Once you have completed your education, would you return to your
hometown to begin your adult life? Why or why not?
I would love to go back to my hometown in Baghdad (Iraq) after completing my education, but I don’t think that I could go anymore because of the situation in Iraq and also there are terrorists who would kill me and my family if we would go back to Iraq.
We see many reasons why we would want to leave our country and come here. One of the biggest reasons is that there are evil people who started sending threatening letters to my dad because he worked with the American Army as a contractor. They wanted him to stop or they would kill his family. At first, my dad didn't take it seriously because it was an insane way of thinking. Then again after a week we received the same letter, but this time the letter said that they are going to kill us one by one and they going to start with youngest one in our family. By then, Dad was frustrated, angry and very scared. So he decided to send us to Amman, Jordan where it safe and peaceful.
But that wasn’t the end. My family and I we faced to many problems in Jordan because of our religion. In Jordan, Most Jordanians are Sunni Muslims. In general, the Sunni Muslims hate the Shiite Muslims. Because of our religion, life was very hard for us in Jordan. So very much I had to hide and keep my real religion a secret from everyone from my school my neighbors in Jordan so I can survive.
I hated my life so much. Because I had to do things I had never done before and I even knew what I was doing wrong but there was no other way for me to survive. That hurt me a lot but there was no other way for me to show them or making them change their way of thinking. I want to tell everyone in school and outside the school that not every Shiite Muslims is bad person. I really wanted to tell them so bad. But I could not.
Also it was very hard for Iraqi people to work in Jordan so my dad had to leave us and go back to Iraq so he could find a job there more easily. He worked there for a year. Mom used to say her prayers every day asking God to bring Dad back to us safe and sound. My mom was so strong and she taught us how to be as strong as she was. We were happy when my dad came back to Jordan. He told us that we could apply to go to the USA as refugees. That day I was so happy. I said to myself,” yeah Farah it’s time to tell everyone that I am Shiite Muslim.” When I told them they all looked at me in a totally different way. They looked at me in really mean way. The look was very nasty and they kept distance from me. So I told,” them what do you all really mean by this look?” I was your friend I was your neighbor you all told me not to leave because you guys said that you love me for who I was. Now you all look down on me because I told you what my religion was. They did not say anything to me. They were so silent that day. So I told them it is not about the religion or where you come from, it’s all about the heart that every one of us holds.
Then we come here to America and we were very scared. We come from Iraq which is the country that America having a fight with. We were really afraid that something bad will happen to us if we come here, but America was our last chance to survive. It was the only way for us to start dreaming again of our future.
The first week in America was scare. We spend the whole week hiding inside the house. My Dad was afraid that something bad will happened to us if we go outside. So we would look from the window to the outside and it just looked so beautiful. So I tell my brothers and sisters let’s wait till dad sleep and lets go to see what is going on out there. So we all were really were scare, and we know we are going to be in big trouble if dad wakeup.
The six of us driving in our bicycles, and everyone we see outside saying hello to us. It feels so good and warm because really no one has ever done this before. So then I start doing the same things I start saying hi to everyone I see. My old brother Hashim he start saying, “Farah stop saying, Hi to everyone you see” I told him,”Hashim don’t u see people here are really cool and nice to us.” Later on Hashim was ok with it he also start saying Hi to the people he see.
Then we went back home and my dad was a wake. He was so angry. He kept telling us why you guys went off you don’t know what might happened to you. What if something bad happened to one of you what I would do then? I told my dad people here are really nice and everything outside look so cool and beautiful don’t you want to go outside now. My dad was cool about what I said and he decided to go and look outside. It was funny how my dad was reacting when I said hello to everyone I see. He said, “Farah do you know all those people.” I tell him no but it make me feel good when I say hello to them. Then my dad he feels more comfortable around the people here. Now my dad he is making his dream by opening his first restraint. Now everyone in my family working very hard on making the dream come true.
In my country most people have rules that they have to fallow. They are serious about their life. They take everything in a very serious way. Most people in Iowa are very nice and kind. Very much to me everyone seemed so cool in here and that what really make me want to stay here forever and start on making my dream life here.
I want to study to become a newspaper journalist because I want to show the whole world that there are people who been in the same situation as I was in. I want to tell them how hard and frightening the war was. I want to show everyone, “it’s not about the outside that matter but the inside of that person that really matters the most. With a good college education, I will be able to live anywhere in the United States and make my dream and my family dream come true.
