Book Days with Iranian writers

On October 24th and 25th Iranian writers living in exile in various European countries had gathered here in Malmoe during two days called “Here lives Iran”. It was an arrangement made in co-operation between Smockadoll Publishing Company/Språka, the Victoria Theatre here in Malmoe, ABF Malmoe, The Iranian-Swedish Society Malmoe, the Mazetti Mix, Drocopis Press, Malmoe Municipality, The National Culture Board and the Swedish Academy. Two nights ago they had gathered at the Victoria Theatre in central Malmoe. Focus then was on the litterary expression. Poetry, prose, short stories were read in Persian, mixed with Swedish translations of those texts written by the Persian authors. An Iranian music medley was presented, short films and discussions about writing, the situation for intellectuals in Iran and the exile.

Yesterday afternoon the writers and their audience had gathered again. This time at Iransk-Svenska Föreningen/The Iranian-Swedish Society near Heleneholm. The photos above were taken there and then. All the texts read then were in Persian, so of course it wasn’t easy for me to understand much of what was said, more than a few words here and there. The Iranian writers read some of their texts and their focus was on how to write and under what circumstances. The participating authors were: Ehsan Abedi, Mehrdad Ghasemifar, Sepindeh Jodeiry and Fahimeh Khezar Heidari now living in the Czech Republic, Shabnah Azar and Shahab Sheikhi living in exile in Germany, and Noorhabeh Amiri in France. Here in Sweden the Iranian intellectuals were Naeimeh Doostdar, Azita Ghaznavian, Reza Haji Hosseini, Nassim Modani, Sohrab Rahimi and Roya Zarin. Even if there was a language barrier between us it was still interesting to be there, and I did converse a few of them in Swedish, English and some Persian.  Meeting these people was a nice treat, and many of them had an aura of splendour, nice manners, modernity and classy intelligence also in the way they were dressed and behaved. The Iranian history is long and was a high culture already 4000 – 3000 years ago. The Persian culture has ever since then been a combination of classical refinement, poetry, romance, high class architecture, but also of warfare. The original Persian religion – Zoroastrianism – was for a long time the state religion in the Persian Empire, during high kings like Kurosh 556 B.C.E. and Xerxes of the Hakhamanishiya dynasty and also during the Sasanid Empire 226-650 A.D./C.E. When the last Sasanid shah Yazdgerd III in the 7th century A.D./C.E. had problems with the likewise weakened Byzantine Empire the Arabs took advantage of the decline of the Persian Empire and invaded. Gradually the local inhabitants had to convert under the Umayyad Khalifate. Even if Iran has been a Muslim country ever since the mid 600’s the original Persian culture and religion has never died, but lingered on under the surface through the centuries. The winged symbol which you see in one of the photos above is the classical symbol for Persian Zoroastrianism.

Why was I at the Iranian-Swedish Society yesterday? Well, I had been invited by one of the participating authors who also was one of those who had intiated this conference, namely Naeimeh Doostdar whom you see in two of the photos above to the right. I have written about the phenomenal Iranian-Swedish Society before in one of my January texts, and mentioned Naeimeh too once more in one of my May texts. I have met her and her husband and their child three or four times, have Naeimeh as one of my contacts on LinkedIn, and she no doubt is an interesting person. Recently some of her poems, which are controversial in the theocratic state of Iran, have been translated into Swedish and been published in the book “Så småningom gick jag inte hem – Censurerade dikter & noveller”/After a while I didn’t go back home – Censored poems and short stories”. Her work has been published by Smockadoll Publishing Company. Naeimeh Doostdar was born in Tehran in 1977. She was two years old when the last shah of the Pahlavi Dynasty was forced to abdicate by Khomeini’s followers, and very quickly women got an increasingly worsened situation. Nevertheless the women’s emancipation-, gender equality- and green modernity movement is vivid in Iran, even if it is harshly oppressed and activists often intimidated, oppressed, jailed, tortured and even killed. Already as an Upper Secondary School student Naeimeh began her career as a journalist and has recieved several national awards. Parallell with this she has been writing poetry and prose, which has led to four published books in Iran. When the political climate in Iran got worse in 2009 Naeimeh Doostdar was put in jail for her weblog and inconvenient journalism – which led to her exile. 2012-2014 she’s an asylum writer in Malmoe via International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN).

“Så småningom gick jag inte hem” consists mostly of many poems and some short stories by her hand which have been censored and banned from publishing by the Iranian State pre-censorship. The two omnibuses have specific themes which bind them together and Naeimeh does here give a voice to modern urban women in Tehran and those problems – in relations and society – which is their every day life. She says that if you want to stay alive in such a society where you are under constant surveilance you have to lie about things to suit the power. The oppression and surveilance is so immense. Naeimeh and her husband were both active on the streets during the protests in the Green Revolution of 2009.

Her family name Doostdar means “She who’s laughing” and that is very true about her, but Naeimeh also has experienced many severe things. Here’s her poem “Punishment”. “He stopped my lips, and my kisses recieved death penalty. The man had heard my bird song from summer trees   and arrested me for the love poems to the clouds on my way to the old hills. He chained my legs in my eyes’ distance between opening and shutting. He cut in my breasts, he pulled my hair. He ear-boxed me when the wind sang in my ear. He burned my tears. He jailed me in a room on the outskirts of the park. A guard on duty wanted to know if we had legal right to hold hands.    In the military court on the Abbas Abbad-hills my head was condemned to submission, my body condemned to stoning, they were stitching my lips tight and burned my poems”. Naeimeh’s poem In the outskirts of a dream goes like this: “In the middle of that well which is a fire in your eyes, and in the laughter which sleeps on your lips there is a breath which binds me to Death… When I’m fast asleep I dream that you have glued yourself to my eyes… There is something with my pointless waving arms, a small beginning from the outskirts of dreams aimed at your lips… It’s the melody of a broken voice where you seem to have forgotten the colours of my tears”.

I get the feeling that many of the Iranians have a capacity to thrive in the Swedish society. I remember the words of Jila Moradi during a democracy conference at the same spot in the Spring of 2011. She said: “We grew up in a country where we had no real democracy, so when we came here we read all about the Swedish political system, about democratic values, gender equality etc and are very aware of what it really means, and how important it is to preserve that. You Swedes take everything for granted and do not always care about your system, but for us who have experienced a totalitarian oppression it’s extra important to preserve the democray and equality here”. I believe Jila was right about that, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Naeimeh Doostdar and many others would agree. Right now I’m reading her book, interesting reading, I can assure you. Today, Saturday, October 26th is also the Book Day, a tradition which has lasted here in Sweden for 76 years. I think that a Brain Gain is much more valuable than a Brain Drain. Reading Naeimeh’s book and also Tove Lifvendahl’s are two excellent ways of getting enlightenment from two brilliant women in the present Swedish society.

Anders Moberg, October 26th 2013