Interview by Thuy-vi Nguyen, Trinity ’20 and Mary Helen Wood, Trinity ’21.
We had the opportunity to talk with T over the course of two Skype interviews. Originally from Iraq, T, her mother, brother, and sister have since fled to Turkey. T earned a degree in translation from the College of Art at the University of Mosul, which has allowed her to volunteer as a translator for nonprofits in her city. She still enjoys talking with international friends made through these programs via Skype. Her true interest is journalism, especially that is focused on politics and women’s issues, as she sees it as a way of providing a platform for groups and individuals that often have their voices drowned out by others. There’s a danger, she reminded us, in believing your way of thinking “is THE only way, the right way,” and of the importance of keeping an open mind. T is frustrated with the lack of healthcare services, employment, and education opportunities available to refugees in her community. She sees a more coordinated global effort as one way of addressing the problem. She also sees a need for further protections over women’s rights, especially in Iraq. T hopes to one day relocate to a third country with her family.
Listen to T’s story:
https://soundcloud.com/nancy-kalow/interview-with-t
Transcript:
“The hardest thing is that when you hear people talking about refugees here, in this country, in Turkey, in a bad way. Two days ago, my sister was standing in line at the grocery store, to buy some groceries, so she heard two ladies talking about refugees, Iraqis and Syrians in particular. They were saying that, how bad we are and how we came here and basically destroyed their country.
I have met some people here, when they think just because you are a refugee, they know everything about you. Or this is the only thing that, you are a refugee, this is the only thing about you. No, we’re normal people, we have lives just as you have feelings, we think alike. I mean there are so many things we identify with other people, and there are so many things that we disagree with other people. It’s not just about being a refugee, it’s about being a human being in a refugee status.
What I have found, is that so many people are just living in their own bubble. The first thing I think of – just American students and Americans in general – I think that they don’t know is that before 2003, we were living a normal life, we were a normal country. Yes, we had problems. Yes, we were ruled by a dictator. But we weren’t living in a desert and some people, I have met a person actually who told me that “In Iraq, do you have cars?” And the first thing that came to my mind, I just wanted to tell her, “No, we ride camels.” Of course, we drive cars! What’d you expect? We’re normal people, we had a normal life back then.
I think this is where the true art of journalism comes. To me journalism is, I think it’s one of the most important jobs in the whole world. You have the idea and you have the opportunity and you have a platform to tell other people’s stories. There are so many stories that need to be told, and the reason that these people are not telling their stories is because they don’t have the platforms. They don’t have the means to do it. So as a journalist, you have all of this. Just go and find these people and help them tell their stories.
Maybe the story that one person will tell will help a twelve-year-old or an eighteen-year-old boy or girl living on the other side of the world. They will read this story and they will be inspired, and they will do something and change themselves. They will change people around them. Being a woman, especially in the Middle East, just being a woman by itself is a challenging thing, so telling their stories is something I think very important to me. Telling these stories will help and inspire little girls, or someone ten years old will read these stories and be inspired.
I remember when I was twelve years old, in my family I use to hear lots of talk about a Syrian poet who was very famous. His name was Nizar Qabbani. Growing up I admired him. I read his poetry a lot, and lots of people in the Arab world, they don’t accept his poetry, they don’t accept the way that he presents women in his poetry. I look up to him because when I used to read his poems, I was empowered as a woman.
Growing up in the Arab world or in Iraq, I wasn’t happy about being a girl. There are lots of things that you are not allowed to do. You are growing up having this idea that I am a girl, so I am not allowed to do lots of things, so being a girl is not so good. I think that lots of families, they make their daughters feel ashamed that they are girls. Actually, they teach them the only role as a girl is to get married, have children.
I think women need to support each other. I think education is the best tool that you can give to a girl and having a diploma and then having a job. Making them financially independent. When I was a kid, I used to hear so many stories of women living with their husbands, and their husband used to abuse them. But they couldn’t get out of the marriage because they didn’t have any job, and even when they went to their families, their families refused support them financially. So, for example, if you gave this woman a job, she will leave this toxic relationship. She will start a new life, and she will raise her children to not treat women like that.
I hope that they can have better opportunities, better than the ones than we had. I hope they have better education. I hope that, well, especially for the kids back in Iraq, I hope that they will have an open mind.”
