While reading Chapter 10 in Aslan, we hear early on about how many families and children escaped Iran in a time of need for safety and allowing for their children to miss out on military duty. In this chapter we see how the life of people can change rapidly for those who were able to leave vs those who were not. This happened early on in the chapter when they are on the plane arriving back to their homeland and finally reaches the passport window an sees the repercussion of staying in Iran could do. The guy behind the counter was said to be roughly the same age, younger late twenties or early thirties, but looked much older because of the wear and tear on his body from having to stay in Iran. This was eye opening to just see how lucky the people who fled were.
This concept of people fleeing for safety and from getting out of military service got me to think directly with the Vietnam War, and how over 2 Million Americans fled to Canada just so they wouldn’t have to get drafted to the Vietnam war. The connection between these events is crazy, and we can see that is does indeed have a major impact on the individuals themselves.
In the US we saw that those who left would face hefty legal actions if caught or try to return back home, where we read about those who left Iran were finally allowed to comeback, but only for short visits and limited times. Overall, those who left might have thought they won, while others who persevered might think they have won because they were staying true to their countries of origin.
Until next time,
Patrick