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FATHER'S RIFLE: A CHILDHOOD IN KURDISTAN. By Hiner
Saleem. Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 102 pages.
What do we know about Kurdistan? It is in the
contentious Middle East and the Kurds were those
people whom Saddam Hussein gassed. That created one
of the reasons for going to war against him in 2003.
Should we care? Hiner Saleem, a native Kurd,
fervently believes so.
Reaching back nearly a generation, Saleem writes a
stark, beautiful, brief, and brutal story of a boy -
himself, but named Azad - in Iraqi Kurdistan. He
writes of his family's pride in their heritage,
their longing for independence, and the suffering
they endured at the hands of Hussein's Baathist
Party.
Azad, about 10 at the outset, loved his mother's
orchard, his father's old Czech Brno rifle, his
cousin's stunt pigeons, his older brother who was
fighting alongside other Kurdish guerrillas.
When Iraqi planes attacked Azad's village, everyone
fled to caves. They had no food. Azad's father,
Shero, the Morse code operator for Kurdish Gen.
Mustafa Barzani, could not catch any fish in the
river. One day bombs fell in the river and Shero
went for the fish.
"Moments later he came back … his arms loaded with
fish, which he threw down on the ground. … They were
all mangled. We could easily imagine that we had
been within a hairsbreadth of suffering the same
fate as the fish. …We set about preparing the fish.
We all realized that if we wanted to eat, the
airplanes would have to return every day."
Kurdistan, part of the old Ottoman Empire, had no
clout after World War I and so it did not become a
country despite having the essential attributes: a
language, heritage, people and definable territorial
region. It was split up among Turkey, Iraq, Iran,
and Syria.
Since then, the Kurds have been fighting for their
freedom. Saleem describes how his family resisted
the Iraqis, fled into Iran, eventually were
inveigled to return to Iraq and finally how the
family splintered under governmental pressure.
Shero had utmost faith in Kurdish resistance. Year
after year would say, "After one more year of
struggle and sacrifice we would obtain our
independence." He polished his ancient Brno rifle
and kept it under his mattress. Baathist oppression
increased and Azad had to flee Iraqi Kurdistan.
Today, Saleem and his two brothers are in Europe. He
directed Vodka Lemon, winner of the 2003 Venice Film
Festival's San Marco Prize. His father is dead, his
mother lives alone in their hometown in northern
Iraq. The Kurds still do not have a country.
Jules Wagman, last book editor of the former
Cleveland Press, reviews books in Jacksonville, Fla.
http://toledoblade.com
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