The News of Month; May 2019

The Progress of Oral History and the Oral History of Progress

Compiled by: Mohammadali Fatemi
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2019-6-7

Note: As reported by Iranian oral history website, "the News of Month" is the title of report series on this website. These reports are about the news related to the topic of website in written media and cyberspaces. Here, we read more about the news of May 2019.

* Shahram Sattari, head of the Department of Culture and Sustainability Studies at the Kurdistan Art Center, announced, in the last days of April 2018, that workshop, that a meeting on "An Approach in the Analysis and Critique of Islamic Revolution Oral History" would be held in Sanandaj under the effort of Art Center attended by Alireza Kamari, as an oral history researcher. 30 writers from the cities of Bijar, Ghorveh and Sanandaj[1]. It was scheduled that 30 writers, from Bijar, Ghorveh and Sanandaj cities, would attend in the workshop on April 23^th at 10:00.

* Meeting on "Author's Right in Published Oral History Works" was hold under the effort of the Iranian National Library and Documentation Institute at International Book Fair of Tehran in Shahid Motahari Hall April 26. at the meeting,  Mohsen Kazemi, researcher and writer of history emphasized the clarification of rights and laws in relation to the interviewer, interviewee and compiler, and considered it necessary and the first principle for concluding a working agreements. Shafigheh Niknafs, who is in charge of oral history unit at National Library and Archives, also announced the publication of a book on the rights of oral history authors.

* Meeting on the introduction of the oral history books of women was held at the Library of the Association for Women Researchers in History under the effort of the Association's Communication and Information Group April 29th. At the meeting, it was said that, fortunately, we were able to publish the historic experience of educated women despite the various sensitivities in the field of writing books and biographies of women. The books published by the Iranian National Library and Archives, " Brilliant Lantern: Oral History Interview with Zhaleh  Amozegar Yeganeh" has been published in 148 pages. Paymaneh  Salehi has done Interview, research and compilation of this work.

* The book "Edition: An Interview with Editors" with the secondary title "Oral History of Iranian Contemporary Publishers; Volume I" was unveiled at 32nd Tehran International Book Fair at the same time, published by Book House Institute on April 30. This book includes the conversation of Mohammadhashem Akbariani with Ahmad Samii Gilani, Ismail Sa'adat, Iran Gorgin, Baha'ddin Khoramshahi and Abdolhossein Azarang.

* Abbas Bayrami, General Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Works and Publishing the Values of Sacred Defense of Gilan[2], said that the necessary preconditions have been provided for the publication of books in the field of oral history of warriors and Gilan’s commanders during the holy defense period: To collect these works, necessary consultations were held with the governorships of all the cities of Gilan province. According to the project, governorships will take a responsible to publish at least one book of oral history of sacred defense in this year.

* The Public Relations Unit of Oil Company of  Iran's Central Areas announced, on May 3^th,   that a custom was held to reveal a book titled "The Energy Triangle: A Review on Oral History of the Central Iranian Oil Company".

* Meeting on "Oral History of Assassination in Iran" was held in collaboration with the Astan Quds Razavi[3] Documentation Center and the Habilian Foundation at the Islamic Studies Foundation of the Astan on May 5th. Abolfazl Hassanabadi, Director of the Astan Quds Razavi Documentation Center, said:" In the discussion of assassination, we have been studying on memories, not oral history. To create archive help doing research, and it should be bilingual, especially in the audio and visual field, in order to make the world aware of this filed." Mohammad Nazarzadeh, Director of the Oral History Department of Astan Quds Documentation and Press, has also reported about 130 hours of exclusive interviews on the subject of assassination in the Astan.

* The Public Relations Unit of National Olympic Academy and Paralympics announced, on May 17, that the project "Oral History of the Iranian Sport Press" was launched by Executive Director Ibrahim Afshar. Afshar said: "We are scheduled to do interview with forty journalists, photographers, publishers and even the managers of publications and advertisements. In this project, we will gather 100 years of Iranian sport history in four historical periods. These four periods are: The first Iranian newspapers that worked on sports, the period of Power and Truth magazine, At the peak of activity of World of Sports and Keihan magazines, and the post-revolutionary periods." In the first step of Iran's Sport Oral History Project was conducted under the management and control of the National Olympic Committee tilted Iran's Sports Oral History Press; Manouchehr Zand, who is one of a pioneers of sport press, spoke about the untold words of sports press history.

