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An Iranian Woman's Memoir on theIran–Iraq War: The Production andReception of DaLaetitia NanquettePublished online: 11 Jul 2013.

To cite this article: Laetitia Nanquette (2013) An Iranian Woman's Memoir on the Iran–Iraq War: TheProduction and Reception of Da, Iranian Studies, 46:6, 943-957, DOI: 10.1080/00210862.2013.810077

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Laetitia Nanquette

An Iranian Woman’s Memoir on the Iran–Iraq War: The Production andReception of Da

Da (Mother): Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseini, as Recorded by Seyyedeh A‘zamHoseini was published by Sureh-ye Mehr, the official publisher of the Artistic Center ofthe Islamic Development Organization, in 2008. According to the publishers, it becamethe biggest seller in the shortest period in Iranian publishing history. This articleanalyzes the conditions of production, distribution and reception of that work, andcompares it to the canon of other contemporary Iranian war narratives. It argues thatthe unusually wide and varied reception of a traditional discourse of sacrifice,nationalism and revolutionary fervor was facilitated by the fashionable format of thewoman’s memoir, in addition to a formidable propaganda machine.

This article examines one example of the production, distribution and reception ofIranian narratives about the Iran–Iraq war, called the “Sacred Defense” or the“Imposed War” in the rhetoric of the Islamic regime.1 The text Da:Memoirs of Seyye-deh Zahra Hoseini, as Recorded by Seyyedeh A‘zam Hoseini (2008), makes an assess-ment of this genre necessary.2 This memoir has seen more than 140 reprints inthree years, according to the publisher. The article will show that the reception ofits traditional discourse of sacrifice, nationalism and revolutionary fervor was facili-tated by specific narrative features and the fashionable format of the woman’s

Laetitia Nanquette is Vice-Chancellor Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of New SouthWales, Sydney, Australia. Her gratitude goes to the following grant-awarding bodies for supporting thescholarship during which this article was written: Fulbright Program; Arthur Sachs Foundation; andRoshan Cultural Heritage Institute.

1For a brief history of the conflict: Saskia Gieling, “Iran–Iraq War,” Encyclopedia Iranica, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iraq-vii-iran-iraq-war (accessed December 9, 2011). For detailed essays on theconflict, see for example: Shahram Chubin and Charles Tripp, Iran and Iraq at War (London, 1988);Saskia Maria Gieling, Religion and War in Revolutionary Iran (London, 1999). The “Sacred Defense”is a large political project, not only related to text production. It is devoted to reenacting the memoryof the war and making it alive and present in people’s lives.

2Zahra Hoseini, Da: Khaterat-e Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseini, beh Ehtemam-e Seyyedeh A‘zam Hoseini(Tehran, 2008). Seyyedeh is an honorific title given to females recognized as descendants of theProphet Muhammad through his daughter Fatemeh and son-in-law Ali. Zahra and A‘zam Hoseini arenot related.

Iranian Studies, 2013Vol. 46, No. 6, 943–957, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2013.810077

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memoir, in addition to a formidable propaganda machine,3including Ayatollah Kha-menei’s endorsement of the book, which appears on his website.4

The Characteristics of the “Sacred Defense” Literary Industry

The Iran–Iraq war plays a crucial part in contemporary Iranian cultural history. Litera-ture was considered a part of the Iranian war effort during the eight years of the conflict;it was used in all its forms (booklets, radio broadcasts, books and so on) to unify thecountry behind its leaders. There now is an entire “Culture of the War Front”(Farhang-e jebheh) devoted to remembering the war and organizing its retelling. Com-batants originated from all parts of the country, with different traditions and languages,and it was important for the regime to offer a unifying perspective and a common warculture. This was created progressively by the use of common images: portraits of deadsoldiers from the front adorn various walls of each Iranian city, and a common language:a complex vocabulary ofmartyrdomhas been compiled in encyclopedias, with terms likeshahid-parvar (“nurture martyrs,” used to evoke a city, for example, means that it hasgiven numerous martyrs), or janbaz (literally meaning “one who has lost his life,”refers to a veteran with a disability). Until today, former soldiers join clubs where mem-ories and documents are discussed, compiled and published. These veterans were oftenteenagers during the war. Among them, the basijis (mobilization) were the youngest,having an average age of just 15, whereas members of the pasdaran (RevolutionaryGuards) were usually older.5 All spent their formative years in the trenches and, as inmany wars, might have felt alien to the environment to which they returned when hos-tilities ended, and thuswere drawn to associatemost with others for whom thewar was ashared—and still vividly recalled—memory.This culture of the war front generated its own economy during and after the con-

flict, with the publication of posters, calendars and wall paintings, and the productionof comic strips, TV and radio shows, encyclopedias, books of poetry, memoirs and fic-tional accounts.6 It is also a part of Iranian scholarly research, with academic degrees

3I became interested in it when I was in Tehran in May 2011 for the annual book fair, as I saw peoplequeuing to buy it. I then talked privately to several of these people, three-quarters of them women, whowere going to read it or bought it as a gift, and responses went along the lines of: “You know, usually, Idon’t read all these ‘Sacred Defense’ books. The war is old-fashioned, but this book is different.”

4“L’audience accordée aux responsables du Centre artistique et de l’édition du livre Da,”May 13, 2010,http://www.leader.ir/langs/fr/?p=contentShow&id=6774 (accessed December 12, 2011). The book hasbeen available on Ayatollah Khamenei’s website since March 2011.

