Blogs in February 2020

The Boy of the Mosque 15th February 2020

In the Year ‪1258, Baghdad‬, the capital of the great Abbasid Caliphate, fell to the Moguls. Within hours, the city of enlightenment was swallowed up by darkness, another society becoming a victim of hatred and greed. The mighty Tigris...

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Dawn and Dusk 15th February 2020

For as long as thirteen-year-old Azad can remember, the Islamic Republic of Iran, where he lives in the predominantly Kurdish town of Sardasht, has been at war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and his country has been a harsh society...

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Good Night, Commander 15th February 2020

The Commander has lost his mother and one of his legs in the Iran-Iraq war. Now he spends most of his time alone in his room where he recreates the conflict with an imaginary enemy and soldiers, trying to...

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Home Is Beyond the Mountains 15th February 2020

When the Turkish army invades northwestern Persia in 1918, nine-year-old Samira and her parents, brother, and baby sister are driven from their tiny village. Taking only what they can carry, they flee into the mountains, but the journey is...

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The White Zone 15th February 2020

The White Zone is a story of two cousins, Shiite Nouri and half Sunni Talib, and their lives in the aftermath of the Iraq war. Marsden gives a ten-year-old-eye view of sectarian strife and the life in and around...

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