Towards global society fit for disabled persons

The Society Desk of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has interviewed a disabled Iranian writer and journalist, who, along with his visually-impaired wife, has written a book on disability issues.

'Just around the corner' (in Persian: dar hamin chand qadami) was ready on Sunday to go to bookstores, coinciding with the global disability event.

'Just around the corner is a book on real-life experiences of a visually-impaired woman and a man who as a result of an inborn disease has been living with traces of physical and sensory disabilities,' Reza Bahar said, referring to the book.

'You can find few disabled people willing to go public with their personal lives,' Bahar said.

'But me and my wife, Razieh Kebari, managed to do so in a bid to cause public awareness towards some of the problems faced by the disabled persons,' he added.

Our motto is moving towards a global society fit for the disabled persons, said Bahar, who is a columnist and translator at the IRNA English Desk.

'Disability could take place to anyone anywhere regardless of age, gender or social class,' he said.

'If we manage to set up a society where the needs and rights of people with disability are guaranteed, in other words a world fit for the disabled persons, then we can be sure in that society the rights and needs of all other people have been appropriately addressed,' the IRNA journalist said.

According to Bahar, the United Nations figures suggest that more than 10 percent of every society is living with some type disability.

'Ten percent or more is a reality the global community should accept,' he said.

Answering a question on how and why he decided to write a book on disability, he said, 'I used to write diaries. After our marriage and especially after the birth of our son I started to write our life experiences both as disabled people and parents.'

The 160-page book took a long time, almost seven years, to be completed, as we had to work hard to stand on our feet and at the same time find solutions to our problems.

'I had almost no time and energy to complete my writings,' he added.

The jointly-written autobiography, in 1,100 copies, has been published by Behmanesh Publication in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Interview by: Sadat Hosseinikhah

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