Episode 4: From War-Torn Iraq to Hopeful Horizons: Nahrain's Journey of Resilience and Rebuilding
Apr 16, 2024Season 1Episode 4
Shawn Taylor
Nahrain's tale is one of survival and resilience, a testament to the human spirit's capacity to overcome unthinkable adversity. As a young Assyrian woman in Iraq, she faced life-altering decisions from the tender age of 14, stepping up as the breadwinner for her family amidst her father's illness. Her narrative reveals the stark realities of living in a war zone, from her tenure at a U.S. military base to the chilling moment a car bomb left her as the sole survivor. As your host, I am humbled to bring you her story, one that will not only grip your heart with its harrowing details but will also inspire you with its message of courage.
Imagine starting over in a completely new country, carrying the weight of past traumas and the hope for a brighter future. This is the crossroad where we find Nahrain, rebuilding her life in Melbourne, Australia. Her journey of healing encompasses the escape to safety in Jordan, the painful loss of her father, and the pivotal steps taken towards asylum and integration into Australian society. And in a twist that feels scripted for the movies, we delve into a serendipitous reconnection that weaves through her story, adding a layer of human connection to an already profound saga. Join us as we explore the depths of Nahrain's experiences and the unbreakable bonds that define us, no matter where life may lead.
Nahrain's tale is one of survival and resilience, a testament to the human spirit's capacity to overcome unthinkable adversity. As a young Assyrian woman in Iraq, she faced life-altering decisions from the tender age of 14, stepping up as the breadwinner for her family amidst her father's illness. Her narrative reveals the stark realities of living in a war zone, from her tenure at a U.S. military base to the chilling moment a car bomb left her as the sole survivor. As your host, I am humbled to bring you her story, one that will not only grip your heart with its harrowing details but will also inspire you with its message of courage.
Imagine starting over in a completely new country, carrying the weight of past traumas and the hope for a brighter future. This is the crossroad where we find Nahrain, rebuilding her life in Melbourne, Australia. Her journey of healing encompasses the escape to safety in Jordan, the painful loss of her father, and the pivotal steps taken towards asylum and integration into Australian society. And in a twist that feels scripted for the movies, we delve into a serendipitous reconnection that weaves through her story, adding a layer of human connection to an already profound saga. Join us as we explore the depths of Nahrain's experiences and the unbreakable bonds that define us, no matter where life may lead.
Today, as promised, we have our special guest, nahrain. So hello Nahrain, hello Nahrain, let's get to know you a little bit. What is your culture? Where are you from? I'm Assyrian from Iraq, oh nice and you live now where I live in. Australia Melbourne Awesome, and tell me about growing up in Iraq. What was it like?
Speaker 2:
Normal, we studied. We actually left my school early, went to work, helped family.
Speaker 1:
What year did you leave your school and why did you leave your school? What year did you leave your school and?
Speaker 2:
why did you leave your school? I left it because I needed to help my family, so I started working as a manager in a shop retail shop.
Speaker 1:
At what age?
Speaker 2:
I was 14.
Speaker 1:
14, yep and what was the circumstances at home?
Speaker 2:
Why did you have to leave school? Because you have to work to leave. So my dad got sick and I was like the got older sister and then me and my brother we start working and to help each other. Do you come from? A big family oh yes, big Like we were actually five siblings and mom and dad.
Speaker 1:
Awesome, all right. So you said you worked in retail. Where'd you work? What'd you do?
Speaker 2:
It was shop for clothing, women's clothing. I worked like 10 years there.
Speaker 1:
Wow that's a long time. Awesome, great. So when did you start working with the Army?
Speaker 2:
How did that come about? It was 2003.
Speaker 1:
2003? Yeah, and you just showed up and got a job with the army.
Speaker 2:
No, I had friends of mine and she said to me we have to introduce ourselves there if they accept us.
Speaker 1:
And then we went and straight away they accept me and who did you work for at the base?