5Fred Halliday, “Year II of the Islamic Republic,”MERIP Reports 113 (1983): 5. The Basij-e Mostaz‘afin(Mobilization of the Oppressed) is a paramilitary force created in 1979, which supplied most of the youngsoldiers to the front. Today, it is a force in charge of the internal security of the country, directly reportingto the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. See the article by Alfoneh to understand its role in Iranian Poli-tics: Ali Alfoneh, “The Revolutionary Guards’ Role in Iranian Politics,” Middle East Quarterly XV, no. 4(2008). For a study of the new ideology of martyr among basijis, read the article by Khosrokhavar: FarhadKhosrokhavar, “Chiisme mortifère: les nouveaux combattants de la foi,” L’homme et la société 107–8 (1993).

6For an analysis of some of these texts: Reza Rahgozar, Nim Negahi beh Hasht Saal Qesseh-ye jang(Tehran, 2001).

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awarded in the field.7 Howzeh-ye Honari-ye Sazeman-e Tablighat-e Eslami (ArtisticCenter of the Islamic Development Organization), established regionally acrossIran, is the main institution to organize sponsored literary production, alongside cine-matographic, musical and visual arts productions.8 In addition to the Howzeh-yeHonari there are dozens of foundations for martyrs and veterans, established bothduring and after the war around the country, that publish memoirs and documents.There is also a book fair devoted to war narratives, as well as several literary awards:for example the Quds literary award, the Sacred Defense Book of the year Awardand the Yussef (Joseph) award for short stories on the war. Mobile festivals sometimestake place locally to ensure that the war discourse also reaches the non-urban populace.Books circulate by caravan, presented by the basij.9

The literary production on “Sacred Defense” is unified, if not entirely homo-geneous. It is usually written by men and contains nationalistic discourses, coupledwith the discourse of martyrdom as the way to defend the version of Islam promotedas the only truth by the regime. Iraqis are often depicted as evil and false Muslims,accused of having imposed the war on revolutionary Iran. Even if some narrativessponsored by theHowzeh-ye Honari take a different stand on the traditional discourseof heroism and martyrdom—especially on the way the sacrifice of so much of theIranian youth was used by the propaganda of the regime—their criticism can onlybe circumscribed to a few points to be accepted. In texts by Ahmad Dehqan, forexample, the focus on friendship between soldiers amounts to a criticism of the waythe war was led. In Journey to Heading 270 Degrees, the main character, Naser,decides to go back to the front after his first injury because he has forged bondsthere and he feels he needs to be near his comrades, not to sacrifice himself for thenation.10 The vocabulary of martyrdom is there, but the war the characters themselvesare fighting does not have the same meaning as the one promoted by the government.“Sacred Defense” texts ideally aim to reach the whole of the Iranian population, but

in effect they are directed at two main targets: conservative milieus and school chil-dren. Thanks to the active and wide network of organizations, it is fairly easy to

7In two universities of the country, Semnan and Kerman, you can graduate with a master’s degree onthe literature of the Sacred Defense. These are state universities (as opposed to the many private univer-sities in the country), and the scholarly discourse is far from critical in these programs. Most of it repeatsthe discourse of the government.

8For an overview of the cultural institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, see chapters 1 and 2 in:Agnès Devictor, Politique du cinéma iranien: de l’Ayatollâh Khomeyni au Président Khâtami (Paris, 2004).The Howzeh-ye Honari depends on the Islamic Development Organization (Sazeman-e Tablighat-eEslami), under the authority of the Supreme Leader. It is independent from the government and thusruns parallel to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (Vezarat-e Farhang va Ershad-eEslami). Although it propagates an Islamic and revolutionary rhetoric, it has some space to innovatebecause it bypasses censorship. In music, for example, the Howzeh-ye Honari published MohsenNamjoo’s first official album in Iran, Toranj, in 2007, whereas the Ministry of Culture had rejectedthe release of his previous albums.

9“Sacred Defense Books Travel Around Iran,” June 16, 2011, http://www.iranbooknews.com/vdcefv8zojh877i.1kbj.html (accessed December 9, 2011).

10Ahmad Dehqan and Paul Sprachman, Journey to Heading 270 Degrees (Costa Mesa, CA, 2006).

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reach the conservative milieus already convinced by the discourse, and Islamic propa-ganda is particularly active toward children, who read some “Sacred Defense” texts aspart of their curriculum as late as high school, and participate in state-sponsored visitsto the battlefields. Part of their historical and religious training is devoted to endorsingthe official discourse of sacrifice and martyrdom and to learning about the war withIraq, although this is becoming less and less the case with the rise of a new generationof teachers who did not live through the war.However, in 2008, a best-selling memoir by a woman disturbed this circumscribed

reception and reached an unusual audience.

The Memoir Da and its Place in the “Sacred Defense” Literary Industry

TheHead of theArtisticCenter Bureau for the Literature andArt ofResistance,MortezaSarhangi, commissionedDa.The official publisher Sureh-yeMehr produced the book in2008.11 It became the biggest seller of all genres in the shortest period in Iranianpublishinghistory.Da, which means “mother” in Kurdish, records Zahra’s engagement in the Iran–Iraq war during the fall of the city of Khorramshahr.12 A Shia Kurdish Iranian who livedwith her family in the city of Khorramshahr, Zahra was seventeen when war broke out.The book starts with the history of her family. It then describes how she volunteered withher sister to assist in the cemetery, wash the corpses of the dead and nurse the wounded,while her father and brotherwere killed during thefirst days offighting.After threeweeks,she was wounded and sent away from Khorramshahr, which soon fell to Iraqi forces.Zahra married Habib, a combatant of Khorramshahr and friend of her deceasedbrother and they lived partly in Khuzestan, partly in Tehran. About three-quarters ofthe narration is devoted to the first days of fighting in Khorramshahr. The storydepicts very vividly the experience of civilians living in cities at the front and, subsequently,the lives of the families of martyrs in big cities, as well as portraying the wartime strugglefrom a female perspective. Zahra appears as a strong-willed girl, ready to help at any time,and extremely courageous. She is an extraordinary character drawn into all sorts of adven-tures, which itself presents an explanation of why the memoir has attracted a large audi-ence: adventure narratives always sell well. Da is a powerfully narrated melodrama,although it can be argued that it lacks literary value. Despite the overwhelming pathos,it can be considered a good read. The scenes are realistic; the style is simple and oral,although repetitive; all in all it is designed for mass appeal. It taps into feelings of com-passion, fear and admiration for the character of Zahra. Although it cannot be called a

