I am probably 50% Danish and 50% Kurdish. I don’t feel foreign here in Denmark. But I am also Kurdish, and I am very concerned about what is currently happening with the Kurds in the Middle East. My heart goes out to all of them. If I was alone and lived down there, I would travel out and help the people in need. Because what is happening is so unfair, and the whole world seems to brush it aside.
I was just 11 when Saddam Hussein in 1999 attacked Kurdistan and we had to flee to save our lives. We were terrified. We had to leave all our belongings behind. We all walked together during the night. A woman among us was about to give birth, but there was no time for stopping. People dared not risk it, so they helped support her while they carried on walking. Sometimes I can’t help questioning whether I have really experienced all these awful things, or if it just something I dreamt?
Religion does not mean anything to me. I am Muslim, but not a practicing one. Nor are my children. They are free to eat what they like and believe in what they want. I think it is wrong to enforce something on them. I have seen families force their girls to wear a headscarf. I like neither bans nor pressure. I have always wanted to work with children. Children are interesting, and I would like to have an education within pedagogy
The children’s universe is beautiful. Languages are not pivotal to them. I tried to read for them with my heavy accent. They looked bewildered at me and repeated the words the way that they should sound. Children are brilliant teachers.
39 years old / female / married / nursery assistant / Roskilde / Kurdish Iranian / Iran / came to Denmark in 2002 / humanitarian residence permit in 2002