Welcome to Spotlight Advanced.
I'm Megan Nolet.
And I'm Patrick Woodward.
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People clap their hands together as another performance finishes.
They wait for the next act.
When all the performers finish, the judges will give an award for the best act.
There are several creative acts from around the world.
It will not be easy to choose the best.
There are many skilled performers.
All the performers have some kind of disability.
For example, one group has hearing problems.
This group is from Uganda.
Other performers have other physical or mental problems.
They are competing at a festival for disabled youth.
This is an unusual event because of where it is.
It is Tehran, the capital city of Iran.
Here, as in many nations, disability is still something that many people do not understand.
This creates fear.
And for disabled people, life is often difficult.
Often they do not receive the same chances as other people.
However, festivals like the one for disabled youth are working to change all this.
The teacher of the winning group was Hatef Dostar.
He works as an art and music therapist in Tehran.
He uses art and music to help heal the body and the mind.
This is not an easy job in Iran.
He says, Art therapy is very much tied to your culture.
Cases are completely different here from wealthier countries.
Our children all have more than one disability.
They are disabled economically, mentally, culturally and physically.
Hatif works in different ways with disabled people.
One of his jobs is teaching young disabled people creative skills.
For example, he teaches some people how to play musical instruments.
He teaches others acting skills.
Hatif decided to enter his group into the Festival Competition for Disabled Youth in 2008 and his group won.
Their winning act was a play.
The play was about a group of students who fell in love with their teacher.
In fact, the playwriter said that she based the play on some of the actors.
Many of them have had this experience.
The actors worked hard to learn their characters' words.
Some of them had to learn words in ancient Persian.
However, the performers enjoyed acting as their characters.
One of the female actors said, I really like my part.
Everywhere I go, even in my family, they call me Fakro Zaman.
That is my character's name.
The play had a positive effect on young people.
It gave them a chance to show their skills.
It gave them a chance to perform and to give something to society.
One of the mothers spoke about the effect the play had on her daughter.
At home, my daughter did not believe in herself.
She would always ask, what am I good for?
She does not ask this anymore.
Now she wakes up happy.
She repeats her lines for the play.
She is gifted at this work.
A mother's wish is to see her child happy.
My wish has come true.
One of the young actors explained how performing made her feel.
My disability is not important when I feel that I am useful.
And people should not consider my disability a problem in society.
However, at the end of the show, not all the performers were happy.
Tears came from a young girl who did not receive an individual award.
It is one of the risks of this kind of competition.
Dr Shafi is the organizer of the festival for disabled youth.
He was also one of the judges.
He said that the festival is educating Iranians about disability.
He said, Today I met a man who said this to me.
Before, I used to think that disabled people were poor and useless.
But now I understand how gifted they are.
Now I see that I was the disabled one.
I did not understand what they could do.
The art therapist Hatif Dostar works in different places across Tehran.
He takes art supplies and music with him.
One place where he works is Rezeghi Hospital.
This hospital is for patients with two kinds of severe mental conditions.
One is schizophrenia and the other is severe depression.
Here Hatif brings a new life to the hospital.
Hotef walks in, carrying his equipment.
He sets up the music.
He gets all the patients to stand together in a circle.
Hotef stands with them.
Music plays.
The atmosphere in the room changes.
Slowly, the patients begin to move to the music.
They wave their arms high above their heads. and they move gently from side to side.
Smiles begin to appear.
This is a completely different kind of treatment to the medicine they swallow each day.
Dr. Aflatouni specializes in sicknesses of the mind.
He works at Rezaie Hospital.
Dr. Aflatouni supports Hatif's work.
He said, Medicine does not create a solution for everyone.
For some people, the best thing you can do is to control their condition.
But medicine does not create much of a change for them.
Things like music therapy are of great help.
I believe we have had great results.
The patients recognize a piece of music and move their arms and legs.
This is very good.
Hotef's work is unusual in Iran.
And it has greatly improved the lives of many disabled people.
This helps the disabled people themselves, and it helps to influence society.
When disabled people know their own abilities, other people will be able to recognize them too.
This is a powerful way to change attitudes towards disabilities.
Many people form an opinion about a disabled person by what they cannot do.
Some people say that the very word disabled does this, but Hautef does not do this.
Instead, he concentrates on what a disabled person can do.
His desire is to enable them to lead fuller, happier lives and together, in a small but powerful way, They are making way for new thinking in Iran.
What creative activities do you enjoy?
Do you have any friends who have disabilities or special needs?
You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com.
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You can also get spotlight episodes delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
The writer of this episode was part of the Spotlight team.
The producer was Michio Ozaki.
The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom.
All quotes were adapted for this episode and voiced by Spotlight.
This episode is called Art Therapy.
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight episode.
Goodbye.
