A lily in the marsh; The story of the life of the Afghan girl who won the Sadegh Hedayat statue
1 year ago
Study time 9 minutes
Sometimes opportunities are created from the heart of a crisis that a person cannot even imagine.The story of Samira Kothari’s life is one of those events that opened a window of hope for her through countless bitterness.He won the first place in the “Sadegh Hedayat” literary competition in Iran, when he was struggling with the frustration caused by the educational exclusion of girls in Afghanistan.Samira Kothari, story writer;A girl who started writing from the heart and was able to win the first place in this literary competition among 800 Persian speaking participants from all over the world.Mrs. Kothari nominated the short story “The Last Fifteen Minutes of the Right to Touch” which is a science fiction story.Jahangir Hedayat, the secretary of this competition, announced that they “evaluated” the stories in two stages and after the end of the second stage, the final winners were determined.The second place of this literary competition has been awarded to three female storytellers;Leila Darabi, Sahar Rafi and Yasmin Hosseinzadeh, who are all citizens of Iran.The winners of the “Sadegh Hedayat” literary competition were announced on December 25, 1401, but Ms. Kothari could not go to Iran and participate in this ceremony because she did not have a passport.Samira Kothari is the first female storyteller in Afghanistan who won the first prize of “Sadegh Hedayat” literary competition.Before him, Hamira Qadri had won the second place in this literary competition for writing the story “It will rain again if it rains” in 2003 and received a commendation plaque.Who is Samira Kostari?Samira was born in the summer of 1378 in the city of Isfahan, Iran, in a cultured family.His father Abbas Kothari and his aunt Masoumeh Kothari are also writers.He returned to Afghanistan with his family in 1381 and settled in his father’s hometown in Balkh.He has one sister and one brother.According to his mother’s request, he learned religious studies from secondary school.But after a while, he abandoned religious studies.He finished school at “Ayesha Afghan” high school.When he graduated from the twelfth grade, he started studying English literature in one of the private universities of Balkh province.Perhaps, as Samira says, the first sparks of her talent for writing stories came from a small library of books that were prepared thanks to her aunt and father, who are both writers.“And the sky was the same color” is a collection of stories written by Samira’s father, and “The Season Incident” and “Taber Daran” are two collections of stories written by her aunt.He says that he spent many hours studying and reading novels.A pleasure that could not be replaced by anything.He believes that if he did not have access to these books, he might never have dreamed of becoming a storyteller.Mrs. Kothari: “I don’t remember exactly, but I enjoyed writing since I can remember.At first, I was embarrassed to show my writing to anyone.Like all teenagers who don’t believe in what they write and are full of embarrassment and fear of revealing their thoughts.”He believes that because a story, like a report or an article, does not bind the author’s hands and wings in the precise expression of the event, the author can easily express a more important word in the form of a completely ordinary event.Create something, delete it and rewrite it again.The first readers of Samira’s writings were her school friends and her sister who benefited from it.When he saw his mother’s encouragement, he took courage and wrote with more energy.He has dozens of writings that include memories, pain and heart, and sometimes his writings were written on paper without a title.When Samira was 17 years old, she was able to get hold of a few books on how to write stories, and from then on, she tried to give her writing a professional role.“A gift that I have never given to anyone” is the title of the first story written by Samira.“When I read this story to my mother, she cried and encouraged me a lot,” he says.After that, I sent it to my aunt, and after seeing my talent, she introduced me to “Balkh Story House”.From membership to the chairmanship of Balkh story house.Since she was a teenager, when she entered the Balkh Story House, Mrs. Kothari tried to be an active presence in all the stories review sessions and took full advantage of them.His interest and perseverance and his presence with other storytellers and writers made him get to know the framework of writing and storywriting.In 1397, he was elected as the director of “Balkh Story House” and worked in this position until 1400.In addition to his literary and cultural activities, he also taught in one of the schools.In the month of Asad in 1400, at the same time as the current government took control of Afghanistan, he lost his mother and could no longer continue his activities.The loss of her mother, the ban on education, the restrictions imposed after the caretaker government took over Afghanistan made Samira feel more alone and hopeless than ever before.