Najah lives alone in his home filled with merchandise he plans to fix and sell at his flea market stall. He was outfitted with prosthetic teeth, but they never fit well, so he decided against them, saying, “My face tells my history; I can’t run from the mirror.” His Best Deal Moving Company is thriving, and he spends his off hours eating home-cooked meals with his relatives and growing roster of nieces and nephews. He was finally able to return to Iraq in 2016, where he confirmed what he had begun to suspect, that he should stop holding out hope for finding his fiancée and son. A cousin in Basra confirmed that Alyaa and Amjad had been killed when their street was shelled during the Iran-Iraq War. Najah traveled with Zahed, who returned to Ramadi prison camp, where he checked to see that his name was still scratched into his former cell wall. Najah has made peace with his fate, and enjoys his new position as an accidental ambassador between Arabs and Persians. He is thankful to all the Iranians and Iraqis in Vancouver who recognize him from the media coverage and, inspired by his story, invite him into their homes and make him feel like a movie star.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MEREDITH MAY
Behind every book is an army of friends, coaches, editors, and idols who deserve as much credit as the author. My first bow of gratitude goes to Zahed and Najah. Thank you for your openness, your honesty, and your patience with my fusillade of questions. It was a gift to study you, and your friendship has made me a better person. I am forever in awe of your resilience and unyielding compassion.
Without interpreters Hossein Talebian, Mehrnaz Ghaffari, and Jasem Aboud, we would never have been able to communicate. I am deeply indebted to your masterful translation of Arabic and Farsi into English and back, and for sharing your firsthand experiences of the Islamic Revolution and the war. Not only are you translators, you are professors of Middle East history, religion, and culture who helped me understand the significance of Najah’s and Zahed’s words.
To my beloved agent, Heather Karpas at ICM Partners, I am beyond grateful for your unwavering belief in me, your advice, and your laser-sharp manuscript reads. I truly won the writer lottery.
More applause for Regan Arts CEO Judith Regan, who realized this story should be a book, then rallied her superhero team behind it, led by executive editor Alexis Gargagliano. All the credit goes to Alexis for making this look easy. Thanks also to the rest of the Regan Arts team, especially Mia Abrahams, Lynne Ciccaglione, Max Anzilotti, Richard Ljoenes, Nancy Singer, Tamar McCollom, Zainab Choudhry, and editorial assistant Lara Kleinschmidt who brought the project to Regan Arts. Copy editor Laine Morreau, I owe you big.
Sincerest thanks to my scribe tribe at the San Francisco Chronicle for getting my long-form legs trained for this: David Lewis, Meredith White, Ken Conner, Julian Guthrie, Sam Whiting, and Carlos Avila Gonzalez. And high fives all around to the numerous friends who said exactly the right thing at the right time, and who gave me a quiet room to type: Mag Donaldson, Barbara Byrnes, Josh Mohr, Rima Karaman, Sarah Pollock, Shobha Rao, and everyone at the eco-magical Hedgebrook writers’ residency on Whidbey Island.
Last, a never-ending hug to my wife, Jenn. Every day you remind me that love always wins in the end.
ZAHED HAFTLANG
This book is a tribute to friendship. I learned on the battlefield that compassion is more powerful than mortars and machine guns. I can kill you with a punch, but I can change you and the world with kindness. It’s a message parents must instill in their children, so that we can break the cycle of atrocities and learn from the horrors of the past.
Najah, you are the other half of my heart, and our bond is the most precious thing to me. We saved each other not once but many times over, and you have become a brother to me. Your smile turns a light on inside me, and I thought of you often during my captivity to help me survive.
Thank you to Meredith May for writing this book. Your passion for sharing this story equaled ours, and also you are so picky about details that I knew I was collaborating with a like-minded soul. Thank you to Zainab Choudhry and everyone at Regan Arts for pairing us together.
