The collection of stories “My commander” continues the “War prose” series, which already includes the memoir of Masume Abad, “I am alive” and the documentary and biographic novel “The hero’s wife” by B. Zarabizade.
“My commander” book tells its readers about the literature of Resistance devoted to Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988). This war, which was one of the large-scale and long-running conflicts of the 20th century, turned out to be the first serious test for the young Islamic republic. Hoping that Iran was weakened by the revolution, Iraqi leaders were planning to occupy the oil-bearing Kuzestan province in the shortest possible time. However, despite the support of the largest global powers, the aggressor did not manage to break down the heroic resistance of the Iranians. At great cost of lives, the Islamic republic brought the enemy’s offensive to a halt. Over 8 years Iran lost hundreds of thousands human lives, many large cities were destroyed by Iraqi air raids. During the conflict Iraq used chemical weapons that killed many people, including civilians.
Only three decades have elapsed since the end of the Iran-Iraq war, yet it has not been erased from the memory of the the older generation of Iranians. For many the war became a personal tragedy, and the pain has not subsided so far.
The war literature appeared in Iran in the first year of hostilities as a reaction of accomplished writers to the tragic events that caused so much pain to their compatriots.
The book “My commander” can be logically divided into three parts.
The part entitled “Prediction” contains the author’s reflections about the enemy, attempts to see the enemy as a human dreaming of a peaceful life, but forced to pursue an unjust war, and therefore doomed. This is a narrative of an Iraqi soldier. The reader discovers his dreams, fears, thoughts and feelings. The story’s author is a teacher, and he used to teach in his native province Ardabil during the war, without participating directly in the military operations.
The stories from “I will come back in the day of Ashura” to “Jesus from Kurdistan” contain the memories of Iranian soldiers about their commanders who fell in battles.
In 1991 Mohammad Javad Jazini, writer and war veteran, collected some sketches, which had been published in periodicals during the war or right after it ended, and published them in a separate book — “Najib”.
The book was prepared for publication by the Sadra and Veche publishing houses and translated from Persian with the support of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation.
