LET HER PLAY Your daughter’s coach is begging you to ease up on the criticism FACTS & ARGUMENTS, PAGE 6

THE GLOBE AND MAILTHURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017 SECTION L

Globe Life & ArtsOME& ESGN

WORLDS APART,ENEMIES IN A BRUTAL WAR

FIND BROTHERLY LOVE

VANCOUVER

I n 1982, in the chaos of abloody battle during the IranIraq War, Iranian child soldierZahed Haftlang saved Iraqi soldier Najah Aboud’s life. Twentyyears later, a coincidental meeting half a world away in Vancouver allowed Aboud to do thesame for Haftiang.

“He is my brother from another mother,” Haftiang says as hetakes Aboud into the warmestembrace the entranceway to TheGlobe and Mail’s British Columbia Bureau has perhaps ever witnessed.

Zahed Haftlang was 13 whenhe joined Iran’s Basij paramilitary; running away from his abusive home. What he faced wasbeyond comprehension, including the night he and the otherchild soldiers were made to runthrough a minefield - humanshields getting blown to piecesso the others could follow moresafely. Haftiang was good withbandages and trained as a medic.

Najah Aboud was 28, running a.successful falafel restaurant inIraq, when he was called backfor military service in 1980. Hewas assigned to tank duty.

Their story is told in the just-published book I, Who Did NotDie: A Sweeping Story of Loss, Redemption, and Fate. Just published, it is one of thoseyou-wouldn’t-believe-this-if-it-was-fiction books.

“You’re always hoping for astory like this, one that’s sounbelievable that I almost didn’tbelieve it. I was a little skepticaland I kept trying to trip them upa little bit with questions to seeif their stories would differ,” saysU.S. joumalist Meredith May,who co-authored the book withthe men and joined them for aninterview last week.

“When I first heard your story,the hair on my arms stood up,”she says to them. “You hear somany depressing stories out ofthe Middle East, and it made mebelieve that there’s hope. And itmade me feel that there is something out there looking out for

us. And you can call it God, youcan call it Mother Nature, youcan call it the Universe, you cancall it karma, you can call itdumb luck. Whatever you wantto call it, it made me more spiritual:’

Their lives intersected in Thorramshahr, Iran in May, 1982, during a notorious baffle betweenIran and Iraq. Aboud’s tank wasattacked. Escaping into thebedlam, he was hit - but managed to make his way into a bunker with a few other Iraqis.

Haftlang was ordered at nightfall to search the bunkers, givemedical aid to wounded Iraniansand shoot any Iraqis. “I had never killed anyone, and I really,really didn’t want to,” he writes.

In one bunker, he heard moaning from the bottom of a pile ofbodies. He pulled the corpses offand found a blood-soaked man.“I hoped he would die on me,”he wrote.

It was Aboud, who appealed tothe boy. “Muslim,” he said. Hereached into his pocket to showHaftiang his Koran. Haftlang

paged though it and found aphoto of a woman and a baby.

“He’s not any more a soldier,”Haftiang said during the interview, looking across the table atAboud. “He’s a human.”

In that bunker, they could notcommunicate with words; theyspoke different languages. “Hesmiled to show me I’m okay,”Aboud says. “It was like an angelcame from space:’

The woman in the photo wasAboud’s girlfriend. They had metback home, found a way to talksecretly, fell in love - and had asingle passionate encounter.Aboud did not know that shewas pregnant unifi he returnedhome on a medical leave andmet his baby. With a Polaroidcamera, he snapped the photothat would later save his life.

Haftlang did more than notshoot Aboud. He fed him water,injected a painkiller, bandagedhim up. “Shhh,” he said. Hereturned and jury-rigged an IVdrip. He eventually got him to ahospital.Iran, Page 2

Zahed Hafflang, left, originally fromIran, and Najah Aboud, originallyfrom Iraq, who co-wrote I, Who DidNot Die with journalist MeredithMay, talk in Vancouver on March 23.The pair initially met in 1982 — onopposing sides of a notorious bafflein Iran — and would go on to havean unlikely reunion in Vancouvertwo decades later.DARRYL DYCIQ’THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Two decades after meeting in battle, a coincidental meeting in Vancouver changed two mens’ lives for the better.Marsha Lederman reports on their epic story, and the new book that chronicles an only-in-Canada twist of fate

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ARTS THE GLOBE AND MAIL • THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

Iran: Years later, the ‘brothers’ share the story of their tearful reunion

)) Both men survived the war.But they went through hell.Both were POWs - Aboud for 17years. Both were treated abysmally. Both were held long after thewar ended.