“I thought it was all over for me,” he says.No, I could go to university.No, I could go to the story house and I was in a bad state of mind.“The only thing that calmed me down was writing and reading.”After a while, Samira closed the gate of despair when she met a number of other storytellers who were on the same level as her, and she got up stronger than before and started to continue.Receiving the statue of “Sadegh Hedayat”Samira’s new circle of friends became the founders of it so that she not only rebuilt her spirit once again and gave a second chance to the arrival of good days, but also caused the beautiful world of her pen to be discovered and the high spirit of her thoughts to shine in the literary sky.Mrs. Kothari says that she did not want to submit her story in the “Sadegh Hedayat” literary contest.He says: “Well, usually I don’t participate in festivals, because I know myself that I had no chance to win, and I don’t follow the rules when writing.In the first years when I entered literary meetings, I participated several times because I felt that it was my duty to share regardless of whether I could or not because I write.But in the last few years, I was not in a good mental state, but since the situation changed, I became friends with some writers of my level, and we started together again.He says that the motto of one of his friends is “Send it, we tried our best” and this is the reason why he sent it even though he was hesitant in choosing this story.He says: “My story is about a woman who lives in an ideal world.With a series of strange rules and restrictions.The husband of this woman, who is in a bad physical condition, is destroyed due to reasons from the government of that world, which is called that organization, and the woman tries to take revenge on her husband and save the world by revealing these facts.The protagonist of this story is a woman and she wrote it right at the time when Afghanistan fell to the caretaker government and women were restricted and isolated more than ever.Samira has tried to release her fighting and freedom-seeking spirit in the form of the heroine of this story.You can read the full version of the story “The Last Fifteen Minutes of the Right to Touch” on Samira Kothari’s blog.“When I enter the last numbers of the code;My hands are shaking and I feel a little sorry.But I always think about how sad our world is, whether it’s being born or dying, and how cruel everyone is.They come and learn quickly, kill and get along easily and forget who they were, even their loved ones die and are forgotten.They lose or lose their most valuable things and are ignored.Everyone sheds tears, everyone tries to shed tears, even the sky.Of course…(http://samirakowsari.blogfa.com)In response to the question of what style or author she follows, Mrs. Kothari said that she does not have a particular author in mind.“I really read from everybody,” he says.My taste is different things in different works by different authors.“It’s very hard for me to want to make a specific choice and just follow that.”He emphasizes that his writing style is more monologue or self-talk.According to him, he does not feel as comfortable with speaking as he does with writing.In his own words: “I’m a bit obsessed when I write, I feel that the order has been implemented, but when I explain by talking, I feel that I couldn’t understand properly.”No book by this young author has been published yet.But since 2019, he created a blog where he shares all his stories.Protection by donating scholarshipsThe restrictions not only made Samira unable to participate in the program to receive the “Sadegh Hedayat” statue in Iran, but she was not even allowed to attend the program of her beloved writers organized by the “Balkh Story House” association.This association was supposed to honor female cultural and literary activists in this city during a program on Saturday, 27th of Pisces, but the forces of the caretaker government prevented the girls from attending this program.Ms. Kothari says that this program was held at Ibn Sina University in Mazar-e-Sharif, and the government forces told participating girls that they could not participate in this program because the universities were closed to girls.He said that Balkh Story House Association honored him in his absence for winning the first place in the 21st round of “Sadegh Hedayat” Literary Festival.Mrs. Kothari clarified that her brother received the letter of appreciation from Balkh Story House on her behalf.At the same time, Sepehr Andisheh Scientific-Cultural Complex and Resalat Schools in Herat have given her a scholarship from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, in recognition of her merit.Samira Kothari is now the only member of the Aberfan team and does graphic work such as post design, banner, etc. for this team.He says that his soul is intertwined with writing and he can never leave it.His dream is to continue in the world of writing and become an influential writer.
