Mosul Prison: Encyclopedia of Memories
Elham Saleh
Translated by Abbas Haji Hashemi
2016-02-07
Javad Kamvar-Bakhshayesh is to unveil his latest complication, Mosul Prison: Encyclopedia of Memories, at Tehran's Andisheh Culture Center.
Iran Oral History Website (IOHW) -- The book entails memories of Ali Asghar Robat-Jazi, a detainee in the Iraqi city's prison which are gathered by Javad Kamvar in a new volume.
"This book is based on memories but because it has been compiled in a research framework, it can be regarded as an encyclopedia of detention," says Kamvar who accidentally got to know Jazi and began recording his memories.
He believes one of the features of his work is the vivid display of psychological and corporal tortures that the inmates had
to undergo in the prison.
"Ali Asghar is closely dependent on his wife which brought her so much pain in Iran while her husband was being kept at an Iraqi detention camp," Kamvar said.
The couple exchanged many letters during Ali Asghar's imprisonment and both tried to calm the other one down and encourage them to remain strong and resort to the Lord for helping them walk past the hardships of those years.
"The two were deeply educated in the Holy Quran and other Islamic books like Nahjolbalagheh and because of that the letters they wrote to each other teemed with hope."
Kamvar says his book's target readers are either researchers or those who are interested in learning about the livelihood of Iranian prisoners of war in Iraqi detention camps. As a matter of fact, Jazi held a leadership in the camp where he was being kept and this has been vividly demonstrated throughout the book.
"I tried to offer as much information as there was about every single one of the facts I presented in the book," said Kamvar highlighting the book's documentation of facts. "This had its own hardship as well; it was difficult to bring all the references that I came across while doing the book."
Arranged in 8 chapters called "Gates", Mosul Prison: Encyclopedia of Memories is the transcript of 50 hours of interviews with Jazi and 30 hours of interviews with other persons who were involved in his life.
In its appendixes, the 642-page tome entails a collection of photos, references, and bibliography of the documents, books and journals the author referred to for documentation of his work.
Soureh Mehr has published by book and it will unveil the work next Monday in a ceremony at Tehran's Andisheh Culture Center.
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