Sincere thanks to Mehrnaz Ghaffari, whose truck broke down near my auto shop one day, and in the years since has become my interpreter, my confidante, and my dear friend. You and your partner, David Dyck, are like family to me.
I began putting my life story to paper more than twenty years ago while working on a merchant ship. Since then, numerous people have helped shape and translate my writing into English, most notably: Ramin Bahrami, Marjan Kh, Babak Yusafei, Mehran Sharifpour, and Robert Matas.
A forever thank-you to my beautiful wife, Maryam, who saw the good in me before I could see it myself. To our children, Setayesh and Niayesh, I hope this book will help you to understand me and guide you to become good parents one day.
My gratitude, also, to my family, and in particular my late grandparents and my parents. Only now do I understand that you also lost so much during the Iran-Iraq War. Baba and Maman, I wish we could have communicated better when I was a child, but I am thankful that at long last we are talking about the past and starting to heal.
NAJAH ABOUD
Some force beyond human comprehension drove Zahed and me to be in the same place at the same time during the war. It is the greatest and most humbling mystery of my life. Zahed, I thank you in my heart every day for removing your finger from the trigger. You may not be my brother by blood, but you are my brother in humanity, which is indestructible.
Certain aspects of my story I have never before told publically, because they are too painful. Thank you to my attorney, Cindy Silver, and her associates at Silver Law in North Vancouver for helping me decide that this was the right time to open up. And to Zainab Choudhry at Regan Arts, thank you for coming to me with this book project.
Collaborating with writer Meredith May was as therapeutic as it was intense. Thank you for letting me relive my glory days before the war, and for being sensitive during the tearful moments. Talking about my loss was difficult at times, but during the interviews there was also a lot of laughter, and relief, and plenty of delicious shawarma sandwiches.
Thank you to Hossein Talebian for bridging two languages so Meredith and I could understand each other. You were a gracious host, and your personal knowledge of both Iran and Iraq put my words into context, which was invaluable to our three-way conversation.
I want to also thank filmmaker Ann Shin, who took great care to bring our story to the screen. To my family in Canada, brother Jasem and sister Fatemah, thank you for reminding me what family is for. Your support, from the day I got out of prison to today, is the earth under my feet.
Despite the violence still raging in the Middle East, my story is proof that humanity is still alive and well and will never die. Thank you to everyone who helped me spread this message of peace.
Most of all, thank you, Alyaa. My heart is locked, and only you have the key.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ZAHED HAFTLANG was just thirteen when he joined Iran’s Basij paramilitary, where he spent six years fighting in the war. After capture by the Iraqi army, he spent nearly two and half years as a POW. He eventually became a merchant sailor and traveled worldwide. He is now raising two children with his wife in North Vancouver, British Columbia, where he owns an auto repair shop.
NAJAH ABOUD was brought up in a middle-class Iraqi family and was conscripted at eighteen, serving eight years in the army. Afterwards, he managed a falafel restaurant for two years, but at age twenty-eight was called back when the Iran-Iraq War broke out in 1980. After two years of fighting, he was captured and spent the next seventeen years suffering in Iranian prisons as a POW. When he was finally released in 1999, he emigrated to Canada, where his brother lives. He owns a moving company in Vancouver.
MEREDITH MAY spent sixteen years as a feature writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, where her 2004 narrative series on a war-wounded Iraqi boy won the PEN USA Literary Award for Journalism and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.
65
Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
Copyright © 2017 by Zahed Haftlang and Najah Aboud
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Regan Arts Subsidiary Rights Department, 65 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012.
First Regan Arts hardcover edition, March 2017
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955005
ISBN 978-1-68245-011-6
ISBN 978-1-68245-012-3 (ebook)
Interior design by Nancy Singer
Cover design by Richard Ljoenes
Front jacket photographs; Iraqi troops in tanks by Stringer / AFP / Getty Images; all others courtesy of authors
Author photographs by Jimmy Jeong; (Meredith May) by Matthew May
I, Who Did Not Die Page 30