‘You are human’

Sarah found herself in the midst of the growing enmity in Iraq between Shia and Sunni sects of Islam. She was asked constantly which sect she belonged to. “As a kid I don’t remember anyone asking if I was Shia or Sunni. I didn’t know what that means.” She won’t say which branch she is a member of.

“You are human. It doesn’t matter whether you are Shia or Sunni or Muslim. It doesn’t matter,” she said.

Her parents, her brother and Sarah fled Iraq in 2006, living in a Jordanian refugee camp for two years. “It’s not only me and my family,” she said. “There are a lot of other people living in tents in camps, lots of kids. It gives you such emotion when you hear their stories.”

Sarah is angry about Trump’s executive order. “This humanitarian crisis needs to get more attention,” she said. “We shouldn’t just turn our back to people looking for a better situation. I’m not only representing my country, I represent everyone on the list. I represent the seven countries.”

Sarah questioned why other Muslim countries are not on the list of seven even though they’ve carried out terrorist attacks in the United States. She believes it’s because of Trump’s business interests in places like Saudi Arabia.

She said refugees are “not actually people that he is trying to give a picture of. They’re not uneducated people, they’re not people who are useless. They are people who move into this country to look for a better future.”

Sarah said that when she arrived in the United States, “It was a bit difficult because I didn’t know a lot of English. I was young.” Since then, she’s gone to Gateway and graduated from Southern with a major in media studies. She’ll receive her master’s in May. She works for IRIS as a case management assistant.

“I love this country,” Sarah said. “It’s my second home. … But I would also love to see my country [of Iraq] in peace and I would like to visit my family that I have.”

She said what she loves most about America is “its diversity. It’s so fascinating when you’re walking the streets and you see people of different colors, different accents.”