Greetings from Turkey’s border with Iran, where Iranians let loose on the dance floor

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly collection through which NPR’s worldwide crew shares moments from their lives and work around the globe.

Strolling the streets of japanese Turkey, I stumbled throughout an underground Iranian disco.

Inside I met a Sufi dervish, a younger protester, a former prisoner — males, girls and whole households got here to bounce 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 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 dwelling. That is my all the things … however this authorities destroy[ed] my youth and my future,” he mentioned.

And beneath the strobing disco lights, he felt hope tinged with homesickness as he contemplated his future exterior of Iran.

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