The Importance of Questions in Oral History;

A review on the book Miriam by Dr. Khosrow Ghobadi

Compiled by: Iranian Oral History Website
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2025-5-13

What is oral history and what is its importance in historical studies? Is it a type of history or a method of historiography or a discovery tool that provides the historian with raw materials? These are issues that can always be raised.

I am more interested in the definition that considers oral history based on interviews as a type of historiography. In this method, narratives, when put together, present a macro perspective on history or an event with a systematic view.

Accordingly, when we talk about interviews, we mean the constructive interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee. The interviewer has a main role in three stages. First, he chooses the narrator, that is, he goes to someone who can answer the questions raised about the past or about history. Therefore, the interviewer himself/herself is a historian. On the other hand, he has information about history and feels that there are ambiguities, shortcomings and bottlenecks that he wants to eliminate. Therefore, it also appears as a complement to written historiography. The second is where the narrator raises issues and the interviewer, in addition to the previous questions, intervenes in the interview process and helps to resolve ambiguity and obtain more and more accurate information with new questions. The third is in the final editing of the text, where the interviewer is influential.

The point I would like to emphasize here is that the questions of oral history are not simply interrogative, but are sometimes inferential or argumentative. That is, the interviewer asks the interviewee to provide further explanation to state his/her evidence on the issues under discussion. In this sense, he/she is not passive, and this feature highlights the differences between memoir writing and reminiscence telling and oral history. In a sense, it is the encounter of one mind (representing society) with another mind (representing history), and in this sense, the interviewer has an important position. Sometimes he can create a Socratic question and make the interviewee say something that has been on his mind and chest for a long time. Here, we must criticize the Harvard University Oral History Project, saying that since the interviewer does not play a significant role, it cannot be considered oral history.

Thus, several characteristics of oral history can be listed: 1- A complement to written historiography 2- A way to solve the mysteries of history 3- History of the present 4- A bridge between the past and the present 5- A tool for preventing social death, meaning that in oral history, the participation of all sectors of society is attracted in the compilation of history and it is a democratic method in historiography, because previously this work was the monopoly of those in power and oral history also provides the possibility of the presence of others. 6- Analysis of narratives to the point of theory-building.

In view of what has been said, it is not without merit to mention a book. The book Miriam; The Memoirs of Ms. Rubab Sadr, published by the Imam Musa Sadr Cultural and Research Institute, is a clear example of oral history. The name of the book is derived from Ms. Sadr's pseudonym during the war years in Lebanon.

The book's seven-part chapter structure, titled: For Brother, For Kindness, For Hope, For Life, For Peace, For Freedom, and For Humanity, all have a special elegance.

In this book, the effective presence of the interviewer is clearly visible. Interestingly, Ms. Sadr clarifies that I did not want to enter into these discussions, but your questions made my job easier and I agreed to continue the interviews. That is, the interviewer can excite the interviewer with his questions and increase his motivation to answer the questions. The book shows that the interviewer does not face any restrictions in asking his questions and has taken advantage of this opportunity well.

One of the good features of the book is that the interviews begin with a topic that the audience seems to be more interested in obtaining information about than any other topic, namely the kidnapping of Imam Musa Sadr, about which everyone knows that their sister Rubab Sadr has important things to say in this regard. Incidentally, an important part of the questions in this chapter are inferential.

Summary From the beginning to the end of the book, the role of the interviewer is prominent with interrogative, inferential, and argumentative questions. Overall, Miriam's book should be considered the product of good cooperation and interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee.

The book Miriam written by Hamid Qazvini has 662 pages and softcover in Crown octavo octavo size published in 2024. This book is the ninth volume of the oral history collection of the Imam Musa Sadr Cultural Research Institute.[1]