Their unlikely reunion happened in 2002, in a Vancouverwaiting room.

Coincidentally, both men hadsettled here. Aboud had used hisbrother’s Canadian passport toboard a flight to Vancouver andclaimed refugee status.

Hafflang found work in Iran as aship mechanic, but at one point,when the ship was in Vancouver,he clashed with the ship’s captainand ripped a framed photo ofAyatollah Khomeini off the walland smashed it to the ground(Haftiang had quite a temper). Toescape possible imprisonment,Haftlang dove into the icy watersof English Bay, where he was res

cued by a kayaker.Some time later, Haftlang, living

at a refugee centre, was despondent. One day when his roommates left to celebrate CanadaDay, Haftlang decided to end hislife. He was hanging from a ceilingbeam when his friend returnedfor his sunglasses. Haftlang wasrescued and taken to hospital.

Two days later, Haftlang visitedVAST, the Vancouver Associationfor the Survivors of Torture. Thatsame day, Aboud and his brothertook their father, who had alsoemigrated and was having troubleadjusting to life in Canada, for acounselling appointment - atVAST.

In the lobby, the waiting mengreeted each other — “Salaam” —

and a conversation began; chattyHaftlang pressing, reluctantAboud pretending to read hismagazine.

“We didn’t recognize each other,” says Haftlang.

They began to share details oftheir lives during the war, andfinally came to the battle in IChorramshahr.

Haftiang spoke about finding adying Iraqi with a Koran and apicture of a woman and babyinside.

Aboud was stunned. “This mine— I have Koran, I have [a pictureof] myboy,mywife!

“I started to shout,” he continues. “We lose our control. He shoutand I shout.” The centre’s staffcame running, concerned thingshad come to blows in the waitingroom. Instead they found twomen embracing.

“I had a depression. I cried between seven and ii times a day.And he had depression too,” saysHafflang. “Our depression, it’sgone,” he says, snapping his fin-

gers and bursting into a laugh. “Idid not [need] any pills any more,from 2002 until today.” Haftlang,who had saved Aboud’s life 20years ago, was now saved by hisreunion with Aboud. “Whatcomes around goes around,” hesays.

That year, Globe and Mail journalist Robert Matas wrote abouttheir story. It has since generatedenormous interest. I, Who Did NotDie was published Thesday inCanada and the United States.

“Right now, especially whenyou have a certain North American world leader demonizingpeople, it’s our job as reportersand artists to humanize thosevery same people,” says co-authorMay.

Toronto-based filmmaker AnnShin has been following theirstory for five years.

“I met them and over cups of

tea I heard their stories and I wasbawling,” Shin says. Her shortdocumentary My Enemy, MyBrother was nominated for anEmmy and shortlisted for anOscar. A feature-length doc of thesame name will premiere at HotDocs next month. “In light of current affairs, it’s a really inspiringand positive story of two Muslimmen who rose above their circumstances and I think a beaconto us all, really,” she says.

Haftlang, 48, lives in West Vancouver with his wife and two .chilthen and runs an auto mechanicshop in Port Coquitlam. Aboud,64, lives in Richmond, B.C. He hasa flea-market stall and a movingcompany.

Haftlang and Aboud talk everyday. They call each other brothers.

Jokes May, “They fight likebrothers too.”

Home Fires and he death of cozy U.K. dramaWith Brexit in view, the British cultural conscious is changing. That might mean the end of series in the vein of PBS’s Home Fires

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JOHN DOYLE -

TELEVlSI Njdoyle@globeandmail.com

They make a lot of TV in Britain. Some of it is awful, someof it brilliant. A lot of it is in themiddle - mildly entertaining,cozy TV.

Right now, Britain is goingthrough some kind of existentialcultural crisis. It’s about Brexitand Britishness. And television ispart of that.

There is a first-rate British drama coming here to Super Channel in April. It’s the four-partNational Treasure, and in it RobbieColtrane plays Paul Finchley, abeloved comedian and TV staraccused of rape. One allegationleads to many more, and Finchley’s struggle to clear his name

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