Listen "Ava Homa: On Kurdish Identity and Social Fragmentation in Iran"
Episode Synopsis
DescriptionIn this episode, we speak with Ava Homa—award-winning author of Daughters of Smoke and Fire and Echoes from the Other Land—about Kurdish identity, structural violence, and the cycles of oppression in Iran. Homa discusses the intersection of literature and activism, the emotional and political risks of storytelling, and the global forces that shape—and often distort—struggles for justice. With questions from hosts and a special contribution by Kurdish poet Sarwa Azeez, the conversation moves from personal to geopolitical, examining how resistance, complicity, and survival co-exist in authoritarian contexts.Chapter Timestamps & Titles00:00 - Opening and Introduction 01:49 - The Emotional Core of "Daughters of Smoke and Fire*" 03:09 - Moral Ambiguity and Structural Violence 05:44 - Beauty as Power, Punishment, and Survival 09:28 - Fiction, Nonfiction, and Political Mythologies 11:42 - Regime Repetition and Global Complicity 15:43 - Kurdish Abandonment and Western Hypocrisy 19:05 - Civil Society and the Future of Iran 22:10 - Nationalism, Trauma, and Regime Control 24:33 - Western Narratives of Unity After Violence 28:32 - Personal Risk in Telling the Story 30:24 - Responding to War from Within the Oppressed 33:40 - On Calls for Regime Change 35:59 - Advice to U.S. Minority Communities 38:46 - Kurdish Identity and the Broader Iranian Struggle
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