Although my mother is Jordanian and I was born in Jordan, my father is Syrian and in Arabic countries we follow the citizenship of the father. Every year we used to go to Syria for holidays, and every year my father would say, ‘Just one more year and then we’ll move...
War broke out in South Sudan when I was five years old. Over the years, most of my family members joined the army, including two of my brothers. As I was the last boy left, I was responsible for taking care of my Dad because he was sick. I would go and dig the roots...
Before I came here, I had a role with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, a political agency. I worked on the radio, producing and presenting stories that gave voices to those who were not often heard, including reports of human rights issues and...
One day the secret police came to our apartment, ransacked our house and turned everything upside down. They said, ‘We’ve been following your wife and we know she’s been attending an underground church. If we ever see her attending again, your daughter will...
I am Austrian and my husband was Italian, but we met when we were both working in a hotel in Geneva. Because we couldn’t speak each other’s languages, we had to speak to each other in French! We liked our life in Switzerland, but we would have had to reapply for our...
