I came to Australia by boat when I was 9 years old. Our family had to leave Iraq when their lives were put in danger by Saddam Hussein for political reasons, and we heard that this was the only immediate option for us to get away. At that time, we’d never heard of...
My father was executed by the government after the Islamic Iranian revolution in 1989. I was only about 5 at that time, so it’s all a bit blurry. But I remember waking up one early morning and Mum saying, ‘We're leaving’. We didn’t even get a chance to say...
In 2006, I fled from Iran to Syria. After I arrived, I was interviewed by the UNHCR and by Australian Immigration, and accepted as a genuine refugee, as were others like me, who were from the persecuted Arab Ahwaz minority group. But after they approved us, we heard...
My tummy was never once full in our whole life until two years after we came to Australia. Our family was from the poorest place in Vietnam that you could find, and when I was growing up, most of our food consisted of stuff collected from the side of the road, if you...
Growing up in Calcutta was a lot of fun. Of course it was very crowded, but there were many communities living together – Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, Armenian, and we young people would all join in whatever festival was happening, whether that was Chinese New Year...