11Paul Sprachman, a scholar of Persian literature at Rutgers University and translator, is working onthe translation of Da into English.There is a special issue of the journal Ketab-e Mah devoted to the book: “Da,” Ketab-e Mah. Adabiyat 23(March 2009/Esfand 1387); a special issue of Keyhan-e Farhangi 270–71 (March–April 2010/Farvar-din–Ordibehesht 1388); a special issue of the weekly Panjereh 41 (8 May 2010/18 Ordibehesht1389): 50–66. Thanks to Shahab Esfandiary for his help in finding some sources.

12Khorramshahr is a city on the front line on the Iranian side. It gained a mythical status during theconflict and was called Khuninshahr (“the city of blood”) because it was almost entirely destroyed bySaddam Hussein’s forces.

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light read because of the atrocious scenes described, for example when Zahra washes dis-membered bodies, its simplicity makes it an easy read.A quantitative and qualitative study by a research group from Tehran’s Faculty of

Social Sciences has shown that the audience was different from the usual audience ofwar narratives:13 74 percent of the readers ofDa are young (between twenty and forty)and 85 percent of them are highly educated (possessing a bachelor’s degree or higher).Interestingly, despite the fact that the book is written by a woman and narrates awoman’s life, only 27 percent of the readers are female; 56 percent of the readers nor-mally do not read war literature, and among those who do, they say they only read alittle bit. This sample thus shows that Da reaches a segment of the population morevaried than the traditional audience, although women are not well represented.The success of the book can be measured by the degree to which it influenced the

audience: 39 percent of the readers questioned said they were very much influenced bythe book, and 33 percent were influenced to some extent.A last important point to note from this study is that governmental propaganda has

worked, since 55 percent of the readers had at least heard about the book from varioustypes of advertisements or seen it before reading it.In an interview, ZahraHoseini tells the story of the production of the book, reiterating

parts of what she describes in its preface.14 A‘zamHoseini, Head of theWomen’s sectionof theArtisticCenter Bureau for theLiterature andArt ofResistance, says she approachedZahra Hoseini during one event commemorating the war. A’zam had read a paragraphabout Zahra and her sister in a book on the war in Khorramshahr and thought itwould be interesting to work on her memoir. At first Zahra was reluctant. She hadbeen encouraged to tell her story years before by Morteza Avini, a famous photographerand filmmaker of the war, but had declined at the time because she did not feel the needfor it. However, she changed her mind when approached by A‘zam Hoseini after thirtyyears: “I became determined to defend our Sacred Defense and this was not possiblewithout recording the truth and writing the memories of those days.”15 In an interview,she insists that war disrupted their normal life and that they only did their duty in defend-ing the country, but regrets that people like her and veterans are now accused of beingwarmongers ( jangtalab).16 She says she felt the society needed to be informed aboutsome aspects of the war that, according to her, have been slowly forgotten. She conceived

13The quantitative results are based on a telephone survey of a sample of 4,000 persons in Tehranprovince and the qualitative results on an internet survey of 648 persons. The questionnaire wasonline in spring 2012 on the http://www.baztab.net and http://www.ensani.ir websites. It can befound at this address: http://mrjavadi.com/da/index.asp. Doctor Javadi-Yeganeh, from the Faculty ofSocial Sciences, Tehran University, then sent the first results by email to all the persons who answeredthe online questionnaire, this author included.

14“Da,” March 28, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcsPCuhH9n8&feature=relatedaccessed December 9, 2011).

15Hoseini, Da, 11. My references are to the 107th edition. Translations from the Persian are mine.16“Consideration and Criticism Session for the Book of ‘Da’ in Academy of Art,” Islamic Develop-

ment Organization, September 16, 2008, http://www.ido.ir/en/en-n.aspx?n=13870626071 (accessedDecember 10, 2011).

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of it as an act of reviving the memory of the events so that the sacrifices it required wouldnot have been made in vain, and of defending the war she herself had fought. ZahraHoseini says she then researched the Howzeh-ye Honari, read some of the books it hadpublished, and decided that she could trust its members with her memories.Although her journey could be seen as one of those cases where a poor illiterate

woman narrates, whilst an intellectual writer “transcribes,” the story of Da is morecomplex. Zahra Hoseini is forceful—as can be seen in her interviews—and convincedthat her memoir has a goal. She says she insisted in the contract with the publisher thatthey would accept her story in its entirety, without adding or deleting anything.17 Zahraand A‘zam started to work on a first version of the book, which ended up being shortand theHowzeh-ye Honari thought should be expanded. Zahra agreed, realizing that tosummarize the story was not conducive to her aim of telling the whole truth of her war;so the twowomen started again from the beginning in greater detail this time, ending upwith a book of some 800 pages. It took Zahra six years and approximately 1,200 hours torecall the events to A‘zamHoseini. For various reasons, including her health or disrup-tive events in Iran, the pair sometimes had to stop working for several months.

What is Special about this Memoir?

