{"id":15687,"date":"2017-12-29T09:33:55","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T13:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=15687"},"modified":"2017-12-29T09:33:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T13:33:55","slug":"from-dunya-mikhails-forthcoming-the-beekeeper-rescuing-the-stolen-women-of-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/from-dunya-mikhails-forthcoming-the-beekeeper-rescuing-the-stolen-women-of-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"From Dunya Mikhail\u2019s Forthcoming \u2018The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of\u00a0Iraq\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

via World Literature Today<\/em> and Arabic Literature (in English)<\/em> & BY MLYNXQUALEY<\/a><\/span><\/span> on<\/em> 0<\/a> )<\/span><\/p>\n

Max Weiss translated this excerpt of Dunya Mikhail\u2019s\u00a0The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq<\/em>, which is forthcoming next spring from New Directions:<\/section>\n
<\/section>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n

The book is dedicated to Abdullah Shrem, who worked, between 2014 and 2016, with smugglers to rescue dozens of fellow Yazidis from ISIS captivity in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

The excerpt in\u00a0<\/a>World Literature Today\u00a0<\/em>opens:<\/p>\n

\n

T<\/span>wenty years after leaving Iraq on a one-way ticket, I returned to my country today, on May 27, 2016, not so much to visit the living as to visit the dead.<\/p>\n

We, the people of Baghdad, used to refer to the north as a \u201cresort\u201d\u2014it was our only tourist destination when travel was forbidden during the 1980s on account of the Iran-Iraq War. But this isn\u2019t tourism today. We came to visit the mass graves, perhaps to bury our feelings, too, and to get rid of their weight upon our souls\u2014or perhaps because they needed us, they needed us so much and yet we didn\u2019t go! Or because we\u2019re alive, and we can, quite simply, visit the dead.<\/p>\n

But the one survivor I most wanted to see was Abdullah.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace be upon you,\u201d he said formally, smiling. I had expected him to be dressed in white Yazidi clothes, not a modern outfit. We had agreed to visit the temple of Lalish together because, as the sacred Yazidi texts say, \u201cThe earth wasn\u2019t satisfied with its condition until Lalish was revealed; only then did the plants grow, and did the earth become beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked him if he was busy that day with a rescue operation. He said that he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay I come with you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure you want to do that? You have a US passport. It would be risky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to witness the process firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOk, but memorize my phone number, in case you need to be rescued.\u201d<\/p>\n

I laughed and said, \u201cOkay, I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou actually believed me? Not today. Besides, I wouldn\u2019t take you with me to Syria\u2014let\u2019s go to Lalish instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

We drove almost forty miles, along winding roads to the east of Dohuk, toward Sheikhan. The temple looked small from the outside, but as soon as we entered, it opened up to infinity. We walked in barefoot like the others did, because \u201cthere should be no barrier between the foot of the entrant and the temple\u2019s floor.\u201d Our feet touched stones that were over four thousand years old; another world opened up right before our eyes, in the depths of the mountain, somewhere between myth and reality. The narrow pass, surrounded by three mountains, gradually opened wider, revealing all that it had, like the generosity of its people, but sometimes it also closed in on itself, like the Yazidi religion.<\/p>\n

As we entered a courtyard, there was a man sitting with a little sparrow in his hand. Abdullah introduced him as Luqman Sulayman, \u201cpublic relations guy for the temple. If you have a question, he\u2019s the best person to ask.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Luqman Sulayman and his little sparrow \/
\nPhoto courtesy of the author<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cNice to meet you. Yes, I have a question. Who\u2019s this bird in your hand?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bird fell from a nest. I put him back but he fell a second time. After the third time it happened, I took him home with me. Now I\u2019ve become very accustomed to his companionship so I brought him here with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdullah asked Luqman to let me enter the sacred places that are typically forbidden to non-Yazidis. \u201cShe came all the way from America to visit Lalish,\u201d Abdullah said. I didn\u2019t understand Luqman\u2019s reply because he spoke in Kurdish. It seemed to me that he wasn\u2019t going to allow it, but he did kindly invite us to have tea.<\/p>\n

I would soon enter into those places without knowing they were \u201cforbidden.\u201d Abdullah didn\u2019t seem to notice, or maybe he forgot, or simply didn\u2019t follow the instructions. Whatever the case I was pleased to be given those additional secrets without even realizing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCareful, you can\u2019t walk on the thresholds. You have to cross over them,\u201d Abdullah reminded me.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t count the number of entrances; it seemed to me that each of them told a story of the age. The entrances were so low that even a short person like me had to hunch down to get inside. To the right of one of those entrances was the snake of Noah, which is considered sacred by the Yazidis because it\u2019s said to have saved mankind when it curled itself up and plugged the hole that had been punctured when Noah\u2019s ark collided with a rock during the flood.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Keep reading at\u00a0World Literature Today.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

From The Beekeeper<\/em>, forthcoming from New Directions in March 2018. Copyright \u00a9 2018 by Dunya Mikhail. Published by arrangement with the author and New Directions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

via World Literature Today and Arabic Literature (in English) & BY MLYNXQUALEY on DECEMBER 29, 2017 \u2022 ( 0 ) Max Weiss translated this excerpt of Dunya Mikhail\u2019s\u00a0The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,57,1442,103,1],"tags":[1764],"class_list":["post-15687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-culture","category-iraq","category-mashreq","category-translation","category-uncategorized","tag-dunya-mikhail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15687"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15690,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687\/revisions\/15690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}