Tag: war diary

Ali-Asghar Seidabadi says, “I have lived 200 years compressed into 50.” In his childhood, there was no television, electricity, or telephone in his village, while today he is an active participant in the digital world. He was born in a village in northeastern Iran as the eldest child in a large family with six siblings. At the beginning of his teenage years, he moved to a boarding school in Neyshابur to continue his education, a school located beside the tomb of Omar Khayyam in one of Iran’s oldest gardens.

Three years later, at the age of fifteen, he altered his birth certificate in order to join the Iran–Iraq War fronts. He spent nearly a year, intermittently, at the front lines, with the final months coinciding with the ceasefire and the presence of United Nations forces. The experience of living in a boarding school, growing up in the shadow of Khayyam, and witnessing war firsthand profoundly shaped his personality and worldview. His commitment to nonviolence and his opposition to war emerge directly from those formative experiences.

During the 1990s, widely regarded as the golden age of Iranian journalism, Seidabadi became a well-known figure in Iran’s cultural and journalistic spheres. He was responsible for the culture, arts, and thought sections of several widely read reformist newspapers and later became a member of their editorial boards. Alongside his journalistic work, he wrote books for children and young adults and conducted research in children’s literature, reading promotion, and cultural studies.

About fifteen years ago, he stepped away from professional journalism and pursued diverse experiences ranging from cultural management to research and education. He now lives in Tehran and works full-time as a writer and researcher. During the American and Israeli attacks on Tehran, he remained in the city, witnessing events from a perspective shaped by his unique experiences of war, culture, and social life. His reflections offer a rare and deeply human perspective on violence, society, and the fate of contemporary humanity.

For further information visit:

http://nevisak.ir/en/سیدآبادی-علی%E2%80%8Cاصغر/

And here’s a brief moment from the beginning of When The Sparrows Grow Anxious:

Around 10am on Saturday 28th February 2026, the United States and Israel attacked Iran. I was arguing with a friend on Instagram about a political issue when I heard the sound of an explosion. I wrote: “Well, our argument is over – war has begun!” We wished each other well, and since I was sure the internet would soon be cut off, I wrote a short post opposing a foreign attack on Iran and wishing health and safety for Iranians. A few minutes later, the internet was cut off, in such a way that there was no access even with any VPN.

‏The news was contradictory and bizarre.

‏On the third day of the war, after three days without internet, I went to the office of the newspaper where Giso – my wife – worked. Their access to international internet had just been restored, and so I took this opportunity to connect as well.

‏First of all, I checked Instagram to see the reactions to my post. In those days, on Iranian social networks, supporters of foreign military intervention to change the government had the upper hand. Opponents had either fallen silent or their words had no reflection.

Publisher Nick Owen MBE, founder of Nick Owen Publishing, said:

“At a time when the President of the USA can assert “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again…” Ali Asghar Seidabadi has written a book of huge courage. These diary notes attend to the human texture of war:  to windows, birds, phone calls, friendships, children’s books, and the stubborn persistence of ordinary life. That is precisely why the book matters and why we are honoured to bring his work to a wider, global public.”

To order your copy now please complete the following details:

Email:     nick@nickowenpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.nickowenpublishing.com

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War
Author: Ali Asghar Seidabadi
Publisher: Nick Owen Publishing Ltd
Publication: June 2026
ISBN: 9798197042132
Format: [Hardback / Paperback / Kindle / eBook)
Available from: Nick Owen Publishing / Amazon

#WhenTheSparrowsGrowAnxious

#DiariesFromTehran

#BooksBuildBridges

“Words written while the bombs were still falling.”

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious:  Diaries from Tehran at War offers an intimate, humane and urgent record of ordinary life under bombardment and will be available to readers across the world from Monday 15 June.

Written by Ali Asghar Seidabadi, an acclaimed Iranian researcher, author, and a well-known cultural figure, this extraordinary diary-style work offers readers a rare, immediate and deeply human account of life in Tehran during war, bombardment and internet disruption.

Written originally as daily notes for international friends and literary colleagues, the book records not only fear, uncertainty and danger, but also the fragile continuities of everyday life: taped windows, family calls, cafés, bookshops, food, birds, interrupted communications and the small rituals by which people continue to live while history presses against the glass.

