Back to uni to study the middle east
I haven’t been to work since April this year and I most likely never will again. This month marks two years since my cancer diagnosis and that also means my contract at the library where I worked will be terminated. This leaves me with a lot of free time and I have decided there is one thing I would really like to do with that time. To go back to university.
There is a part of me that feels a little weird about not working anymore. I’m thirty years old, so it seems obvious that I should have a job, build a career and just be a responsible adult in general. On the other hand, I probably only have a few years to live, so doesn’t it make much more sense to fill my limited time with something I genuinely enjoy? Especially considering the fact I don’t always have a lot of energy due to chemo therapy.
So I decided to go back to uni and I spent the last couple months checking which courses I could follow. My university has an ‘a la carte’ option, which means there’s certain courses you can follow without enrolling for the full programme. I considered courses on philosophy or Buddhism and courses on the history and culture of China or Japan. In the end I decided on the course History of the Middle East. I’ve read some really good novels about Middle Eastern people and culture, but I have very little understanding of the culture and history of this area outside of the stereotypes we see here in the west. The course starts in about a month and I couldn’t be more excited.
To share my excitement I’ve listed some of the novels that made me interested in this subject. Even if you don’t have a particular interest in the Middle East, these books are also just really great works of literature.
Three daughters of Eve and 10 minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World, by Turkish writer Elif Shafak. I think Elif Shafak is an amazing writer, her stories touch on big themes such as class differences and the relations between Turkiye and Europa, but always told through deeply human stories. Many of her characters are spiritual or superstitious which give the stories a touch of magical realism.
Martyr!, by American-Iranian writer Kaveh Akbar. The main character in this book wonders whether death should be meaningful and even if your life can be meaningful if your death is not. He refers to Iranian martyrs who died in the war for their country and their beliefs, while he finds his own life in America pretty useless. He then reads about an Iranian artist with cancer who’s final exhibition is one where she herself sits in a room and visitors can come and talk to her about life and death. He is inexplicably drawn to her and he travels to New York to find her.
Persepolis, a graphic novel by French-Iranian writer and illustrator Marjane Satrapi. In this graphic novel Marjane Satrapi tells her own life story against the background of the tumultuous history of Iran.
De hemel is altijd paars, by Dutch-Iranian writer Sholeh Rezazadeh. I don’t think this book has been translated to English, I read it in Dutch. The book follows a woman who was born in Iran but migrated to the Netherlands and finds it difficult to adjust to Dutch customs while trying to make friends and build a new life.