CROSSING TO EUROPE
124 | July• 2019
in school and in the shops, and could
speak our Kurdish language Kurmanji
only at home.
Kurds are a proud people, with our
own alphabet, our own food and cul-
ture, and a long history going back
2000 years. We are about 30 million
people, but we have never had our
own country. We have a saying: “Kurds
have no friends but in the mountains.”
Today, about half the Kurds live
in Turkey. There are about two mil-
lion Kurds in Syria, where we are the
biggest minority. There are some in
Iraq, some in Iran. And now, some in
Europe.
My father, Yaba, was a sheep and
goat trader. He had 60 acres of land
and at one point owned a flock of
200 sheep, but he never made much
money. Our house consisted of two
main rooms with a small kitchen. My
oldest brother Shiar left Syria before I
was born, to avoid being sent to fight
in Iraq. He made his way to Germany
where he became a film director, and
he dutifully sent money back to the
family.
Maybe because my mother was
old when she had me, 44, I was born
40 days too soon. My brain didn’t get
enough oxygen and something hap-
pened that means my brain doesn’t
send proper signals to my legs. My
ankles are turned inward, my toes
point downward, and my legs seem
to have a life of their own, kicking up
at random times.
When I was four, my family moved
to Aleppo where I could get better
medical help. Our new home was a
fifth-floor apartment, with four rooms
and two balconies where I would sit to
watch the world go by.
My four brothers and four sisters
all went to school, and eventuallymy sisters got married. Meanwhile, I
went to a physical therapy centre and
had several operations on my feet and
legs, but I was unable to go to school.
My substitute was the TV, watching
everything from cartoons to soap
operas, from sports to documentaries
to quiz shows. My two favourite shows
were the Arabic version ofWho Wants
to Be a Millionaire?and the American
soap operaDays of Our Lives. Later,
we got a computer and I discovered
Google, where I searched for facts
and collected every bit of information
I could.
My sisters helped me learn. They
would bring home textbooks from
school, and I would read themTWO DAYS LATER, PROTESTERS SET FIRE TO
THE BA’ATH PARTY HQ.PRESIDENT ASSAD
SENT TANKS TO CRUSH THE PROTESTERS