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Iraqi native knows the world of the refugee
By John Gleason
January 16 will mark the 97th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the day Catholics are invited to reflect on the growing issue of migration. Pope Benedict XVI has declared the message of this year’s event to be “One Human Family.”
“Many people have to face the difficult experience of migration in its various forms,” the pontiff wrote. “In various cases the departure from their country is motivated by different forms of persecution, so that escape becomes necessary.”
The United Nations defines a refugee as a person “owing to a well-grounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” A statistic from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People estimates that there are 15 million refugees—people who, for a variety of reasons, have left their home in search of a new one.
Venus Dawood knows all about having to leave home to start a new life. Dawood, 33, is today an office manager who works in Bramton, Ontario, Canada. But in 1991 she, along with her siblings and parents fled her native Iraq, which is where her family had lived for generations but where they were no longer wanted nor felt safe.
Dawood’s family is Chaldean Catholic, the branch of Catholicism that traces its origin back to when St. Thomas the Apostle began the Church in that part of the world. Her father was a general manager for an import-export firm. The family owned land in northern Iraq, land that had been in their family for many years. But following the Iran-Iraq war, Dawood’s parents decided the nation wasn’t a safe place and decided to leave.
“Our home had come close to being bombed during the fighting, many people we knew had been killed,” Dawood said. “And even after the war it wasn’t safe for us. The government continued coming up with intolerable laws, even forbidding people from giving (Christmas gifts) to their children. Once they find out you are Christians, you’re persecuted. My father feared for our safety and so we left.”
The long-range plan was to go to Canada since the Dawoods already had relatives there. But the journey had its challenges.
“In the beginning we went to Jordan,” she said. “It was the only place—the only border—open to us. There were thousands of refugees who took advantage of that opening to leave the country.”
Although the family was safer in Jordan than they were in Iraq, things were far from ideal. Immigrants are often forced to pay two and three times the going rate for everything from food to apartments and often cannot get their children into school.
“Refugees often have to leave everything behind in order to leave their country,” Dawood said. “And what little money they do have doesn’t go very far.”
Fortunately, her father applied for and was granted a temporary visa. That allowed the family to find an apartment and get their children into school. But it was more than four years before the family was finally able to leave Jordan and reunite with family in Canada. Another move, another transition into a different country, but this time it was different.
“It was culture shock for all of us,” Dawood said, “but we are blessed to be here. We have family, we have community and we had the Church, which reached out to help.”
Recently Dawood returned to Iraq. Her father had gone home to take care of family business, including an attempt to get back land that had been seized by the government. But as of now, the land has not been returned.
“Difficult is too easy a word; its impossible dealing with officials,” she said. “We’ve had a lawyer working on our case for nine years. The government refuses to admit that land they seized was ever ours. Christians have no rights there. I was almost arrested when I applied for a passport for my uncle. The response you always get when you protest is, ‘Too bad for you.’”
Today, Venus Dawood has her family, a job and a community. But she doesn’t forget her homeland or her family who still live there.
She said the problems that continue to plague Christians in Iraq are too numerous to count. But she’ll continue to speak out, and on Jan. 16 she’ll remember those who continue to suffer under a repressive regime.
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