The position of Zahra as the narrator makes the book interesting from a literary pointof view, and somewhat peculiar within the “Sacred Defense” canon. Firstly, Da is thememoir of a woman, written by another woman, and defending women’s point ofview by describing their plight during wartime. The whole narrative is devoted towomen’s experience of the war. This focus on the female and the matrilineal line isunusual in the “Sacred Defense” canon, which mainly offers idealized portraits ofwomen as mothers or wives.18 In Da, the portraits are not abstract: they depictprecise and true-to-life, although extraordinary, women in their daily actions. More-over, Zahra is the only heroine of the book; she is not the companion of a malehero, who could be her brother or husband. In their different ways, Zahra andA‘zam Hoseini are potent and exemplify the role of women during the war and itsretelling. The book is dedicated to Zeinab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Moham-mad, also an exemplar of sacrifice, who survived Karbala and went on to tell the storyof the event. This line is advanced in the preface, as Zahra chooses to present herself inthe mold of a woman freedom fighter: Djamila Boupacha, an Algerian who fought forher country’s independence from France. Zahra says she read a book about her life atfourteen, and was deeply inspired by her example. Her heroine is thus one who foughtagainst an unjust ruler. Moreover, although Zahra does not question the general div-

17Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseini, “I Found my Friends Again with This Book,” September 29, 2009, http://www.women.gov.ir/pages/?cid=7269 (accessed December 9, 2011).

18Mohammad-Reza Javadi-Yeganeh insists on this difference in his article, which can be found online:Mohammad-Reza Javadi-Yeganeh, “The Woman’s Narrative Da on the City War in Khorramshahr.About the Causes of the Reception of Da,” May 8, 2010, http://www.mrjavadi.com/detail.asp?id=350(accessed December 12, 2011).

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ision between men and women in society, she argues that during the war, they had anequal duty to defeat the enemy. She does not hesitate to argue against male soldierswho tell her that a woman has no place there when she comes to help, and heractions question the traditional gender division for the sake of the war effort.In the same vein, the very title of the memoir refers to this matrilineal line and Zahra

explains in the preface that she wanted to dedicate the book to all mothers, who suffer attimes of war. So, in addition to the Algerian revolutionary, she draws on the device of amother of Iran.Whereas the titleDa has an exotic undertone for a Persian reader, beingthe Kurdish rather than the Persian word for “mother,” the back cover explains itsmeaning and makes it possible for audiences to connect to the mothers of Iran as guar-dians of the nation. The title has no war connotation, which aids its appeal to a largeraudience, including those who shun the cliched titles of “Sacred Defense” texts.19 Thesuccess of the publication of Da thus reflects, with some delay, the feminization ofIranian literature through its writers. Indeed, from around the 1990s up to thepresent day, women have been the primary writers of Iranian fiction, while at thesame time being conspicuously rare contributors of “Sacred Defense” narratives.20

Secondly the narrator, a young girl, is somewhat unexpected. Zahra is a seventeen-year-old girl, not a soldier; civilians have rarely recorded their experiences of the waras most narrative efforts concentrated on depicting the armed struggle. Furthermore,although narratives of the war have been recounted by all ethnicities, the perspectivehas often been to dissolve this ethnicity from the narrative, precisely in order for“Sacred Defense” literature, and by extension the nation, to appear unified. Zahranever diverges from the nationalistic discourse, even when her Kurdish background,through her father, is mentioned, because she is Shia, a minority among the Kurds.21

19Goodreads is an important literary forum used by Iranians, which shows comments and ratings ofreaders. The rating of Da was 3.58 out of 4 in December 2011 and it had been rated by 108 readers.The negative criticisms of the book accused the narrator of self-promotion: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6412246 (accessed February 7, 2012). This can be compared to the 2.53 rating of Fat-taneh Haj-Seyyed Javadi’s best-seller Bamdad-e Khomar, but out of a number of readers ten times higher.For examples of comments by readers: Fatemeh Dehqan, “Under the Influence of the Book Da,” Decem-ber 15, 2008, http://durna_n.persianblog.ir/ (accessed December 13, 2011). We read the account of awoman in her forties, living in Karaj, the suburb of Tehran, and how she has been influenced by thebook. She mentions the fact that quality literature about the war is scarce, but that this book is vividand really makes one understand the realities of the war.

20“Over the past decade, Iran’s best-selling fiction lists have become dominated by women, an unprece-dented development abetted by recent upheavals in Iranian society. The number ofwomenwhohave publishednovels has reached 370, said Hassan Mirabedini, a scholar of Iranian literature, whose findings recentlyappeared in the magazine Zanan (Women). That is thirteen times as many as a decade ago, the researchshowed, and is about equal to the number for men today. But the women’s books are outselling the men’sby far.” Nazila Fathi, “Women Writing Novels Emerge as Stars in Iran,” New York Times, June 29, 2005.

21Kurdsmake up approximately 15–17 percent of the Iranian population, as reported by Amnesty Inter-national in its 2008 report. Iran: Human Rights Abuses Against the KurdishMinority, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/088/2008/en/d140767b-5e45-11dd-a592-c739f9b70de8/mde130882008eng.pdf (accessed December 13, 2011. There are strong independence and opposition movements amongIranian Kurds, who have been repressed since the Islamic Revolution. Shia Kurds, who compose about27 percent of Iranian Kurds, are supposed to take a minor part in these movements, as they feel closer to

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Indeed, themention of her ethnicity intensifies the appeal of her patriotic discourse as itgoes in line with the state’s discourse promoting the Iranian nation in its diversity asunited around Shiism. She says for example: “I am a Muslim first, and then a Kurd.”22

Finally, the book narrates the fall of Khorramshahr, whereas most “Sacred Defense”texts, in common with the discourse of the regime, have been concerned with its lib-eration. Khorramshahr was captured by Iraqi forces in October 1980 and held untilMay 1982. Its liberation marked the beginning of the longest and contested secondphase of the conflict, and is celebrated every year. Most narratives on the city focuson this event, but the first days of the war and the defeat are generally an untold story.To understand the specificity ofDa, these features need to be considered, in addition

to formal characteristics of the book—especially the use of the genre of memoir.

