A Photo Report of the Iraqi Forces Invasion to Tehran at the Onset of the Iran-Iraq War

On September 22, 1980, Iraqi forces made an airstrike and ground attack on various parts of Iran and started the imposed war. At about 2:30 pm, Iraqi aircrafts attacked Mehrabad Airport and surrounding areas in Tehran. The number of published photos related to this event is very limited. This photo report provides a brief overview of the photos which have been published and made available online, and offers suggestions for collecting other potential photos.

Narrative photography

With Bosnians warriors and injured

During the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre in the Bosnian War, I remembered those days when some of the Bosnian warriors and wounded had been brought to Iran for treatment, and I left the conex box, where used as a small office for Literature and Art of Resistance, and visited them to hear and record their story and memories.

Narrated by photos

An interview that was not done

Yannis Behrakis, a well-known news photographer, who worked for Reuters News Agency, died on Saturday March 2, 2019. He was born in Athens in 1960. He educated in Athens School of Arts and Technology and received a Bachelor Degree from Middlesex University. In 1985-1986, he was a commercial studio photographer, and while he was working in there, he watched the film "Under Fire" and then he became eager to photograph war.

Narrated by images

The little men of those years

The Sacred Defense years were an opportunity for them to get from teen years to youth. They left their adolescence in the towns and villages and grew up as men in the fronts. This photo post is about the teenagers who abandoned their comfortable homes so that their mothers live in safety and comfort. They are brave men for Isfahan Province who took part in the war in the areas of Dar Khowein, Dalpari and Fakkeh.

Narrated by photos:

Military Training Course during Sacred Defense

Amirali Javadian has started photography in Art Center since 1978. He went to the sacred defenses fronts in 1981 to photograph. At that time, he was the photographer- correspondent for News Agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran and continued until 1365. Javadian entered into the university after the years of imposed war by Saddam Hussein against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and received his doctoral degree from the collage of Fine Arts in 2004.

The Hardest Work in the World

The literature of war memoir is a clear indication of any war, therefore, the literature of war is born and can not be made, because in wars the human foot and its ideals are in the midst (among) (In wars, humans and their ideals are involved) and with the sufferings and hopes of the soldiers and nations, these sufferings and hopes come out like a volcano lava from their minds and sit on the blank sheet of paper (white chest of paper).

A speech by Imam Moussa al-Sadr

The speech of Imam Moussa al-Sadr was made in assembly of the Ulema and Clergymen on the night of Eid al-Adha in February 1972 in Hosseinia Emadzadeh, Esfahan. In this lecture, the reason of establishment of the Supreme Council for Lebanese Shiites has been expressed.
 

An Excerpt from the Memoirs of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi

As Operation Fath-ol-Mobin came to an end, the commanders gathered at the “Montazeran-e Shahadat” Base, thrilled by a huge and, to some extent, astonishing victory achieved in such a short time. They were already bracing themselves for the next battle. It is no exaggeration to say that this operation solidified an unprecedented friendship between the Army and IRGC commanders.

A Selection from the Memoirs of Haj Hossein Yekta

The scorching cold breeze of the midnight made its way under my wet clothes and I shivered. The artillery fire did not stop. Ali Donyadideh and Hassan Moghimi were in front. The rest were behind us. So ruthlessly that it was as if we were on our own soil. Before we had even settled in at the three-way intersection of the Faw-Basra-Umm al-Qasr road, an Iraqi jeep appeared in front of us.
Part of memoirs of martyr Seyed Asadollah Lajevardi

Boycotting within prison

Here I remember something that breaks the continuity, and I have to say it because I may forget it later. In Evin Prison, due to the special position that we and our brothers held and our belief in following the line of Marja’eiyat [sources of emulation] and the Imam, we had many differences with the Mujahedin.
It was raised at the "Fourth Conference on the Oral History of Sacred Defense":

The credibility of the commanders

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 ...