Memoir and National Security: Security features of Publication the Memories of Political Prisoners in Pahlavi Regime
Volume 22, Issue 86, Winter 2020, Pages 56-71
Yaghob Khazaei
Abstract
This article seeks to examine the aims of publication the prison memoirs of individuals and political groups during the Pahlavi regime. One of the main functions of publication the communists memories in Reza Shah's prison was the propaganda for the benefit of the Tudeh Party. The memoirs also were a manifesto against the regime and delegitimize it. The Pahlavi regime also published some jail memoirs in support of its ideology and interests with attracting some prisoners. The memories of Pahlavi regime prisoners after the Islamic Revolution have also been published with the aim of delegitimizing the regime, legitimizing the revolutionary groups and delegitimizing the counter-revolutionary groups. In their representations of imprisonment, storytellers have standardized the behavior of their own groups as "normal" and rejected their "other" in various ways. The publications of memoirs have a function in "Political Post-Revolutionary Events Now" and resulted in the elimination of some individuals and political groups.