Javad Poyanfar's Memories
Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi
2026-6-23
Seyed Javad Poyanfar, a pilot general and wounded veteran of the Holy Defense, was a guest on the 285th Shab Khatereh (Memory Night) program (November 2025). He spoke about the air operations and captivity in the Belghorfeh prison. Poyanfar said: "On September 18, 1980, four days before the war began, we had to go and hit our target. The reason for our attack that day was that the Iraqi government's army had dug trenches, taken some of our land, and crossed our borders. Another area that we bombed in the west of the country was Zain al-Quws. That is, there were two arches in our territory that the Iraqis had taken and captured all the border guards and those who were guarding there and took them with them. On September 18, we had four planes, two in the front and two in the back when we carried out the operation. Unfortunately, Hussein Lashkari's fighter plane crashed in that operation and we did not know what had happened; was he captured or killed? In another operation we conducted, we went with 140 planes and hit various enemy bases. I hit the base in Nasseriyah, Iraq. When I returned, I saw some tanks and wanted to hit them, but I realized that among them were families and civilians fleeing in private cars, so I gave up hitting those tanks.
I was a prisoner for about 10 years and spent a long time in Belghorfeh prison, which was a political prison. I was there for about two months when they asked us to shave our beards and I saw that it had turned white. Then they put us in a car to take us to Abu Ghraib prison. I had a code with Martyr Lashkari; when I said tank, he said cannon and vice versa. When I was in the car, I glanced over and saw that Lashkari was also next to me. I thanked God that he was alive. I said: Tank, he said: Are you Javad? Are you also captured? I said: Yes. I was with him in Abu Ghraib prison for a long time. He had good morals and was very patient. 18 years of captivity were hard and only me, and people like me, know what Martyr Lashkari endured during those 18 years. We were there for a while and then they took us to a camp where we were able to write letters to our families and the families of those who had remained in Abu Ghoraib and had no contact with the outside world. We entertained ourselves by running and exercising (we had made dumbbells out of stones) with the books and letters that the Red Cross brought us so that we could be useful.”
Let’s see this story below.
So far, 379 Holy Defense Memory Night programs have been organized by Resistance Literature and Culture Researches and Studies Center and the Bureau for Literature and Art of Resistance of the Hozeh Honari. The next program will be held on Thursday, July 02, 2026.
Number of Visits: 11
The latest
- Javad Poyanfar's Memories
- Report of the 15th Oral History Conference; Religion and Culture -1
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 35
- Rahim Afshar's Memories
- The Story of the First Sacred Defense Book Award
- Oral History and Social Resilience in Hard Times
- 100 Questions/ 34
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 34
Most visited
- Expert Panel Session on Oral History of the Country – (Part 2)
- 100 Questions/ 33
- A Review of Scientific and Operational Strategies for Overcoming the Erosion of Narrators’ Memory
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 34
- 100 Questions/ 34
- Oral History and Social Resilience in Hard Times
- The Story of the First Sacred Defense Book Award
- Rahim Afshar's Memories
Validation: Challenges and Necessities
Where does truth stand in oral history? How can the correctness of a narrative be recognized? Does fact-checking matter? If there is exaggeration in the reporting of some accounts, how can it be detected? Is it possible to record an event accurately through the recording of a narrative? Readers and users of oral history works are often faced with these questions, and sometimes encounter doubts about some oral history works.From Revolutionary Circles to the Military Arm of the Islamic Government
In those days, it became clear that certain institutions had to be established very quickly—institutions suited to the temperament, expectations, and lingering aspirations of the younger generation; young people who had been politically active before the Revolution and, in some cases, had been directly entangled in arrests, imprisonment, ...Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
The use of oral history as one of the historical sources has long been one of the principal challenges facing oral historians and those who employ it in contemporary historiography. The development of international standards for oral history, as well as IRIB standards, was intended to address the criticisms raised in this regard. The relationship between Diplomatics in written records and oral history is reciprocal.100 Questions/27
What is the place of research ethics in compiling oral history?We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week.