*The Public Relations Unit of National Olympic Academy and Paralympics announced, on May 15,  that the 11th session of the research committee of Oral History Sport Policy Council was held with the participation of the members of team at National Olympic Academy. The session was attended by the following members at the National Olympic Academy:" Tahereh Taherian, the vice president of National Olympic Committee, Shahrzad Kordbacheh, Director of the Center for Studies, Cultural Affairs and Informatics of National Olympic Academy, Habibollah Esmaeili, Director of Museum, Library and Documentation Center of Imam Khomeini, Hossein Sabetani, documentary filmmaker, and Gholamreza Azizi, a member of the faculty of National Library and Archives and the Director of Documents Institute. Reviewing the implementation process of approved drafts, working group members also examined research projects received at the Oral History Department of Sports.

*The book "Handmade Dreams" from "the Oral History of Progress" series, written by Milad Habibi, and dedicated to the formation of a knowledge-based company, was published in 184 pages by the Office of Studies on Islamic Revolution's Cultural Front and presented at the 32nd Tehran International Book Fair.

*Hamid Dehghani, Director of Oral history and Encyclopedia on Preservation of Works and Publishing the Values of the Sacred Defense of Zanjan province, said: "The book" Abobasir" resulted from 45 hours, maybe more, interview with the retired colonel of Revolutionary Guards, Khalil Abobasir, which was prepared by General Office of Zanjan’s works. Since the earliest days when he joined Revolutionary Guards, he entered the Telecommunication Unit in 1979 and promoted his post to the Deputy Chief of Communications of the 17th division of Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS)." So far, seven books of oral history of commanders and warriors have been published by Preservation of Works and Publishing the Values of Sacred Defense of Zanjan Province, and three titles are being published and five ones are being compiled.

*Seyed Nasrullah Nasrallahi, Deputy Director of the Research and Cultural Affairs Department of the Martyrs of Mazandaran[4] province, has reported on the collection and documentation of the oral history of the martyrs’ parents of this province. Stated that oral history of one hundred parents of Mazandaran’ martyrs was documented, he added:" These documents include 6,000 minutes of video recording of memories. Up to now, 414 thousand and 508 pages from the works of martyrs and warriors including memories, biographies, and photos, and etc. have also been documented. Of the total works, 379,798 pages are about martyrs, 31,067 pages are about captives and 3,642 pages are about veterans who were injured in 70 percent.

* Jafar Shahrokhi, Director of Public Relations at Ibn Sina University of Medical Sciences in Hamedan[5], announced the compilation of the oral history of university supported by the head of university, and added that Soroush Company will prepare a 250-minute documentary on university history from 1972 to 2019.

* The Public Relations Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Document Center of Islamic Republic announced the research projects of this center for 2019 separated by the deputies of oral history, documents and library, research and cultural-artistic institutions of Islamic Revolution Documentation Center. Oral history projects were announced as follows: A) memory group: 1- Mohammad Taghi Amanpour 2- Asghar Ebrahimi Asl 3. Mohammad Reza Rahimi 4- Aliasghar Soltanieh 5- Hussein Allah-Karm 6. Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari 7. Engineer Alireza Sheikh Atar 83- Mojtaba Amani 9- Mohsen Pak Ain 10- Favad Karimi 11- Masih Mohajeri; B) Oral History Group: 1. the Oral History of Literacy Movement 2. The Oral History of Nuclear File (Nuclear Talks) 3. The Oral History of Fajr Organization of Islam 4. The Oral History of Life and struggles of Ayatollah Haeri Shirazi 5. Oral History of Imam Khomeini Relief Committee 6. The Oral History of Welfare Girl's School Establishment 7. The Oral History of The first ambassadors, the first proponents of Islamic Revolution. After choosing one of the above issues, applicants can send their research and resumes to info@irdc.ir.

* The book "the Oral History of Construction in Iran: Interview with Architects (1)" was compiled by Jalal Hasan Khani and Ramin Jalilehavand and published in 184 pages by Kasra Publication. The book includes interview with Farhad Ahmadi, Catherine Spiridounff, Kamran Afshar Naderi, Homan Balaazadeh, Reza Daneshmir, Kourosh Dabbagh and Bahram Kalantari, Kourosh Rafiee, Faramarz Sharifi, Shahab Katouzian, Habibah Majdabadi and Mohammad Reza Nikbakht.