Mytilene | Story no5Walking together

I was born and raised in Iraq. In my family I am the only girl. When I was a baby I was seriously sick with polio and was left almost paralysed. My life was very difficult because everyone was making fun of me, even my family. They wouldn’t let me get out of the house so I never went to school. They used to tell me that I was a weight in the family and that they were ashamed of me. I never had a choice on how to live my life. They told me “you are disabled, you will do as you are told.” I remember my whole life being sad. Only my dad was good to me. I had some treatments in Iraq but with no serious results. I could walk with a cane but it was very painful. The journey to leave when Isis came was extremely difficult.

We left from Iraq altogether, my parents and my two brothers with their families. When we reached Turkey and got on the boat I was seriously afraid that I would drown. I didn’t know how to swim and one of my legs is paralysed. I will never forget the moment we reached shore. I felt great joy and hope! I believed that I reached a place where people would respect me. That there were human rights here and I would find care and treatment. I was constantly banging on my family that since now I am in Greece the UN will take care of me, that I ‘ll improve and study.

When they took me to Moria and I saw the place I thought that there was some mistake made. It couldn’t be possible for such a place to exist in reality. My brothers started taking the piss of me again. “Where is your UN now to take care of you?” they usually told me. I fell into deep depression for one more time. In the camp as we were waiting for the asylum interview they told us that we had to wait in the island and that we cannot go to the mainland. I kept asking to be seen by a doctor, but they told me that there was no staff and I need to wait.

One day some neighbours told me about an organisation that women go and spend their time taking English lessons. So I decided to go. I learned good English in three months. I can speak and I can understand but I cannot write yet because I don’t know any writing not even in my language. But I do help the organisation some times when they need a woman interpreter of Arabic. Over there nobody makes fun of me or my disability. This has given me great hope. I feel that at last I started educating myself and I like very much that I can help other people. Now that I know English if my asylum application is successful I would be able to go to another country and find work.

When I left Iraq, I didn’t care in which country I would end up, as long as it was in Europe. As far as beauty goes, I love Greece, Mytilene is very beautiful. But Moria is the ugliest place there is. If I did not live in Moria but in a flat I wouldn’t like to leave this place, this island.