Spring Break
Refugees speak at sympsium
Adam Browne
Issue date: 4/4/07 Section: News
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On March 22, a refugee symposium and panel discussion with four women was held in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library. The speakers were four women, three of whom were refugees. Two of the refugees, Sureya Sayadi and Sohila Azimi, were from the Middle East. The third speaker was Especianise Loresca was from Haiti. The fourth speaker was Nadia McCaffrey who lost her son in the Iraq conflict.
Sureya Sayadi is a Kurdish refugee from Kirkuk, Iraq who spoke at the symposium. She fled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship when she was 12.
"The Kurdish people are indigenous to the Middle East and are part of their historic empires," Sayadi said. "They were warriors and kings."
Sayadi continued to discuss the history of the region juxtaposed to what it is like today.
"The area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of Mesopotamia used to be considered the Garden of Eden, but now it is the garden of Hell," Sayadi said. "The nations that exist now were carved out by the British and other nations that conquered them. The Arab states didn't honor the new borders."
Shahin Gerami is the director of women's studies.
"It was well organized and well attended," Gerami said. "It was good that students could attend."
Amanda Krapecki, a freshman majoring in political science, said that she learned a lot about the Iraq war.
"I learned a lot of useful information about women in Iraqi society that I needed to know," Krapecki said.
The Kurds have been used and abused by the superpowers for decades, especially during the Cold War, Sayadi said. In 1975, the United States encouraged the Kurdish people to rebel and to fight Soviet Union, and they made a deal with Saddam Hussein.
"Saddam Hussein was like Hitler to the Kurdish people because he tortured, gassed and killed my people," Sayadi said. "He also tortured and experimented on my people. That is why many of us fled."
Sayadi said that she has been trying to organize activism to help refugees, especially those of Kurdish descent in Turkey and Iran.
Sureya Sayadi is a Kurdish refugee from Kirkuk, Iraq who spoke at the symposium. She fled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship when she was 12.
"The Kurdish people are indigenous to the Middle East and are part of their historic empires," Sayadi said. "They were warriors and kings."
Sayadi continued to discuss the history of the region juxtaposed to what it is like today.
"The area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of Mesopotamia used to be considered the Garden of Eden, but now it is the garden of Hell," Sayadi said. "The nations that exist now were carved out by the British and other nations that conquered them. The Arab states didn't honor the new borders."
Shahin Gerami is the director of women's studies.
"It was well organized and well attended," Gerami said. "It was good that students could attend."
Amanda Krapecki, a freshman majoring in political science, said that she learned a lot about the Iraq war.
"I learned a lot of useful information about women in Iraqi society that I needed to know," Krapecki said.
The Kurds have been used and abused by the superpowers for decades, especially during the Cold War, Sayadi said. In 1975, the United States encouraged the Kurdish people to rebel and to fight Soviet Union, and they made a deal with Saddam Hussein.
"Saddam Hussein was like Hitler to the Kurdish people because he tortured, gassed and killed my people," Sayadi said. "He also tortured and experimented on my people. That is why many of us fled."
Sayadi said that she has been trying to organize activism to help refugees, especially those of Kurdish descent in Turkey and Iran.
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