In the civil war in El Salvador, my parents would often hear gunshots, sirens, and bombs going off all night and see dead bodies on the side of the road the next day. One night, my father had a gun pointed to his head by the military when he walked home after curfew....
(2/2) We weren’t allowed to watch the news in Iraq, so we didn't know the war was coming. But my uncle who lived in New Zealand knew and so when he called, he would say, ‘You know, it might be best if you try to go to Syria. It might be a better future.’ He had...
I was in a serious relationship for 2 years. Things were going very smoothly, but after our families met to discuss the marriage, he suddenly broke up with me. And I had no idea why. Then he suddenly announced his engagement to someone else. It was very difficult for...
My parents were very educated so they wanted me to go to school. But when I was around 10, school in Afghanistan was stopped because of the war. My neighbourhood was in a war zone, and there was always the noise of guns and bombs. We hid ourselves in basements so we...
As a child, I witnessed all the chaos that came with the war in Iraq – civil unrest, people going missing, people dying. Also, as Christian Assyrians, we experienced religious persecution, where the militia would come to your door and tell you either to convert,...