Speaker 2:
I worked with my boss. What's his name? Mohammed.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and I was a manager actually there.
Speaker 1:
And what did you manage?
Speaker 2:
Internet cafe.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so where the soldiers called home and used the internet to email their significant others or family.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and cafeteria and yeah, drink and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:
Awesome, all right, and who else worked at the base with you?
Speaker 2:
As far as civilians, it was my sister, younger than me, and then my auntie, me and her same age.
Speaker 1:
And what did they do?
Speaker 2:
One of them. She works in phone center.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
And the other one in a cigar shop.
Speaker 1:
In a cigar shop and who else worked with you guys.
Speaker 2:
One of my friends. They were there too. They work in a barbershop, yeah, Awesome.
Speaker 1:
And how did you get there every day? How did you get there? How did you get to the base? How did you get home?
Speaker 2:
So we used to have a driver. He used to come pick up us and drop us, and pick up us from work and drop us at home.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and how long did you work with the army?
Speaker 2:
A year and a half.
Speaker 1:
A year and a half Yep, and then what happened at a year and a half, and then what happened at a year and a half.
Speaker 2:
So we used to work every day, from start, from 7 to 8 pm, every single day. It's a long day, oh yes. And then we never, ever put time on our restaurant or our cafe, and the time we put we had, we had lots of fun with them. They were very, very nice and friendly, um, yeah. And then, uh, the um, the main, the main one in the base, changed. So it became a different one and he started telling us you have to put time to soldier, know what time you close, what time you open.
Speaker 1:
So just to go back a second. So that was when my unit left because our time was over. We went up to Diwania and the new unit came and took over.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that was yeah. So they put a time on you guys. So you started this time, you ended this time.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
So after one week, and then we were leaving the base. In maybe 20 minutes or 15 minutes after we left, they follow us, terrorists and start shooting the car and bomb the car.
Speaker 1:
Yep, yep. So let's unravel that a bit. So you're driving home and somebody's following you and they shoot up the car.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Yep. And then what happens?
Speaker 2:
And then, yeah, they kill everyone there. I was only the one survived, actually, from the car, from the shooting. Yes, Yep.
Speaker 1:
So they shoot up the car. The car stops. What happens?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, they start shooting and then they open the door and then they said, oh, they all killed, they're all dead. And then they put the big box it was TNT in it.
Speaker 1:
And what were you doing if you were still alive?
Speaker 2:
I was protecting, Actually making myself like acting I was dead.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
And I was praying, I said obviously they're going to kill me and they just put it and then left.
Speaker 1:
Yep. So now you're laying in a car, the other car drives away. There's a bomb in the car. Do you know there's a bomb in the car?
Speaker 2:
No, I didn't.
Speaker 1:
Yep, so what happens?
Speaker 2:
I get up and try to help them, because it was my sister, my auntie, the driver, my friends and I didn't know what to do in the middle of the road and there was no one, like they stopped even the cars to go through the street, yeah. And then I started like sitting in the middle of the street and praying and then suddenly I saw a box in the car and I said, oh, that was the TNT they put in that time.
Speaker 1:
I moved in and it was blow up, so you were about a meter to the car and it blew up. Yes, and then what happened next?
Speaker 2:
And then they started shooting between them and the terrorists the police and terrorists, because you know there is another street. So they came back to see when they blew the car. So they started shooting each other and then I was in the middle of the street.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
And you're laying on the ground because obviously you've been thrown back from the explosion.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Yep, and then do ambulances come.
Speaker 2:
No, there were some people help when it's coming like with the. They call them Jaish-e-Mahdi.
Speaker 1:
What does that?
Speaker 2:
mean it's like an army of Mahdi. I don't know what is it but they used to call them this.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so who are they? What do they do?
