The reason this interview interests me is that it has a lot to do with my roots and my family background. I would most likely not be an American citizen if it were not for my family immigrating to America due to the Iranian Revolution and the war that soon followed it. What interests me about this person is that I have known them for all my life, him being my uncle, but have never asked about his experience during this time of his life.
The types of questions I plan to ask are:
Where are you from?
Where do you currently reside?
How long ago were you affected by war?
How old were you during the Iranian Revolution and during the war that followed it?
How did you feel during this time? What was your main concerns during this time of your life?
In what ways has your experience throughout the Iranian Revolution changed your life today?
Why did you leave your country?
How do you feel about war? Is it needed or not?
Where do you see yourself if you had not left Iran?
What was your opinion on the Iranian Revolution? what side were you on?
Does what currently is going with Middle Eastern countries and America affect you in any way? Do you have a stance or opinion on this?
Do you feel that the Iranian revolution is similar to any events that are happening today?
The responses I expect to hear to these questions are for the most part going to be very long and informative except for the first two questions that are there to relax the interviewee. I really can't pinpoint his opinions on the war because I don't know too much information about the war but I do believe that he will be able to discuss this during the interview. I think that most of my questions will bring up discussion for further questions that I could think of on the spot.
I do not know very much about the event but I do know that the Iranian Revolution is what caused the fall of the Shah of Iran. Some of the research that I should do is to figure out more about the causes and the results of the revolution. I should also figure out how the Iranian Revolution links to the war that followed.
But after doing some research I have found three academic journals with very useful information:
The Revolution's Forgotten Sons and Daughters: The Jewish Community in Tehran during the 1979 Revolution
This academic journal by Lior Sternfeld is about the opinions and experiences of Iranian Jews during the time of the Revolution. I chose to use this article because my interviewee is Iranian and Jews, so I feel that this will give me a better insight of how he had experienced the Revolution and how his religion affected his stance on the matter.
The Iranian Military in Politics, Revolution and War, Part Two.
This academic journal by Ahmed S. Hashim gives a summary of the events that had happened before and after the Iranian Revolution. The academic journal even includes information about the Iran-Iraq war which my interview subject was going to be drafted into if he had not fled the country.
The Iranian Revolution
This academic journal by L. P. Elwell-Sutton has more in-depth information about the Iranian revolution which discusses how the people during this time had felt about the Revolution. This article not only focuses on historical events but also the people during the events.
From these sources, I can tell that the main conversations surrounding the event are that there were people that were afraid of the liberalism of Iran and they wanted Iran to become more of an Islamic country. My topic is contentious only because there are people who differ in what should have been done and if the Iranian Revolution was wise to start.
The important terms/events/concepts that I will include in my interview that these sources introduced were the monarchy, Prime Minister Mossadegh, and Mohammad Reza Shah
My research has helped revise my previous questions by giving me more specific events I can ask my interviewee about. I can ask them about their experience with these events or what they had heard about these events at the time. I would now formulate those questions by making them more open ended like "how did you feel about this event?" or " How did this event affect your life today?". The other questions I will post will still be on the same topic of the ones above but I will add more questions about the events that I had read about that lead up to and proceeded the Iranian Revolution. I think the additional research I need to do is to make sure that I understand the timeline of all the events that started the revolution and more about the Iran-Iraq war that preceded it.
