Memories of Seyed Javad Pouyanfar

Translated by Kianoush Borzouei

2026-04-25

The 282nd edition of the Night of Sacred Defense Reminiscences series was held on the afternoon of Thursday, July 27, 2017 in the Soureh Hall of the Artistic sect of the Islamic revolution. In this program, pilot Seyed Javad Pouyanfar recounted his memories, saying: “We went on the mission on September 19 with four aircrafts, together with Martyr Lashkari, toward Zain al-Qous. That area was on our soil, but it had been occupied by the Iraqis. They claim that we started the war before 23rd of September, which is untrue; Iraq had already occupied our territory before that date. Unfortunately, Martyr Lashkari’s fighter jet crashed during that operation, and we did not know what had happened to him—whether he had been captured or killed.”

“In another operation we carried out, on September 27, after completing the mission, I was shot down and held captive for nearly ten years. One day, as they were taking me for interrogation, I had previously established a code with Martyr Lashkari: whenever I said ‘tank,’ he would say ‘cannon,’ and vice versa. There, I said, ‘Tank,’ and he replied, ‘Javad, is that you? You’ve been captured too?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ I spent a long time with him in Abu Ghoraib prison.”

“Those prisoners who returned from Iraq were never passive. I myself, as a captain, flew for 25 years and accumulated around 17,000 hours with Iran Air and Iran Air Tours, and I never showed any weakness after captivity.”

Let us now watch this account. So far, 377 Night of Sacred Defense Reminiscences programs have been held by the Center for Studies and Research in the Culture and Literature of Resistance and the Resistance Literature and Arts Office of the Artistic sect. The next program will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2026.

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