Overview of Two Books

“Sixth Day of Bewilderment” & “Tiny River of Chaparpord”

Mohammad Ali Fatemi
Elham Saleh
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2017-3-6

Department of culture and resistance studies of Art Division of Gilan Province published two books in 2016 on the Holy Defense; each book contains the features of oral history; “Sixth Day of Bewilderment” is the oral history of war hostages of Gilan Province and “Tiny River of Chaparpord” is the oral history of the martyrs of the Holy Defense.

Captivity Memories

The “Sixth Day of Bewilderment: oral memoir of Ebrahim Moghaddam” is not only classified as oral history series of the war captives from Gilan but also the fourth collection of books containing memoirs of features from Rasht City. The interview to collect memoirs for this book is conducted by Shahab Ahmadpour. He has prepared the bood for Department of culture and resistance studies of Art Division of Gilan Province and Soureh Mehr Publication printed the book in 127 pages.

Sixth Day of Bewilderment contains five chapters and a collection of pictures from the narrator and content. The first chapter covers his captivity by Saddam’s army close to the end of the Iraq imposed was against Iran. He quickly links these moments to the months and years of his captivity in the camps of Saddam’s Army.

In the second chapter, he narrates his life story from the beginning to the moment of captivity stating that he has been a soldier of the army of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The third chapter defines the ambiance in captivity and fellow captives of the narrator and the fourth chapter is the story of the narrator couple of days before captivity; the days when he and his fellow combatants were chasing the enemy but eventually they were taken. The short and final chapter describes his freedom; his journey from the border to his home.

“Sixth Day of Bewilderment” is the oral memoirs of Ebrahim Moghaddam and contains as much information as the narrator recounted and remembered. In other words, the purpose of the book was to record his memories as a war captive from Gilan Province. Of course, disrupted chronology of the book (as the titles of chapters represent) has been an effort to intrigue the audience.

70 Hours Interview with 42

Both grew up in Chaparpord village near Anzali Port who spent their childhood and adolescence in the village and then joined the war unwillingly in those years. Mir Jabbar Azizi and Bahman Fatehi are two martyrs of Gilan Province and “Tiny River of Chaparpord” is a documentary of their lives in 247 pages which reads the interviews of Shahab Ahmadpour with others.

To present an image of their lives, 70 hours interview was conducted with 42 people in Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan Provinces; hence the book is the outcome of oral interviews with different people which categorizes it as oral history; however, the pose is close to memory.

What kind of families did Mir Jabbar Azizi and Bahman Fatehi grew in? What were the occupations of their fathers? What is the geographical location of the village they lived in? These are questions to which the book answers in its “certificate”.

The first chapter starts with “I was running like a deer on my young feet” which tells the story of their childhood and school ambiance. Their youth is intertwined with the Victory of the Islamic Revolution. They were both, like many others, involved in cultural and religious activities such as Komeil prayer, Quran classes and maintenance of a small library in the mosque.

Mir Jabbar, being talented in calligraphy, was in charge of graffiti. The book also states that Mir Jabbar and Bahman, like many of their peers, were eager to join the fronts of the Holy Defense and made efforts towards that purpose.

Valfajr Four is the operation in which Mir Jabbar was martyred and the remaining pages of the book cover the story of Bahman Fatehi in the war. The Holy Defense Fronts, the situation before each operation are other topics covered in this book. Valfajr Eight is an operation with sensitive circumstances: “Information security was intensive prior to this operation. They say that prior to the operation the troops were under strict order to avoid sharing information and under such circumstances even if two brothers would meet and one would ask another: “where are you going?” the other would respond: “I don’t know!” Such strict security provided proper grounds for Valfajr Eight operation and misled the enemy in prediction of the location and time of the operation.”

Bahman’s martyrdom is the final line of the book. “Tiny River of Chaparpord” was prepared in the Department of culture and resistance studies of Art Divilsion of Gilan Province and published by Soureh Mehr publication which contains pictures of Mir Jabbar Azizi and Bahman Fatehi in its pages. The letters of these two martyrs to their families written in ink are the last evidences through which we know them.

Considering that in many books, “List of Contents” section is not included; “Tiny River of Chaparpord” containing a content section has an advantage. In this section various topics are presented along with the page number to trace them. Holy Defense Operations are also listed which entail: Beyt Olmogaddas, Ramezan, Kheibar, Badr, Qods 1, and Karbala one, four, five, eight and 10, Valfajr four, eight and 10.