Library of Memories

"Pray for me not to give up", "Ambushed by the Komala terrorists" and "Tikrit with five five taste"

M. A. Fatemi
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2019-5-28

In this text, you become familiar with three books produced in three Iranian provinces: "Pray for me not to give up: Martyr Abbas Najafi narrated by wife and others" from Markazi Province, "Ambushed by the Komala terrorists: Oral memoirs of Mohammad Amin Qaffar Pour" and "Tikrit with five five taste: Oral memoirs of Amin Alipour" from Gilan Province.

Two teachers

The book "Pray for me not to give up" has been authored by Maryam Talebi. This 272-page and 13-chapter book has been produced in the Office of Resistance Culture and Studies of the Art Center of Markazi Province and published by Sooreh Mehr Publications in 2018. Talebi has written a readable introduction for her book so that the reader finds out that "the book has twelve chapters narrated by the martyr's wife which in continuation, memoirs have been narrated form the language of others about Haj Abbas Najafi. It is the result of four years of follow-up and interviews from the friends who came with love and left with hope."

Mojgan Majidi, the wife of martyr Abbas Najafi is the narrator of most chapters of the book. She and 24 other narrators have spoken about the martyr and demonstrated his character and temper. The martyr's wife, however has also talked about her account about when she went to the Kurdish areas in the first years after the victory of the Islamic revolution to her familiarity and marriage with Abbas Najafi and the whole years after the end of the imposed war which led to the martyrdom of her husband and even the memoirs registered for Abbas Najafi after his martyrdom.

Using the chapters which are different to some extent as well as creating necessary cohesion between the entire memories of the main narrator and other ones, the author of the memory book "Pray for me not to give up" has tried to put the reader in the path of Abbas Najafi's account in a way that an exclusive image from the martyr and his family shapes in his or her mind; a family whose origin has been two teachers and the male teacher has wounds in his body as a result of the wat the effects of which led to his martyrdom ultimately.

Another attempt by the author is to keep the reality of life in expressing memories along with the ideals of the main characters of the book. The narrators usually express their memoirs in a mixture of realities and ideals and this is the writer and compiler of the memories who with his or her skill can present the mixture in a way none is sacrificed by the other."

From birth to the most important ascent

The book "Ambushed by the Komala terrorists" has been authored by Amir Hossein Pour. The interviews have also been conducted by him. This 223-page book has been produced in the Art Centre of Gilan Province and published by Nekoo Afarin Publications in 2019. In a note on the book, Hossein Pour has written that the interview sessions with Mohammad Amin Qaffar Pour have taken thirty hours; the narrator has been in the captivity of Komala grouplet for fifteen months and is the first freed captive in the town of Talesh and returned home in 1986.

The book’s author, by shifting the time frame of 27 sections of pre-captivity and in-captivity narration of the narrator has tried to create a difference between his book and other ones that present memories linearly form birth till now or form birth to the most important ascent of the narrator’s life.

“Ambushed by the Komala terrorists” is included in the category of the memories of freed POWs. The memories of the freed POWs are usually about the concentration camps of Saddam’s army. But, the book’s narrator was in the captive of anti-revolutionary grouplet and like them has been imprisoned in Iraq’s soil. He has talked about the atmosphere and place of captivity and the people he has seen in that situation, adding another document to the books related to memories of captivity in the prisons of anti-revolutionary grouplets. 

Another part of the narrator’s words has added to the asset of the memories from 1360s solar hijri which is about the training courses during which he served as Basiji (voluntary force) and a member of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps; these memories speak of certain activities in those years which will be significant subjects for oral history projects.  

Customary and famous sides

The book “Tikrit with Five Five Taste” is also included in the category of the memories of freed POWs. Mohammad Alizadeh has recorded the memoirs of Amin Alipour in interviews with him and collected and compiled in a 216-page book. The Art Center of Gilan Province has supported the book and the result has been published by Nekoo Afarin Publications in 2019.

The reader, in five chapters and 33 parts is accompanied by the memories of a combatant of Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army. With his memories about how he was taken as captive in the last days of the imposed war of Saddam’s army against Islamic Republic of Iran, the narrator invites the reader with this sentence, “I was in charge the telecommunications department of the 1^st Company of the 1^st Brigade of the 58^th Division of Zulfaqar …” then, he deals with his past namely from birth to the moment of captivity and then to over two years of his captivity. Almost half of the book is allocated to the former and half to the latter. Several pages have also been allocated to the epic of people of Amol in 1981. He has also talked about the confrontation of the people of his home (Siahkal) against anti-revolutionary grouplets.

The memoirs of the captivity of Amin Alipour incudes the customary and famous sides of the memories of freed POWs: the treatment of enemy forces and emphasis on the treatment of some of those who were confronted with Iranian captives more severely; the type of relationships of Iranian POWs to survive against the enemy and the emphasis on the individuals who have been highlighted in the narrator’s memory in this regard; the imposed way of life in captivity and how to cope with and adapt to it and the creativities that appear in these situations; and ...

In this text, you got familiar with three books produced in two Iranian provinces.