Kareem Khogali’s Story Abdelkareem Khogali is originally from the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt where he lived with his mother and younger sister until 2017. He grew up in an apartment residing in a compound with a tightknit community and went to school with the same children all throughout elementary and high school. It would have been ... Read More »
Farah Barnia was born in Iran and immigrated to the United States by herself in May of 1978 at the age of sixteen. In her homeland, she lived with her parents and five siblings until the age of five, when her mom passed away. Her father considered himself a nationalist whose main goal was to make his country better. For ... Read More »
Ali (name changed) grew up in a privileged, upper-economic status home in Cairo, Egypt. With a light-skinned complexion and a lanky-athletic build, Ali attended one of the best private Christian schools in Cairo even though he and his family were practicing Muslims. He was proud (and perhaps overly confident) that his English language and ... Read More »
As we sat comfortably across each other, I noticed Dee (name changed) looking nervous but excited to answer all my questions. I told her that it was okay to talk to me in Arabic as I wanted her to feel relaxed and free to say whatever without the constraints of English. I began by ... Read More »
Does your culture define who you really are? Can you choose a place you call home? To answer these existentialist questions, I have had to compromise who I really am. Sharing this was a tough decision to make as these thoughts had never traveled beyond the metal, cold walls of my mind… it is an intimate story of a journey ... Read More »
Editor’s note: Click to read more about the Assyrian Diaspora and resettlement in countries like Iraq. Click here to watch another Assyrian-Iraqi whose family also immigrated to the US – tell her story. Why did you or your family move TO America? a. We moved to America because of the better opportunities for us, and the substantially better education system. ... Read More »
At the age of eight, losing both parents is not something a child should go through. I remember hearing shaking words (in Farsi) come out of my sisters mouth, “Vic (name changed), we have to go to the hospital mom and dad were in an accident.” I was rushed into the car by my sister and we were ... Read More »
When you look back on your younger self, living in Iran, what compelled you to come to America? As a kid, before the revolution, most people had hopes of going to America to go to school, and eventually, come back to Iran to establish their life/career. The general feeling was that an ... Read More »
Panayotis Kalogerakos lived in Langadia, a mountainside village in Arkadia, in Peloponnesos, Greece. While it was beautiful there, Panayotis wanted to leave Greece as a young man in order to escape the fighting that was going on in the Balkans at that time. In addition, there were attractive job opportunities in the industrialized ... Read More »
Sameh Khalatbari is a San Francisco Bay Area based Artist, born in Tehran Iran in January 1980. Sameh is a Contemporary Surrealist painter, teacher and entrepreneur. Her art reveals her life experience and thoughts often incorporating familiar Persian traditional symbols. Here she tells the story of why she decided to stay in the US as ... Read More »