The Genre of Memoir: Example of the Use of a Genre to Convey Islamic Propaganda

The book is a memoir, not an autobiography as such, in that it tells the history of thetimes and not only that of the narrator’s life.23 The peritext confirms the ambition ofthe book to be considered an historical narrative.24 It contains many photos of sol-diers, of the city of Khorramshahr, and of Zahra’s family, as well as additional inter-views and an index at the end. Zahra Hoseini conceives of her memoir as an examplefor young people and has a clear didactic purpose in mind. Thus, she inscribes herselfinto the historical genre of the memoir.25 This is why the bias of her account can beseen as problematic, for example when she refers to the Mojahedin-e Khalq as the“Monafeqin” (hypocrites), in line with the official discourse, or accuses presidentAbol-Hassan Bani-Sadr of treason.It needs to be remembered that she started these memoirs more than twenty years

after the events and it is not surprising that memory failed her in some instances.However, she is aware that the value of her narrative is linked to accuracy andtruth, and as such she has engaged with the doubts some critics have expressedabout the vividness of her memories. In an interview, she explains that she has agood memory, like everybody in her family, because her father had the habit ofmaking his children practice memorization. When they walked in a street forexample, he asked them to remember the details of the houses they had passed. She

the Shia regime than Sunni Kurds. See: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organizations, “Iranian Kurdi-stan,” http://www.unpo.org/members/7882 (accessed September 12, 2012).

22Hoseini, Da, 457.23On the difference between autobiography and memoir, see Margaretta Jolly, ed., Encyclopedia of Life

Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms (London, 2001).24Genette distinguishes between “authorial paratext” and “editorial paratext”, and between “peritext”

(which is part of the book, including preface, dedication, illustrations) and “epitext” (which is outside thebook, including interviews of the author). Gérard Genette, Seuils (Paris, 1987).

25“Like the autobiographer they (memoirists) want to make their lives count in the public record;unlike autobiographers they tend to be less sure that their lives will count.”Helen Buss, “Memoirs,” Ency-clopedia of Life Writing (see note 23), 595.

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also maintains that she has lived with these memories during all these years and theyonly needed to be revived.26

The form of memoirs (khaterat) is fashionable in today’s Iran, and politicians arethe largest contributors to this genre.27 Perhaps contrary to expectations in a countrythat values privacy and modesty, memoirs—and to a lesser extent autobiographies(khod-zendegi-nameh)—are produced in significant numbers. However, althoughmany Iranian women’s memoirs have been published in the West, primarily inEnglish, Iranian women within Iran have written fewer memoirs than men, especiallywithin the lower class to which Zahra Hoseini belongs. Masumeh Ramhormozi, thewriter of another memoir on the war called Shanbeh-ye Akhar (The Last Saturday),for example, states that in 2008 only two memoirs on the war by women were pub-lished, compared to 120 by men.28 In Zahra’s case, the didactic purpose can be used asa pretext for her to reveal herself and the historical events in which she was involvedand thus not be frowned upon as immodest.The genre of the memoir is coupled inDa to a melodramatic tone and subject, with

violent stories of war, death and love. An example of this melodramatic combinationof violence and love can be found in the scene where Habib, Zahra’s future husband,proposes to her while she is doing his dressing, and Zahra cannot but shake, and men-tions that she has trouble finishing her task. This scene uses the cliché of the love storybetween the nurse and the wounded soldier.29 This combination of a genre that pur-ports to unveil and of a subject that delves into the melodrama of life is particularlyattractive to a popular audience, when one remembers the rise of romance and melo-drama reading in Iran. There are many romance best-sellers, such as Bamdad-eKhomar (The Morning After), published in 1995, by Fattaneh Haj-Seyyed Javadi,which has seen thirty-eight editions and sold 300,000 copies in ten years, without offi-cial support.30 The subjects of the books are extremely different: The Morning Afternarrates a failed love story between a man and a woman of different social classesand appears as a morality tale arguing for tradition against passion. However, onecan see that the pathos of Da meets the exigencies of the mostly female readers ofThe Morning After and appeals to more personal feelings than the ones demandedby “Sacred Defense” texts written by men.In terms of narration, it is important to keep in mind that Zahra’s story was first

told, and then written. Da keeps some aspects of story-telling, and this is partly whatmakes it so vivid. The day-to-day narration of her life and of the events happening toher family is interrupted only by flashbacks to her childhood or to earlier events whenshe is emotionally drawn back to another period. The flow of the narration and the

26Hoseini, “I Found my Friends Again with This Book.”27I did not find reliable statistics on the publication of memoirs compared to other genres, but it is a

fact that most literary critics to whom I talked in Iran mention: memoirs are rising, and it is easy to see thetrend when browsing Tehran’s bookshops.

28“Da,” Ketab-e Mah, 37.29Hoseini, Da: 656.30Ali Ferdowsi, “Bamdad-e khomar,” July 15, 2009, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bamdad-e-

komar (accessed December 15, 2011).

