Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly sequence through which NPR’s worldwide crew shares moments from their lives and work all over the world.
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 whole households got here to bop to a vigorous Persian, Arabic and Turkish DJ set.
The festive environment hid tales of ache. Among the revelers had moved to Turkey years in the past, lured by greater wages and a freer political local weather than in Iran. For some, their life right here is certainly 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, along 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 concerning the battle: “I really like my nation. That is my residence. That is my the whole lot … however this authorities destroy[ed] my youth and my future,” he mentioned.
And underneath the strobing disco lights, he felt hope tinged with homesickness as he contemplated his future outdoors of Iran.
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