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...
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...
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...
One of the things I brought from home was my sister’s artwork. This one says, ‘God Bless Our Home’ in Armenian. Although we were born and raised in Syria, my grandparents were Armenians from Turkey who were forced to leave the country in the time of the Armenian...
