TEHRAN – A play featuring the pain and suffering endured by Afghan immigrants in exile was staged at the Sanobar Hall of the Shahrzad Theater Complex in Tehran on Wednesday.

A cast of Afghan and Iranian actors is performing the play “Coffin”, which is being helmed by Afghan director Senator Hosseini who has been raised in Iran.

The play is being performed in three episodes, Hosseini told the Persian service of MNA on Thursday.

“The first episode is about an Afghan family that lives in Iran. A son of the family tries to convince the family to immigrate to Europe, however, the father disagrees with him, he says, ‘if we have any plan to leave Iran, I prefer to return our homeland,’” he said.

The second episode of the play follows an Iranian boy and an Afghan girl who are secretly married. They plan to leave Iran before their families are informed about their marriage.

The characters of the stories join together in the third episode, which features the challenges they face in dealing with human smugglers.

Born into an Afghan family in the Iranian city of Semnan, Hosseini said that he wrote the play two years ago as “I never imagined that I would stage it when Afghanistan has been taken over by the Taliban insurgents.”

“Due to what is going on in Afghanistan, we planned to cancel our performance. What is happening in Afghanistan has broken our hearts and we feel that we have lost our identity and honor,” Hosseini said.     

“On the other hand, the play is about immigration and depicts part of Afghans’ pain and suffering, therefore we changed our plans, and, subsequently, we staged the play,” he added.

“My family, except for my parents, all lives in Afghanistan and are in a bad situation. My relatives live in Herat and their girls are not allowed to attend school. Based on a Taliban rule, girls are not allowed to attend school past the seventh grade, and this makes us feel sad,” Hosseini noted.

“Coffin” will be on stage until September 10.  

Photo: A poster for the play “Coffin” by Afghan director Senator Hosseini.

MMS/YAW