AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
This weekend, celebrations of Nowruz, a traditional New Year's holiday marked by Iranians, Kurds, Afghans and other ethnic groups, continues. It's been a somber occasion this year. Iran's government killed thousands of its own citizens, following large antigovernment protests in January. And now U.S. and Israeli strikes continue to hit Iran, sparking a bigger regional war. But NPR's Emily Feng met Iranians still trying to celebrate, and sends us this postcard from the Turkish side of the Iranian border.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: I was threading my way through the packed streets of Van, a Turkish city close to Iran, when a voice rose above the crowd - disco Irani? Curious, I stopped and turned around.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Let's go.
FENG: Let's go to the disco.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: OK.
FENG: It was, it turned out, a Nowruz party for Iranians exiled or escaping the war in Turkey.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FENG: This man led us downstairs into the dark underground club. Like all the Iranians I spoke with, he did not want to use his name. All of them planned to return to Iran, and they faced retribution from the Iranian government for speaking with foreign media.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
FENG: There's disco lights strobing, a DJ pumping Arabic, Turkish and Persian beats. The man is boyishly joyful.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: "Where are the cameras? I like cameras more," he jokes when I pull up my microphone. But the words that come out of his mouth tell a tale of woe. He'd been one of the young men who took to the streets this past winter, calling for an end to Iran's theocratic regime.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: "I hate politics, but I've been forced to fight for freedom in my country," he says.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: "Life is too short, and I want to live honorably," he says. Fleeing one protest in January, he fell into a mud pit. It sucked him under to his armpits like quicksand, he said, until a passing couple pulled him out. Just over a week ago, he came to Turkey. But he says he felt like he died already, waiting to be shot, trapped in that pit months ago. In the club, Iranian men, women and children dance and try to be merry. One of them is a devout, silver-haired Sufi mystic.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: "Can I be truly joyful after all that I have gone through?" he asks, his eyes mournful under a black felt fedora. Iran declared his Gonabadi Dervish sect heretics. His teachers were killed, he imprisoned. He came to Turkey three years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: But he wants to share in other people's joy tonight, he says, floating from table to table inside the club. The DJ counts down the last seconds here before the sun passes the equator on the date night and day are equally long.
UNIDENTIFIED DJ: (Speaking Persian).
(CHEERING)
FENG: It's now the new year - a new start and the coming of spring. One of the young Iranians celebrating told me about his last days in Iran in the first days of U.S. and Israeli strikes.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: I also saw some people are cheering. They said, we want the freedom. We want the freedom. And after that, I heard the gunshots, the sound of the shotgun and the grenade launchers.
FENG: He said he was imprisoned for 35 days after the protests in January. But he would not have left Iran, he says, if not for his sick mother, who insisted they leave.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Because I love my country. This is my home. This is my everything. But this government destroy my youth and my future.
FENG: The 27-year-old is tense. He drags on a cigarette, motionless while the smoke curls around purple beams of light.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: I don't want to think about anything. I just want to have fun for one night in my life.
FENG: And with that, he stubs out the cigarette and gets up to dance. We all dance.
Emily Feng, NPR News, Van, Turkey. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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