The novel "Asthma"

The novel "Asthma" which has been published by 'Agah' publication narrates chemical bombardments which were directed against Zardeh village, located near Iran-Iraq borders. It describes the chemical attacks which took place in 1988 in this region.


"Farhard Heidari Gooran" the writer of the novel "Asthma" was born in 1971 in Zardeh village. He started cultural and artistic work in 1991. He started to publish his works in 1996. At the moment this writer and journalist works for the newspaper "Economics World" in Iran.

The first book which has been written by this author is "Fiction of Different Colors" that was published in 1999.

His second book was titled "The Epigraph Reader of Ruins" which narrates stories related to war and air raids.


Reporter: how did you start to write the novel "Asthma"?
   
Farhard Heidari Gooran: I started to write this novel in 2004. Since I saw many victims of chemical weapons in Zardeh village who suffered the pains resulted from chemical weapons, I decided to write this novel. There are many people in Zardeh village who have not been able to go to school due to health problems resulted from chemical weapons.
 I thought it is my duty to write this book as an observer of chemical attack. I'm a survivor of chemical bombardments which took place against Zardeh village. I lost some of my relatives and family members during the attack.

At first I chose some of the victims of chemical weapons living in Zardeh village as narrators. I needed them to help me to write this documentary book. I explained the lives of these people after the war as well.

Reporter: Is the book "Asthma" able to express realities related to the victims of Zardeh village?

Farhard Heidari Gooran: the novel "Asthma" has three narrators with the names "Kazhal", "Ghazal" and "Robab". These three persons are university students in the field of Literature who study in Tehran universities and all of them write web logs as well.

Gooran continued: "Each of the three narrators choose an event and write about it."

He also pointed to this issue that the novel "Asthma" is the first Persian novel which has a structure in web and internet and he said: "The structure of this book is formed in web and the links of that have been mentioned in the book as well; a s result it could be considered an up to date narration as well."

This story writer and poet also pointed that Kurdish texts have been mentioned in the first chapter of the novel.

Gooran believes that the disaster which took place against Zardeh village was really painful, but unfortunately this issue has been ignored in our stories literature.

20 years have passed from the Iran-Iraq war and little stories have been written about Iran-Iraq war and some of the writers are not able to write the realities of Iran-Iraq war.

If we want our books to be so effective and last for a long time, we must write the realities.
It should be noted that many years after their mountain village was targeted by Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons, survivors still recall the attack that killed 275: Villagers wheezing, staggering blindly and vomiting blood, as birds dropped lifeless from trees.

With Saddam's main henchman now slated for the gallows, many still cope with lingering ills.
    

The Chemical Attack took place on July 22 in 1988 by Iraq during its (1980-88) war against Iran in Zardeh village, 420 miles (700 kilometers) west of the capital Tehran.

The attack took place as the villagers and hundreds of pilgrims from other parts of Iran had gathered outside a shrine in Zardeh to attend a religious celebration.



The attack took place on July 22, 1988, as villagers and hundreds of Muslim pilgrims gathered for a religious celebration outside a shrine in Zardeh, 400 miles west of the capital, Tehran.


But Iranians are bitter there is no sign of justice for the dozens of chemical attacks the Iraqi military carried out against Iranian towns during the bloody 1980-88 war between the two countries.

I travel to Zardeh village every year and I talk with the Zardeh victims of chemical weapons face to face. I went to Zardeh village some hours after the bombardments as well.

When I observed that a family had been massacred during the chemical attack, I became so sad and that scene was really horrible for me. I struggled so much to show the innocence of Zarveh village.

The people of Zardeh village think that they are forgotten by the society, but in my opinion we must try so much not to abandon them.

Reporter: Thank you so much for letting us interview you, at the end of this interview if you have anything special, please say it for us:

The books "Fiction of Different Colors ", "Maria Minorski Darkness" are the other books which have been written by this writer.



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