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use of direct speech make it lively. I give here an example of a representative scenebetween Zahra and her sister Leila, who speak about the return of their brotherAli, fighting on the front, while Zahra hurries up to see him:

I noticed how Leila was happy to see me.She said: Zahra, Ali came back.—Really?—Yes, believe me. He came back.—When? I have looked for him and wandered around for so long. Where has hebeen since yesterday? …I summoned up all the strength I had and started to run.31

Direct speech and vivid scenes give the reader a sense of the movements of Zahra’sthoughts and memories, although, as I have said before, these memories are theresult of a process of remembering and may not always be accurate.Zahra insists in interviews and in the preface that A‘zamHoseini did not change any

part of her story and that every word is her own. According to Zahra, A‘zam was onlythere to record the experience of the narrator; she effaced herself behind the one wholived the events, or at least this is how the process is presented. As such, Zahra endorseswhat Philippe Lejeune calls “the autobiographical pact.”32 It is an important part of theauthorial paratext of the book to insist on the fact that the narrator tells her life in aspirit of truth and the reader is encouraged to believe what is written. It is only whenmemory fails that the narrator can be forgiven for having omitted or altered parts ofthe narration. This pact, which is central to the preface of Da, situates the reading inone framework and installs a direct interaction between the narrator and the reader.However, one can argue that it is disrupted by the fact that the narrator is not theauthor: how can the pact work when there is a third party imposing her voice,despite all the contrary assertions? Thomas Couser convincingly argues that “collabora-tive autobiography disrupts the single identity of author cum narrator cum subject thatis the constituting feature of the genre (of the autobiography),” and the same can be saidof memoirs.33 As such, Zahra’s autobiographical pact with her readers is partly an illu-sion. This illusion can be explained when one remembers the context of the productionof the book: Zahra’s memoir was commissioned by an Islamic organization and pro-moted by official institutions. Moreover, it is difficult to assess how much of thestory is due to Zahra only and how much is due to A‘zam’s listening and guiding thestory through her questions. Although it appears as a subjective intervention of astrong-willed woman, the context of this production cannot be escaped. The genre ofthe book thus reveals the tension between Zahra’s discourse, which is largely in linewith the official one, and propaganda. The Zahra of seventeen who got involved inthe war was already a patriotic woman very attached to the city of Khorramshahr,but her recalling of the war comes after thirty years of Islamic propaganda and one

31Hoseini, Da, 334.32Philippe Lejeune, Le pacte autobiographique (Paris, 1975).33Thomas Couser, “Authenticity,” Encyclopedia of Life Writing (see note 23), 72.

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can therefore argue that she remembers the war in terms of this internalized dogma,through a modern and fashionable form.34

The text has been received by varied audiences, as shown by the study of Javadi-Yeganeh, partly because the form is easy, but it still contains most of the elementsof the “Sacred Defense” canon. Although some narrative and formal characteristicsof the book can explain why it was more broadly received than other “SacredDefense” texts, the formidable propaganda machine devoted to its distribution isessential to accounting for it.

The Publishing and Promotion of Da

The Iranian book market is scarcely a market in the sense of Western countries. Sincethe establishment of the Islamic Republic, there has been a “considerable increase in thenumber of government agencies involved in the publication of books and periodicals.”35

Most publishers are subsidized by the regime and do not have to be efficient and makebig sales. Ideology is what leads them. Publishers of textbooks, the next big seller afterreligious and ideological books, are also subsidized. There are only about a dozen publish-ers who produce a significant amount of creative writing with no support from theregime except the supply of paper, and they struggle, especially to get a permit toprint from the censorship bureau. Da’s publisher, Sureh-ye Mehr, is one of those subsi-dized. It experiences no problems linked to the demand of the market, which is why thebook can be now accessed for free online. It is also important to take into considerationthe fact that the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance buys books that it considers“beneficial to society,” particularly to give to public libraries, cultural centers, schools anduniversities. Copies of Da have been distributed to teachers, for example. I encounteredone teacher who had been offered it twice by his university. A significant number ofcopies of Da have been bought for this purpose, although it is impossible to knowexactly how many. This bias is important to factor in when scrutinizing sales statistics.The book may be bought, but whether it is actually read or not cannot be determined. Itcan reasonably be assumed that it has not been as widely read as it has been bought.The sponsoring of the book has also been organized by governmental agencies and

institutions linked to the Supreme Leader. Da has received several prizes—interest-ingly in the field of history, not of literature, which confirms the pedagogical ambi-tions of the state for the book. It received the 2009 Jalal Al-e Ahmad Award inhistory (a very generous prize of $270,000), the 2009 Shahid Qanipur prize for bio-graphy and the 2009 Book of the Year Award in the history genre.36 The Jalal Al-eAhmad prize and Book of the Year Award, both founded in the last ten years, are

34For an example of her attachment to Iran and to the city of Khorramshahr, see Hoseini, Da, 529.35Iraj Afshar, “Publishing in Iran after the Revolution,” General Introduction to Persian Literature

(London, 2009), 480.36“Winners of 9th Ghanipour competition,”March 6, 2010, http://manzar.ir/2008-12-30-19-34-01/

40-book-awards/542-winners-of-9th-ghanipour-competition.html; “Press conference of ‘Da,’” March 2,2010, http://www.ibna.ir/vdciv3aq.t1apz2lict.html (accessed December 10, 2011).

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supported by the government, while the Shahid Qanipur prize is independent, but stillin the line of the government. It is important to bear in mind that the convention ofawarding literary prizes is not as important in Iran as it is in Western countries andmost government-supported prizes have almost no impact on readership. There havealso been celebrations of the book’s progress over time, for example on the occasion ofits 100th edition. Zahra Hoseini was already involved in the retelling of the war beforethe book was out but, after its publication, it became her major activity and she is con-stantly touring universities, cultural centers and basij centers to recall her experience,thus promoting the text and its discourse herself.

