The dark decade following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran engendered a ‘sudden and irrepressible boulimia’ of letter-writing by non-elite writers in Iran. The war between Iran and Iraq from 1980 to 1988 started approximately a year after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. This period can be described as a decade of emergency, as desperate soldier authors confronted death and separation from loved ones. This study has traced the writings of Iranian soldiers during the eight-year war. It situates their writings within a historical framework and maps the personal and national identity of the authors. Evidence shows that a large volume of letters from the war are the final correspondences written by untutored volunteer soldiers who would soon face death. They are unremarkable writers, sending their last letters home under the title of ‘will’ at a time of national crisis. The research in this thesis opens up a unique debate from below on ego documents by Iranian volunteer solders by asking such questions as: why did so many felt the urgency of writing will letters. What power did will writing hold for them? Do the letters reveal the motives on the part of volunteer soldiers for participating in the war? And were volunteer soldiers passive consumers of official propaganda or more active in developing their identities? The research demonstrates how examining these letters from below reveals signs of non-conformity, hints of dissent and individual approaches beyond the official ideology.

Setayesh Nooraninejad is a PhD candidate in the School of History at the ANU. Her research investigates the writing culture of ordinary people in Iran during the war years (1980-1988).

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