Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly collection wherein NPR’s worldwide workforce shares moments from their lives and work around the globe.
Strolling the streets of jap Turkey, I stumbled throughout an underground Iranian disco.
Inside I met a Sufi dervish, a younger protester, a former prisoner — males, ladies and full households got here to bop to a energetic Persian, Arabic and Turkish DJ set.
The festive ambiance hid tales of ache. Among the revelers had moved to Turkey years in the past, lured by increased wages and a freer political local weather than in Iran. For some, their life right here is considered one of exile; they completed jail sentences or fled the specter of imprisonment and left their households behind.
One younger man I met had simply left Iran the week earlier than, together with his sick mom. He described intense bombing and shelling in Tehran, the place he is from, as U.S. and Israeli strikes started on his nation in February.
He described harshly conflicting feelings in regards to the conflict: “I like my nation. That is my residence. That is my all the pieces … however this authorities destroy[ed] my youth and my future,” he stated.
And below the strobing disco lights, he felt hope tinged with homesickness as he contemplated his future outdoors of Iran.
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