Reception of Da

After less than two years, and despite a high price by Iranian standards of 120,000 rials(around $12 at the then rate of exchange),37 Da had seen its 100th reprint.38 This hasto be compared with the fact that most Iranian books are printed in runs of between2,500 and 5,000 copies, and literary books around 2,000 copies.39 The publishingstrategy on Da is questionable: why print it in so few copies and publicize thenumber of reprints instead of printing more copies at once?40 This publishing strategyencourages the idea that the book is a best-seller only because of the support of thegovernment, which is not entirely the case.The success of the book is encouraged by a large distribution in most of the book-

shops of Tehran, in the Shahr-e Ketab (general bookstores) of the capital, and even insupermarkets. So large a distribution, permitted by governmental support, is signifi-cant since it is otherwise something of a challenge to buy books in Iran, bookshopsnot carrying large stocks and most specialized in a few subjects only; usually thismeans going to different bookshops to find different types of books, and Tehranitself boasts only two big general bookstores.If Da is a best-seller, even if it is not read as much as it has been bought, it is also

somewhat of a social success for the Islamic Republic in the sense that it has revived thediscourse on the war in contemporary Iran and inspired people usually non-receptiveto the regime’s propaganda, educated young people, to use the text in different ways, as

37Twelve dollars is more than double the average price of an Iranian paperback novel. The hard-backcover and the size of Da partly explain this price.

38It is not possible to get the exact number of copies printed in Iran, as the official agency organizingthe information on books, Khaneh-ye Ketab, does not give precise figures. The best way to estimate print-ing is by multiplying the number of copies by the number of reprints. For Da, the first editions wereprinted in 2,500 copies, some editions were printed in only 1,000 copies, and some in 5,000 copies,according to the publisher’s data, which are probably exaggerated. It can be estimated that about halfa million copies have been printed. This might be different from the number of copies sold, as it isnot uncommon in Iran that some books supported by official institutions are printed in highernumbers than demanded, to be stocked in state libraries or later sent to the pulp making factory. SeeMohammad Ghaed, “Shebh-e Mo’ama-ye Ketab dar Iran,” May 4, 2005, http://mghaed.com/essays/press&publishing/book_market_enigma.htm (accessed March 12, 2012).

39Afshar, “Publishing in Iran after the Revolution,” 478.40Javadi-Yeganeh, “The Woman’s Narrative Da on the City War in Khorramshahr.”

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the next paragraphs will show. The book has been positively reviewed by well-knownfigures and artists of different political persuasions, despite the subject not interestingintellectuals in general—few writers or artists have tackled it. Somehow, the war isthought of in terms of class, although it touched those of all walks of life; it is remem-bered primarily as a war fought by common people.41 Da does not break this traditionas Zahra’s family is provincial, not wealthy, and religious and devoted to AyatollahKhomeini. Yet it is still unique in the way it has attracted the interest of an audiencemade up of different socio-political backgrounds. For example, Mohammad-AliAbtahi, a reformist politician who was the first cabinet member to write a weblog,has a review of it on his website, saying he read it during his stay in prison andloved it.42 In a program on Iranian TV partly shared in a YouTube video, the interest-ingly juxtaposed Ahmad Habibzadeh—a well-known writer of “Sacred Defense”novels—and critical film director Rakhshan Bani-E‘temad both praise the narratorfor her courage.43 Habibzadeh mentions the sincerity of the narrator as the mostimportant characteristic of the book, proper to inspire Iranians and to give faith.He also insists that the book is unique in its retelling of the war and has opened upnew literary areas. One poster that you could see in Tehran libraries in spring 2012promoted Da with the endorsements of popular actresses like Roya Teymourian ordirectors like Dariush Mehrjui. The poster also featured people close to the regime,like Ahmad Najafi, an IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) figure and suppor-ter of Ahmadinejad. As such, the publicity surrounding the book and its narrator isprecisely focused on getting the attention of people who would usually dismiss“Sacred Defense” texts supported by the regime. The purpose of the publicity is topromote the text as one which reunites the Iranian nation—despite the paradox ofits title that has to be explained to Persian readers—and which can be appreciatedby all classes and generations. The publicity has worked fairly well not only becauseof the record sales (even if the actual reading is far less), but also because it is actuallythe discourse attached to the book. Some young people, especially educated ones, whodid not usually read war narratives came to read it, and found that it connected themto a period they would usually dismiss, because of their empathy and admiration forZahra’s extraordinary character and her adventures. A large part of the young gener-ation has become inattentive to the rhetoric of the regime and does not even see it;

41Behruz Ghamari-Tabrizi, “Memory, Mourning, Memorializing. On the Victims of Iran–Iraq War,1980–Present,” Radical History Review 105 (2009): 112–13. See the tables for the occupation, education,and rural/urban distribution of soldiers killed during the war. The article explains the use by political factionsof divergent discourses on the war after its end. It insists that Hashemi Rafsanjani’s discourse has largely con-tributed to make it an outdated period of Iranian history, about which the new middle class does not care.

42Mohammad Ali Abtahi, “The Book Da,”May 21, 2010, http://www.webneveshteha.com/weblog/?m=06&y=1389 (accessed December 15, 2011).

43“Da,” March 28, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0ZULZWw4Q&feature=related(accessed December 16, 2011). See also this page for Bani-E‘temad’s comments: Rakhshan Bani-E‘temad “Da was the Unspoken Part of the History of the War, for Which We Still Pay the Outcomes,”November 5, 2008, http://www.iricap.com/articlecontent.asp?id=29 (accessed December 15, 2011). ForHabibzadeh’s interview: Habib Habibzadeh, “Da Draws a Path of Blood,” November 8, 2008, http://www.iricap.com/articlecontent.asp?id=30 (accessed December 15, 2011).

