It was raised at the "Fourth Conference on the Oral History of Sacred Defense":

The credibility of the commanders

Compiled by: Maryam Asadi Jafari
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2025-3-10

Note: According to the Iranian Oral History website, the “Conclusion of the Fourth National Conference on the Oral History of the Sacred Defense and Resistance” was held on Saturday morning, March 24, 2025, in the presence of oral history activists, in the Qalam Hall of the National Archives and Library Organization.

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Four articles were presented at this conference. The first article, titled “Pathology of the Oral History of the Sacred Defense and Strategies for Its Improvement; Examining the Use of Documents and Evidence in the Oral History of the Sacred Defense Regarding the Books of the Sacred Defense Commanders,” was presented by Faramarz Norouzi as follows: “In discussing oral history so far, we have mostly talked about the narrator’s memories and observations, but we have rarely addressed its complementary issues. In other words, we think that oral history is what is expressed during a conversation, but it should not be considered that our audience does not have a grasp of all aspects of war, such as geography, operations, time, and place. If there are documents during the interview alongside the narrator, that story fits better, but sometimes it doesn’t. The main problem with oral history is the lack of use of documents, which unfortunately, we have not included in the oral history of the war. The author of the oral history book must include documents and evidence along with the description of the events in the text. This helps the audience to reach a better and more complete understanding of the event. Also, the editor’s respect for the texts requires the presence of documents. In fact, the oral history of the Sacred Defense finds a better connection with the events of that era through documents and evidence. So, documents and evidence, from the interview sessions to the publication of the book, complement the text of the oral history. In addition to the important operational description, several documents and evidence from the headquarters or unit command must be presented, including orders, calculations, maps, sketches, and photographs, reports of operational information from reconnaissance, surveillance, eavesdropping, and the like. This additional section enriches oral history interviews, gives them life, shows their attractiveness, and makes the credibility and accuracy of the narrator's statements tangible.

For the general public, especially young enthusiasts and researchers who have not understood the scenes of war, presenting the text alone is not satisfactory and does not meet their need for knowledge of the historical events of the war. Document types will solve this problem. For large operations, the need to present several documents in the text is logical so that it is not monotonous, and on the other hand, with the support of document types in harmony with the information, we clarify the text so that we have taken an important step in better understanding the material for the audience.

The types of documents examined in the oral history of the commanders of the Sacred Defense include: "written documents", "photographs and images", "traces and maps", "manuscripts", "personal notes of narrators", "wills" and "documents of Iraqis and their translations". The use of documents in the books of the Sacred Defense is considered a strength, and their absence or underestimation is considered a weakness and damage to the statements of the book's author. "Faramarz Norouzi continued by examining some of the books of the oral history of the war commanders and said: "There are no written documents in the books "The Path of the Struggle, the Crisis of Political Groups: Mohsen Rezaei's Narration" and "From Sanandaj to Khorramshahr: Yahya Safavi's Narration". ”Earthly Traces" and "The Youth of Ahvaz are Alive" have 1 and 4 written documents, respectively. "The Moon of  Khin" has only 10 pages of written documents in relation to the large volume of pages, and "Kurdistan in the Crisis of Security and Deprivation: The Narration of Hassan Rastegarapanah" has three written documents that are not related to the Sacred Defense. In the books "Basij in the 17th Division of Imam Ali (pbuh)": the narration of Ahmad Futohi, there is only one page of the martyr's note, and "Electronic War: The Narration of Ali Ishaqi", there is a limited number of written documents. Based on the comparison of these works, it is inevitable that the works with documents - especially in conveying the message to the audience - have been more successful, and the works that do not have this feature, unintentionally have this damage in them, which is not hidden from the professional perspective of oral history and document experts. Adding documents to the oral history text is like making a crude map clear, which creates added value for the oral presentation of events."

Emphasizing the use of photographs in oral history works of the Sacred Defense, he said: "In addition to the proportion of the photograph in oral history, its dimensions and quality are also important, and in works that do not observe this feature, this simple point damages the content and attractiveness of the book's contents. Photographs must contain a message, connection, and points around the subject of the text so that the audience can infer such an inference from seeing the photograph. The connection and continuity of the photograph with the text - especially in oral history works - means that the narrator, author, and audience have accepted that oral history text works make better sense with photographs and are also flawed without photographs and damage the content of the book. Adding photographs to oral history works prevents this damage. What characteristics should images in oral history books have? "Time of photographing", "Location of the photograph", "Introduction of the people in the photograph" and "A brief description of the photograph." Photographs in oral history works are a necessary and effective complement that helps the text to be more attractive and expressive, and gives the text new life.

Also, “maps” and “copies” are an inseparable part of all operational measures from the beginning to the end of the war. In other words, military planning and action, whether offensive or defensive, are formed using maps and copies, and sometimes, due to the stages of the operation, enemy attacks, and changes in units stationed in the region, dozens of copies of illustrated maps of areas and copies were reproduced. If oral history interviews are transformed into oral history works in the process of content production, the first need for these books is documents such as maps, copies, and sketches.

Oral history of the Sacred Defense is a method for extracting war events from the memory of commanders and warriors. This method requires clarification and completion through types of documents appropriate to the text in the process of producing content for the book. In fact, oral history and documents are necessary and necessary for each other, and together they become a complete means of conveying content. Removing one of the documents is an unwanted damage to the text. To improve the quality of the works, documents should be used in a systematic and practical way in the texts and not in excess - that is, documents should not dominate the text. Parallel work is also another harm in the field of oral history of the Holy Defense. Such as the calligraphies and maps of operations, most of which were produced in one place and used less than maps from the war. Adding documents, especially original copies, in color, clear and in appropriate dimensions, is an essential solution to improve the quality of oral history works of the Holy Defense, to make the text more eloquent and attractive.

The role of the committee during the imposed war

The second article, titled “Oral History of the Islamic Revolution Committees during the Sacred Defense Era,” was presented by Mohammad Ahmadabadi, assistant professor of history at the Institute of Management and Organizational Resources of the FARAJA Institute of Law Enforcement Sciences and Social Studies. He first reviewed how the committee was formed and said: “This research was compiled by utilizing library resources and documents and interviewing veterans of the Islamic Revolution Committee in the field of Sacred Defense, as well as collecting opinions, suggestions, and organized questions from the committee’s veterans at a specialized meeting on human resources management, and analyzing and explaining the available data.

Based on this data, ensuring the security of the country's cities, voluntary presence on the front and popular forces as reserve forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Committee in the regions, the formation of the Imam Musa ibn Ja'far (pbuh) Brigade and the Ruhollah Brigade to organize and control the forces in the operational areas and then merging the two as the Qawamin Brigade, the presence of the Committee's forces in the operations of Huwayzah, Tawakul, Samen al-Aimmah (pbuh), Dawn 4 and 5, Fatah 7, Karbala 4 and 5, are some of the Committee's actions during the war. The Committee's veterans went to their cities and villages without any claims or expectations after the end of the war and had no means or platform to be seen. Oral history can provide a platform for recording and recording the memories of these people. "

To be continued…

Report of the Fourth National Conference on the Oral History of the Sacred Defense -1