Fariba on the mountains’ top

by Julia Terner, SolidarityNow intern – trainee

“Sometimes I go outside to the forest alone and I start to sing with a loud voice.”. I am talking about the power of music and singing with Fariba, a Kurdish woman from Iran. She speaks quickly and earnestly and has a pleasant husky timbre to her voice. With strong features and short, smart russet hair, she cuts an elegant figure as she sits opposite me in the van. We came to the van for Fariba to sing ‘Soltane Ghalbha’, a romantic song from the homonymous and famous Iranian film of 1968. She feels people disapprove of her singing in the camp so we have created our music studio in the car park. Fariba sings the song in a strong, reedy voice. As she signs without accompaniment, the arresting performance transports us out of the van, over the hills that hug the port and into another space. We discuss how important it is to use singing as a release. Fariba confesses that she begins to feel down when she hasn’t sung for two days or more. “I feel relaxed singing the songs because whatever I have deep inside, I can bring them out when I’m singing the song.”

Fariba understands the importance of transporting oneself out of the everyday and clearing the mind of its emotional baggage; along with her love of singing, Fariba is a keen mountain-climber. She tells me about the feeling of summiting a mountain: “when you reach the highest part, you forget about all the pain and the sadness and tiredness. You forget everything.”

So along with her singing outside the camp, Fariba has tackled the large hills that surround the camp – climbing each of these on her own since her arrival here. Back home, she has climbed some of the most challenging mountains in Iran and the surrounding countries. Together with a group of mountaineers, she has climbed Sabalan, Dena and most impressively, Mount Damavand, a potentially active volcano, which is the highest peak in Iran and the Middle East, and the highest volcano in Asia. For this reason, perhaps people can be forgiven for calling such climbers crazy. Indeed, Fariba says “we like the word that’s give to us, of crazy.” Fariba did not start climbing properly until she was 35 years old, but one could say it was inevitable. Her brother was a guide and her father was a climber himself. At 95, he has seen a lot but he still has great power and energy, which Fariba is convinced is thanks to the mountain climbing. “It’s great at giving you energy, not just physical but mental too.” This is due to the physical exercise you get but also the practice in focusing your mind: “you never think of anything, you just think of your aim to get to the top of the mountain, and getting yourself there.”.

Of course, you are also richly rewarded for your efforts by the view. “There is a place, there are forests in Kurdistan, which when you visit the you believe it’s paradise. Sometimes I found myself thinking, ‘If this is not paradise, what is?!’”. However, the overall feeling of stunning beauty combined with achievement and clarity is one that Fariba tells me she simply cannot put into words. “Until you have been to the place itself, you won’t understand what I’m telling you (…) I cannot express my feelings right now in words.”