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overwhelmed by propaganda at school they try to get away from it as soon as they can.Yet the statistics on young educated people reading it quoted above prove that Da hasmade some of them read about the war in a personal manner.The promoters of the book were aware of the use they could make of the internet

and of media such as television, particularly in targeting the youth, even if its successmay have come as a surprise at first. The circulation of Da in different media reflectsthe new dynamics of Iranian culture and complements them.

Circulation of Da through Different Media

Zahra Hoseini has given numerous interviews on TV and radio over the last four years;the book is discussed in many blogs and, as mentioned earlier, is available online; Daalso has a Facebook page, although it is not particularly active.44 Another importantcharacteristic of this circulation is that it has attracted the interest of television andcinema producers. I will discuss the interest of cinema producers in the following para-graph, but as for television producers, this is not surprising, considering that nationaltelevision is owned by the state. The book was adapted as an animated movie for tele-vision in 2011 by Sina Atayan and produced by Ali Taqipur, a producer known for fol-lowing the governmental line. It was aired on Channel 1 at prime time, before the mainnews program at 9 pm.45 The series can now be found in its entirety on YouTube.46

Readings of the entire book over 120 episodes are accompanied by music and animateddrawings. The series has been broadcast in episodes lasting fifteen minutes, with fifty-five different actresses providing the voice of Zahra Hoseini. As it is produced cheaply,the main selling attraction is the use of famous Iranian actresses like Niki Karimi, RoyaTeymurian and Fariba Kowsari, who have become the voice of Zahra. Although theyare all properly veiled in dark colors in the readings, they represent a broad spectrum ofIran’s female population: they are of different ages and grew up in different socialclasses. Some of these actresses are famous for playing roles in popular movies andTV series, wear heavy make-up and can hardly be said to represent the discourse ofthe Islamic regime. It is significant that the producer and director have decided tochoose many actresses of varying backgrounds instead of just one. They are thususing the series to represent the collective voice of Iranian women and mothers, withthe idea that Iranian women could recognize themselves in these different voicesthrough the figure of a powerful female protagonist.Zahra Hoseini has received many offers to make a film adaptation of her work.

Important, and indeed intellectual, directors like Dariush Mehrjui or TahminehMilani have offered to work with her on the script.47 There has been something ofa scramble for the appropriation of this narrative by famous film-makers. Merila

44“The Book Da,” http://www.facebook.com/ketabeda (accessed December 16, 2011).45Davud Khosravi, “Review of the Series Da,” June 21, 2011, http://www.ido.ir/a.aspx?a=

1390033101 (accessed December 9, 2011).46“TV Narration of Da,” June 30, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsZDUBdtVQo

(accessed December 9, 2011).47http://www.emtedadmags.com/article.asp?Art=1096 (accessed December 10, 2011).

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Zare‘i, a popular actress, has also expressed interest in playing the role of Zahra for thefilm.48 In November 2011, the Head of the Howzeh-ye Honari, Mohsen Momeni,finally chose a director. Homayun As‘adiyan, the director of “Gold and Copper,”which was screened in international festivals in 2010 and 2011, will create a TVseries from the book.49 As‘adiyan’s movie on the family life of a young mollah hasbeen a box office success. He is by no means a controversial director, and has somereputation. Both of these characteristics might have appeared as a guarantee thatthe series would draw a considerable audience, and help Zahra’s narrative tobecome the realization of a national narrative.

An Attempt to Unify the Nation on the Discourse on the War

Zahra Hoseini, as a person, exemplifies the tension between supposedly personal dis-course and propaganda that has rendered the memoir fairly successful as a national nar-rative. She typifies the religious provincial woman wearing a chador, and she insists herexperience compares to that of many women.50 In this sense, she corresponds to theIslamic modesty appropriate in traditional Iranian society: she does not put herselfto the fore, rather devoting herself to others—yet this does not prevent her fromappearing as a very strong-willed and independent girl in the book, and an independentand complex woman today, bold enough to have her life narrated in memoirs, which israre for a woman of her background. In interviews, she is forceful and speaks well of thebook and the war. The originality of her position as a woman and as a member of theKurdish Shia minority benefits the government’s official discourse, that has commis-sioned her to speak. Indeed, her discourse tries to prove that a traditional Islamicwoman can be independent and, moreover, can realize herself better by endorsingthe Islamic Shia and revolutionary values of the regime.

Conclusion

The study of the strategies surrounding this book illustrates how important it is toconsider the production and distribution of narratives in contemporary Iran for asses-sing both their literary value and reception. It is impossible to argue that Da hasbecome a best-seller solely because of its literary quality and/or mass appeal. Awhole propaganda machine has made it possible for this book to become visibleand attractive to audiences who are usually not interested in “Sacred Defense” narra-tives. It became such a hit because it answered the needs of a young audience to readabout the personal memories of an extraordinary woman, and of an educated audienceto read a memoir different from all the memoirs on the war they read at school.

48“The Views of Merila Zare‘i and Gowhar Kheirandish on the Book Da,” November 22, 2011,http://avinyfilm.ir/main/index.php?Page=definition&UID=1039651 (accessed December 13, 2011).

49“Homayun As‘adiyan Directs the Series Da with the Producer Manuchehr Mohammadi,” November20, 2011, http://www.cinemanegar.com/articleview.php?cat=34&id=3175 (accessed December 13, 2011).

50“Da,”May 25, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/user/movahedi2009 (accessed December 10, 2011).

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