Our whole family came to Australia by boat. Sometimes in Iran, the government ‘disappears’ people and nobody knows where they have gone. Our father had already been harassed a few times, and we were very worried about what might happen next, so we made the decision to...
The part of London that I grew up in was expensive, not great to raise kids in, and of course the weather was terrible. There was also a rise in knife crime and gangs. We had a 5 year old son, and wanted him to have a better life. We decided on Adelaide, because we...
My mother always discouraged me from studying. She said, ‘We are not the ruling class, we are working people, why are you studying? They are never going to give you a job even if you are educated.’ She even burnt my books a few times. She had been married at the...
When I first came to Australia, I never felt like I belonged. No matter how much I tried, there was always something missing. I didn’t know what it was. Then, a few months ago, I went back to Iraq. I was very excited. I thought I would be going to a place where I...
In 2005, everyone in the whole of Iraq wanted to leave except for me! I was only in Year 9, but I knew I wanted to be a doctor, and I thought it would be too hard to study in a different language if we were resettled in a Western country. Studying was my life. At that...
