An argument over the meaning of war literature

The interview that prompted a response

In a 12 November interview with Ahmad Dehghan, Mahrokh Ebrahimpour places Rabihavi beside Davoud Ghaffarzadegan and Esmail Fassih when asking about writers for whom the literary treatment of war matters. Rabihavi is named in her question; the responses belong to Dehghan, rather than to Rabihavi. Source 2

Two days later, Ahmad Shakeri publishes a critical response. He objects to the interview’s framing of independence and ideological commitment, and accuses the interviewer of siding with particular writers. He names Memoirs of a Soldier among works he considers hostile to the Islamic Revolution’s account of the war. Source 1

A disagreement kept visible

Shakeri’s essay is a polemical judgment, not a neutral description of what all readers find in the book. Placing it beside the interview makes the disagreement legible: the same literary field is discussed through competing assumptions about political allegiance, artistic value and the purpose of narration. Neither article becomes an attributed statement by Rabihavi. Source 1 · Source 2

Sources & credits

1. IBNA · Ahmad Shakeri’s response

   Signed polemical response, 14 November 2025, which names Memoirs of a Soldier. Its political and literary accusations are the critic’s judgments.

2. IBNA · Ahmad Dehghan on war writing

   Mahrokh Ebrahimpour interviews Ahmad Dehghan, 12 November 2025. Rabihavi appears in the interviewer’s comparison; this is not an interview with him.