversary of the victory of the Islamic revolution and given the high volume of the interviews, we hope to be able to publish and unveil them on this occasion.