By Alireza Bahrami
TEHRAN: War is destructive. Despite the claim of high accuracy in targeting, modern and mechanical warfare is more destructive; because missiles and bombs have several characteristics: intensity, speed, power and cruelty.
Humans are the most important thing that missiles and bombs destroy; even if it is with the claim of developing democracy and freedom. In such a hypocritical and contradictory atmosphere, art is also one of the numerous victims of war.
Missiles and bombs invalidate individual ID cards, they also shoot at collective identity. Centcom announced that 11,000 targets in Iran were attacked in one month. Most of the attacks were in Tehran, the capital of Iran. In one of the attacks, the house of Abbas Kiarostami, a famous Iranian filmmaker and winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, was damaged.
This was announced by Kiarostami’s son.
Abbas Kiarostami lived in this house for years, when he made his successful films, and returned to it after winning awards at various festivals.
1,200 historical sites in Iran have been damaged in attacks by the United States and Israel. Some of them are very famous and are on the UNESCO list. After Tehran, the cities of Isfahan and Shiraz have been the most targeted. All of them contain relics of Persian civilization and various empires and kingdoms.
In addition to these national and public places, private art centers were also destroyed in the war. A private music school in Tehran was completely destroyed. While removing broken instruments from the rubble, its owner said: “All my property has been destroyed; but I don’t know how to answer the calls of my students.”
War kills children as well as adults. Unfortunately, dozens of children and students have been killed in the attack by the United States and Israel on Iran. One of them was a young theater artist. She had performed in a play in Tehran last winter.
Iran lived an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s. So, war literature has been very active in Iran. However, in this war, there is not much literature. This point can be examined from a sociological perspective. Perhaps one reason for this is the dense volume of grief that has not yet been digested by poets.
However, every day, Iranian star and superstar actors visit emergency responders and the Red Cross (Red Crescent) and thank them. This is how artists boost the morale of the responders.
So, in any case, art finds a way for itself; even if the war kills it.
