I Wanted to Show the Life of Sardasht Teenagers During the Chemical Bombing Period

The Homeland and Resistance service of the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) reports that war was an uninvited guest that suddenly entered our homes and country, taking peace and joy from the Iranian people from that very day. One of the bitterest tragedies of the eight-year imposed war was the chemical attack by Iraq’s Ba’athist regime on Sardasht, where several bombs containing mustard gas landed on residential areas. Following this attack, a number of residents lost their lives, and many others suffered severe physical and respiratory injuries; injuries whose medical and social consequences continued for years. Sardasht is one of the first cities in the world after World War I where chemical weapons were used directly against civilians. This city was targeted by air attacks more than 60 times during the Iran-Iraq War, but the chemical attack on Sardasht is the most prominent and painful due to the type of weapon and its widespread impact on the people.

However, many teenagers and young people today may not be aware of the depth of this event. For this reason, Marzieh Feleghari, a writer from Kurdistan, has written the novel ‘Crossing Elephant Street’ in a fluent and simple language about the Sardasht incident. This novel has been published by Khat-e Moghadam Publications. In the following interview with Marzieh Feleghari, we discussed the content of the book, the reasons and motivations for its writing, and the Sardasht incident.

‘Crossing Elephant Street’ is a young adult novel whose title will probably attract the attention of a teenage audience at first glance. Can you explain more about it?

Adolescence is a sensitive and complex period. A teenager is someone who has passed childhood but has not yet reached adulthood, has started the path of growth, and faced new issues. That’s why I think a teenager’s encounter with life’s problems is like crossing a street full of elephants; it’s both difficult and enjoyable. If you’re not careful, you’ll fall under the elephants’ feet and get crushed; but if you can ride one of those elephants, you can enjoy watching the street. Then everything becomes an important memory in your life. Our problems are like elephants; they are big and uncontrollable. If you can tame that elephant, then you can enjoy riding it.

How do you introduce ‘Crossing Elephant Street’?

War, as the greatest coercive force, has the most profound impact on human life and disrupts all equations. After atomic bombing, a chemical attack is considered one of the most tragic and devastating types of warfare. There are many untold stories about Iraq’s chemical bombing in Sardasht. I considered it my duty as a Kurdish writer to look at the encounter of Iranian teenagers with this phenomenon. My novel depicts three lives of three teenagers in Sardasht, each with their own dreams. War, like a monster, grips their lives, and they try to find a trace of light, a spark of brightness. ‘Crossing Elephant Street’ for me is like a symphony full of sorrow. By writing this novel, I felt that my sad part had found some solace.

Your novel tells the story of three teenagers: Tarlan, Bahman, and Asou; but the story is almost distant and goes back to the time of the war and the chemical bombing of Sardasht. How did you choose this subject?

Yes, three teenagers with three different fates in Sardasht. Each has desires and tries to overcome difficulties. What matters is finding the problem (the elephant of life) and confronting it. The chemical bombing changes the lives of these three teenagers. Even if the bitterness of war fades from our memory, the story of the cowardly chemical bombing will not. That event created a hole in our hearts. A hundred years may pass, but this wound will not heal. The aim was to show the life and times of teenagers in that decade; helpless teenagers who breathed in that atmosphere, sacrificed, and were martyred.

War has always been an important subject for writers, but choosing this subject for today’s teenagers might seem a bit strange. How much do you think the audience can connect with such topics? And what characteristics must such works necessarily have for teenagers to connect with the work or empathize with the characters?

Fifteen years remain until the centenary of the start of World War II; not only do people still ponder the nature, reasons, and how that event began and ended, but they also write extensively about it and create works of art. Which writer has been prevented from addressing World War II? Look at the list of Booker nominees and winners. Works on the subject of war are still seen among them. Can the passage of time cause an event to become obsolete? Does the change of generations and the transformation of issues become an obstacle to producing work on a subject? Experience and the existence of prominent literary and artistic examples prove that this is not the case. As Saeb Tabrizi said: ‘One can speak of the beloved’s locks for a lifetime / Do not worry that the subject is exhausted.’ The subject is not inherently a limiting factor, and no one can blame another for addressing an old topic.

So what is that dust of time that settles on subjects and causes some stories not to be read? Where is the boundary between an old and a contemporary work? How can an old subject be narrated for today’s audience?

I think what matters in this regard is the theme of the work and whether the theme has a direct relationship with the issues and beliefs of contemporary human beings. Since the reader is an important part of any literary work, and without them, the literary process would fundamentally be incomplete, paying attention to commonalities and reaching a shared understanding is a necessity. One of the main reasons for the lack of connection and unreadability of a text should be sought in the distance between the audience and the story. I can bring a fresh and new story to the reader from the time of creation (Alam-e Zarr) and the day of Alast, and in contrast, I can present a broken and vague narrative of an event from a month ago in the country that reeks of obsolescence.

The story of ‘Crossing Elephant Street’ deals with the chemical attack on Sardasht. Choosing such subjects requires research. Please tell us about the stages of work, the research process, and the writing of the book.

Creating the world of the Kurdish people was not too difficult for me, as I come from that region and culture. What remained was historical information, which I gathered by studying research books and interviews conducted with Sardasht residents after the chemical bombing. All my effort has been to write a work that is believable to the audience; who respects a story they don’t believe, and empathizes with it? A narrative without realism is a failed project.

To further introduce the readers of this interview to you, please tell us about your other works.

I have two children’s books named ‘Literate Puppet’ and ‘Coal Granny, Black Empty’ published by Amirkabir Publications; also the children’s novel ‘My Monster Is Lost’ by Qesseh va Dastan Publishing and the young adult novel ‘Grandma’s Mysterious House’ by Ghadyani Publications.