Speaker 2:
They Iraqi and they used to help people when it go like a explosion or something. They go take them to hospital. Yeah so when they came, they said oh, there's no one's alive. Yeah so, and then I said to them I'm alive. And they said oh, there is someone. He's a boy, it's a burning.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's OK, yeah, that's okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:
So I said to them no, I'm alive. I didn't know what's happening to me, because I couldn't see nothing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and then they took me to the hospital.
Speaker 1:
Yep to an Iraqi hospital? Yes, Yep, and what happened there?
Speaker 2:
They tried to close the blood out. It was in my neck, it was like really big hole. And then they fix it. And then they took me to another hospital to try fix my eye, and then they couldn't, and from hospital to hospital.
Speaker 1:
Yep, so what permanent damage happened. So what, yeah, did they fix your eye? What do you have?
Speaker 2:
No, I lost my left eye, yep, and my thumb, my toes.
Speaker 1:
Your two big toes.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Yep, and you still have shrapnel in your body.
Speaker 2:
Still in my face, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yep, yep, all right, so it's happened. Um you're, you're in the hospital, you're recovering. Um did you know what happened to your sister, your aunt and the rest of people in the car?
Speaker 2:
no, no one told me. They said they are in different hospital. They, they are alive, there is nothing happened to them. Yes, and then they transfer me to American hospital in Iraq in green zone. So one of my friends, sam, did all my application and did it send me there and then did lots of operations.
Speaker 1:
Yep, yep. So let's go back a second and, in remembrance, tell me about your sister. What kind of a person was she? Tell me about her.
Speaker 2:
She was 19 when that happened to her. She was very smart and lovely and she loves life.
Speaker 1:
Yep and tell me about your aunt.
Speaker 2:
Me and auntie. We were the same age because olden time as soon as they used to marry. They are young. So my mom and grandma, they were pregnant together, nice yeah. And then me and her same personality. We were the same thing. So she was so beautiful.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. So you go to Green Zone. You have more surgery. What happens next?
Speaker 2:
They let me actually walk there, because in uh, in iraqi hospital they said army, she's not gonna walk, she's not gonna see, may she die. It's a lot of stuff you can hear from there to there and now actually three days they let me walk and they fix every everything.
Speaker 1:
They fix everything, yeah. So when do you leave the hospital? Where do you go?
Speaker 2:
So we went to I didn't go to my house, and then I went to because I saw all the terrorists and I can remember all their faces and we went to my cousin's house Hiding there actually Hiding there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
And then what happened? Where did you go from your cousin's house?
Speaker 2:
There I was supposed to do another operation for my eye. So they told me they're going to take me to America, but it was only me and my mom and it took time. So I decided my friend Sam decided to take me to a hospital, to Green Zone again, to do the operation, because he said she will die if she's not going to do it Because there is something in her eye. Yeah, and then I decide to stay and do my operation. I decided to stay and do my operation and then, when I finished from it and they find in my eye a big stone, Yep, and that's the eye that you still have.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Yep, so that's why you have a hole in the center of your eye.
Speaker 2:
The one, this one, yeah, the left one. Yep, they find the big stone in it.
Speaker 1:
Oh, okay, yep.
Speaker 2:
And he was like okay, and he was like shocked. The doctor said how has that happened? How was it in your eye, like it was a miracle.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, okay, so you had that surgery.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
And then you leave the hospital. What happens next?
Speaker 2:
And then I decide, because you know, when the family friends come to visit and all this, and people talk and say, oh my, she's not going to see me, she's not going to walk again, and I said I have a faith, I can walk, I can see, I can do a lot of things, and I decide to go back home.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
I said to them I want to go home. They said, oh, it's going to hurt you. You're going to see your sister, your auntie, there, all the memories. I said I want to leave these memories, I want to go there. And then I decided to go. And then, yeah, we went back home, but my dad got sick, really sick.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Because before us he was attacked. They hit him by car and then his brother came and he took him to North Iraq. He said maybe he will be better there because he's sad all the time, crying for what he's seeing for his daughter. And I was like really really bad condition. And I was like really really bad condition and he said we said to him okay, you can go and change a little bit, yeah. And then they said after one week he went there and they said, oh, you're going to come and see him or not see him anymore Because he got cancer. And we went to North Iraq, yep, and he passed away my dad there. And we came back and they write a letter on our door you leave or we're going to kill you. So we left, all my family went to Jordan.
