Hussein Monsef’s narration about Mosul night is published

Author: Hassan Shirdel
Published by: Soureh-ye Mehr Publishing Company (affiliated to Arts Center, Hozeh-ye Honari)
1st Impression: 2009

Memoirs of the released POW, Mohammad Hussein Monsef, from his captivity in Mosul prison at the time of Ba’athist Iraq has been published under the title of Mosul Night.
According to news staff of Soureh-ye Mehr publications, Mosul Night is the memoirs collection of “Mohammad Hussein Monsef” from anti-revolutionaries activities in north of Iran and the beginning of imposed war and his captivity. Hassan Shirdel has conducted and compiled the interview.
Shirdel says: “Nothing had been done about fighters’ memoirs in Mazandaran. For compiling this work, we recorded 23 hours of interview and after editing, the text was given to the owner of the memoirs (Mohammad Hussein Monsef) for revision and the problems were removed at the beginning of the work.
He adds: “In early days of revolution, north of the country was the center of activities anti-revolutionaries that intended to fight against the government militantly. These groups had affected on the youth and cultural status of the region. When someone can separate from this atmosphere and join the revolution and move toward its aims, this is a positive point in that person’s life and a positive point of this book is that the narrator has retold this feature very well”.
In part of the book, we read: “For a moment I felt that I would die definitely, and this is end of the world for me. In these short moments, all the good and bad memoirs of my 22 years old life came to my mind; sweat moments of childhood, teen ages, the sins and good deeds. I told myself: why you are afraid of death, and then answered: because you are guilty. I told myself again: your aim for coming to the front was holy and God forgives you because of this holy aim. In that time that my death was inevitable, I had formed a court and I was the accused and judge of that court too. So, I consoled myself with the God’s promise and remembered Tuba and the olive green blouse that she had knitted for me by her own hands”.
Mosul night is a production of The Bureau for the Literature and Art of Resistance and is available in book market. The book has 304 pages and its price is 4000 tomans.

Translated by: fereshteh Keshani