{"id":519971,"date":"2023-09-12T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=519971"},"modified":"2023-09-12T08:09:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T06:09:17","slug":"iran-aliyeh-ataei-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/literature\/iran-aliyeh-ataei-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Iranian and Afghan lands, the tragedy of flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first French translation of Aliyeh Ataei's work, Iranian writer and journalist<\/strong><\/strong>, The Forgotten Frontier<\/em>, his fifth publication, paints a picture of bitter-tasting exiles, in nine short stories. Chilling.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the evening, in a village on the edge of Iran, almost in Afghanistan, the women had taken to polishing the cartridge cases, one by one, until they were shiny enough for them to be dutifully stored in the magazine. Will the bullets contained in these beautiful, ready-to-use cartridges be of any use? Perhaps they will. Maybe they'll find their way into a body, whether a supporter of the Islamic Revolution or not. Because \u00abwar doesn't care about convictions, and it takes men dying to make us wonder whether it was because of their ideals or because of a mistake\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahboubeh is witnessing this ritual for the first time - from a distance, because she has personal convictions and feels strongly about them. In states where politics interferes in the slightest social interaction, every gesture, even the most intimate, can lead to your downfall. And the few meters of distance Mahboubeh chose to impose on herself that evening make up a gesture that cannot, under the Islamic regime, remain without consequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Escape as the last freedom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The story of Mahboubeh is one of the cornerstones of this collection of stories that paint a portrait of people living on the borders of war. For it is war, first and foremost, that this population is close to. Their children are brought up with the sound of bullets and the sight of battered bodies. Aliyeh Ataei has decided to tell the story of these images, which they will never be able to get rid of, and to which no one can ever get used. At the same time, she tells the story of her own personal journey, from the Afghan border to the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Iranians and Afghans have in common, apart from the border they share, is what Ataei symbolically calls \u00abthe gene of unhappiness\u00bb, a generational transmission of pain. This gene is formidable. It affects a people who have been subjected to successive regimes, each as murderous and repressive as the next, for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n