Speaker 1:
Yep and did you pack up.
Speaker 2:
Did you bring all your stuff with you?
Speaker 1:
Not really, we couldn't. Did you leave quick?
Speaker 2:
yes, yeah, yeah we did live quick. So you, you're, you try. How did you get to jordan? It was one of my friend, so my friend, he hire a car and then we get to it. We went to my cousin's house and from there they came and they took us to jordan yep, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1:
And so in jordan, where did you stay? In my cousin's house yeah, so we stayed in your cousins too.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah we stayed there and then, until we get together what we're doing, how we're gonna to do all this kind of stuff in Jordan, like operations, because I still have a lot of operations to do application where we're going. So, yeah, all was.
Speaker 1:
And who was with you.
Speaker 2:
It was my family.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, who Was your?
Speaker 2:
mom, my mom, my brother, my sisters and I had. My grandma was with us.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Like even my uncles and my aunties.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, okay. So you're in Jordan, you've done the applications and you get accepted to Australia.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, first we were applying, the Assyrian said we're going to America, so the helper from America, washington, and then it was supposed to be only me and my mom. So I said what are we going to do with my sisters and my brother and the whole family, because they can't go back to Iraq?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and they were young too. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
And I decided not to go to America. And then I had to do some operation there and then my uncle came from Australia and he said just apply for Australia and you'll see. And three months we applied, we accepted.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
And how did you get to Australia? How long after you got accepted did you come to Australia?
Speaker 2:
We were in Jordan like a year and two months or one month.
Speaker 1:
One year and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
And we apply in three months. I got interview and then they accept me yeah, yeah. And then you flew to Australia. Yeah, yeah, we, they accept me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, and then you flew to Australia.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, we flew to Australia.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and then when you get here, where do you stay?
Speaker 2:
We stay in my uncle's house. He was single and the other uncle got big family, so we were half-half yeah, yeah. So yeah, we all arrived to australia and then after four months and we get our own house, we, our staff, australia help us with the furniture. Yeah, yeah, awesome I feel like safe yep yeah, yep and um.
Speaker 1:
And then how did we reconnect, you and I? So, for everybody that doesn't know when the accident happened, what did they tell me?
Speaker 2:
They told you I'm dead.
Speaker 1:
Why did they tell me that? Did they tell everybody?
Speaker 2:
Actually, yeah, they did everybody. They did everybody. Yeah, they told all of them To protect you. Yeah, yes, yeah, they did everybody. They did everybody. Yeah, they told all of them To protect you. Yeah, yes, yeah, they did that.
Speaker 1:
And then so you're in Jordan. I think when you reconnected, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I had one week. I had the visa, so I was talking, me and my sister with my uncle, on Yahoo Messenger.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And then you show online oh and then we start talking and you didn't believe it.
Speaker 1:
I didn't believe you.
Speaker 2:
No, okay, I said that's not rain, remember me. And no, you know, exist someone using your. Someone used this email of love. He started like saying stuff that he's not believing me, and then, okay, let me open the camera. And then it was surprise, mr Sean, and yeah great, and he, he won't. Actually, you want to come to Jordan? I said no don't come.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, because you were going to Australia.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I had one week to leave, so everything was ready for me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so, yeah, so we so. For you guys that don't know, that's when I took a job overseas contracting and started visiting you. Yes, so, yeah. So I think we'll leave it there for now and let's talk about our reconnection and everything and what happened next and some of the longer lasting issues with your health, and we'll talk about that on the next episode. So thank you for today and I look forward to talking to you on the next episode.