Seidabadi‘s work is a work of witness:  intimate, precise, restrained and morally alert. At its heart is a voice committed to a “middle path”: nonviolent, humane, neither propagandist nor self-pitying. In a world often divided by slogans, suspicion and noise, When The Sparrows Grow Anxious insists on the importance of listening to an individual human being trying to describe what it feels like to endure.

A diary of war, culture and human endurance

The title’s image of anxious sparrows captures the emotional force of the book: small lives continuing amid forces far larger than themselves. Through that recurring motif, Seidabadi turns the daily experience of conflict into something both specific and universal.

The diary is rooted in Tehran, but its reach is international. As a writer and editor with deep connections across global children’s and young adult literature, Seidabadi writes from within a network of friendships, correspondence and cultural solidarity. His messages to writers, illustrators and book people beyond Iran become part of the book’s emotional architecture.What emerges is a record of war seen not through military strategy or state rhetoric, but through culture, family, memory and daily survival.

Readers encounter a city under pressure, but also a mind refusing to surrender its clarity. The result is a book that speaks powerfully to anyone interested in contemporary history, human rights, international literature, peace, cultural memory and the moral role of writing in times of crisis.

About the author

During the 1990s, widely regarded as the golden age of Iranian journalism, Seidabadi became a well-known figure in Iran’s cultural and journalistic spheres. He was responsible for the culture, arts, and thought sections of several widely read reformist newspapers and later became a member of their editorial boards. Alongside his journalistic work, he wrote books for children and young adults and conducted research in children’s literature, reading promotion, and cultural studies.

In When The Sparrows Grow Anxious, Seidabadi brings that literary sensibility to bear on lived experience. The book is observant, humane and disciplined. It is marked by attention to small details, an instinct for connection and an unwavering commitment to nonviolence.

This is a diary by someone who understands the importance of stories — not as escape, but as a way of preserving human dignity when the surrounding world becomes frighteningly unstable.

You can find more information here.

Publisher Nick Owen MBE, founder of Nick Owen Publishing, said:

“At a time when the President of the USA can assert “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again…” Ali Asghar Seidabadi has written a book of huge courage. These diary notes attend to the human texture of war:  to windows, birds, phone calls, friendships, children’s books, and the stubborn persistence of ordinary life. That is precisely why the book matters and why we are honoured to bring his work to a wider, global public.”

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious is an important and timely publication because it offers something urgently needed: a human-scale account of war from inside the experience itself. It explores the cultural infrastructure of Iran through these diary notes, sometimes prompted by remarks made by President Trump.   It shows that some forms of Iranian behaviour and social response,  which may appear strange or incomprehensible to President Trump and to many people around the world, have deep mythological roots.

In this book, we encounter a different Iran from the one usually seen in news reports and media narratives: an Iran in which ancient myths still remain active, where victory and defeat carry different meanings, and where people continue searching for the small fragments of life amid the devastation of war.

At a time when international events can be reduced to breaking-news fragments, partisan interpretation or distant commentary, this book asks readers to slow down and pay attention. It is a book about conflict, but also about friendship. It is about fear, but also about humour, culture and endurance. It is about Tehran, but also about the shared vulnerability of human beings everywhere.

For readers, reviewers, booksellers, librarians and reading groups looking for books that combine contemporary relevance with literary and moral seriousness, When the Sparrows Grow Anxious is a significant new work.

Pre-publication interest now invited

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious will be published on 15 June 2026 and we are now inviting interest from reviewers, journalists, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, cultural commentators, international literature networks, human rights organisations, peace organisations and reading groups ahead of publication.

Advance review copies, author information and interview opportunities with the publisher are available on request.

For review copies, interview requests or further information, please leave your contact details here and we will get straight back to you:

Email:     nick@nickowenpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.nickowenpublishing.com

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War
Author: Ali Asghar Seidabadi
Publisher: Nick Owen Publishing Ltd
Publication: 15 June 2026
ISBN: 9798197042132
Format: [Hardback / Paperback / Kindle / eBook)
Available from: Nick Owen Publishing / Amazon

#WhenTheSparrowsGrowAnxious

#DiariesFromTehran

#BooksBuildBridges