Ethics Beyond Reciprocity: An Iranian Veteran’s Responsibility for His Dead Comrade

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how Amir, an Iranian paraplegic veteran of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War, finds himself responsible for his dead friend killed during combat. Amir witnessed his friend Sohrāb dying and had his own body mutilated. Amir’s (re)engagement with Sohrāb is a form of commitment, an obligation that does not collapse their relationship in a uniform path, but rather imbues it with infinite possibilities. Inspired by the writings of Emmanuel Levinas, this article examines the living’s for-the-other response as the node of subjectivity between the living and the dead, a form of ethical undertaking constituted through responsibility. Amir’s responsibility for Sohrāb is not reciprocal; it is what his dead friend demands of him, an obligation that Amir cannot refuse. Responsibility is understood to be for-the-other, thus subjectivity is knotted in ethics as demonstrated by Amir’s sense of duty to care for his dead friend.