Essmat Sophie
Sleeping In The Courtyard
Setar on the Mud Wall in the Anthology Sleeping in the Courtyard brings together historically isolated writers in community—and invites readers to join them around the table to share in their memories, secrets, tears, and joys. Featuring poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and graphic work by emerging and well-established writers, this collection shines a light on works by a diverse group of contemporary Kurdish women and nonbinary writers living in Kurdistan and in diaspora.
Recognizing the complex web of physical and lingual displacement of the Kurdish people and celebrating the diverse tapestry of their stories, this collection presents work originally written in English and work translated from Kurdish dialects as well as from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Swedish. A few works in Kurdish dialects appear alongside their translations, both in recognition of the experience of linguicide and to push against oppressive attempts to strip away Kurdish language
Several works here explore the impact of the countless forms of militarized displacement, cultural destruction, and mass genocide that Kurds have endured. Other pieces illuminate Kurdish experiences of desire, friendship, empowerment, familial intricacies, and other topics spanning across universal human conditions. The writers in these pages take risks both in craft and content—and in some cases, just by daring to write and publish. What emerges in Sleeping in the Courtyard is the antithesis of erasure.
​About Setar on the Mud Wall: “Setar on the Mud Wall” is a deeply moving narrative about memory, loss, and the tragic erasure of a woman’s artistic voice within a society shaped by political repression and social constraints. The story centers on Minoo, once a gifted and celebrated Kurdish singer whose extraordinary voice and beauty symbolized both personal freedom and cultural expression. Through the perspective of the narrator—Minoo’s childhood friend—the story moves fluidly between past and present, juxtaposing Minoo’s vibrant youth and rising fame with her later life marked by psychological trauma, illness, and abandonment. The image of the setar hanging silently on the mud wall becomes a powerful symbol of silenced art, suspended time, and the fragile persistence of memory.
At its core, the story explores the intersection of personal trauma and historical violence. Minoo’s mysterious disappearance one night, followed by her gradual psychological deterioration, reflects not only an individual tragedy but also the broader silencing of women’s voices in post-revolutionary Iran, where female singing was banned and artistic expression became politically dangerous. Her body and voice, once sites of beauty and resistance, become sites of vulnerability and erasure. The contrast between the massive public mourning for her friend Sima—a singer who died in exile—and the neglect and invisibility surrounding Minoo reveals the hypocrisy of societies that celebrate artists only after they are silenced or destroyed.
Ultimately, the story is also a meditation on memory, exile, and survivor’s guilt. The narrator, who escaped into a different life abroad, returns to confront the physical and psychological ruins of her past—embodied in Minoo, the abandoned house, and the transformed neighborhood. The narrative suggests that trauma does not end with time; instead, it persists in fragmented memories, recurring dreams, and the quiet presence of forgotten objects. Through its lyrical prose and intimate emotional depth, “Setar on the Mud Wall” becomes not only the story of one woman’s destruction but also a broader elegy for lost voices, lost futures, and the enduring human need to remember.
