“True stories are only told when death comes. I always ask myself, "what is death?"When I open my eyes I see death in all of life's aspects. Death doesn't mean stepping into non-existence to me, but it is a way to reiterate infinity. I am always looking for death's footprint on my living body. For me, reincarnation is in the meaning of death. The fear of losing social ties is what makes death so scary. Otherwise, I believe that our souls exist forever.” ...
“My grandfather was the first person to work as an Al-Sous (someone who sells juice on the move) eighty-five years ago in the streets of Qamishli. He had been doing this job for thirty years, then my father started doing it for forty years; many people recognized him as Abu Abdo Al-Sawas. Then, my father was getting older and I started doing the same job in 2010. My father taught me everything I know about the job, and what separates me from the other sellers is that I dress cultural clothes every day. We have been settled in Qamishli for about eighty-five years now, but I always say I'm from Aleppo because if you forget where you have come from, then you don't have an origin at all.” “Drinking Sous (juice) has many health benefits, and one of the most important benefits is that it speeds up digestion. Sous is a type of herb that is harvested on the shores of Euphrates. The Sous that come from Euphrates is very famous, and is usually sold in Summer. In Qamishli we start selling Sous once temperature rises, but in Damascus and Aleppo it is sold all round year. This is why I have to have another job during winter. Sous, or Binebelek (in Kurdish) and Liquorice (in English) is a cultural drink specific to Syria and the Kurdish regions of Eastern Kurdistan, and the person who sells it is called Al-Sawas..” ...
“I was 28 years old when my husband passed away. Other than sorrow and five kids, he left nothing behind. My husband had another wife, I have five kids, and his other wife has two. After his death, the other wife soon married someone else and left her two kids with me, and I took them in. We have had a very difficult life, so I thought of getting a job so I can raise these 7 kids. I finally opened this shop, and I have been working as a shop owner for 15 years. I buy second hand clothes from people and I resale them. There is a woman from Eastern Kurdistan that visits me often, she buys authentic Kurdish clothes that are old and for a good price, too. She knows plenty about Kurdish clothes.” “Usually, I buy fruits and food for my kids from my earnings from the shop so my kids stay full. There are times that I only profit IQD 250 or IQD 500 from a piece of cloth that I sell, but I always stay thankful. If you are happy with what you have, then it doesn't matter how much you have. I act as both a mother and a father for my kids, and I feel very happy that I don't ask for anything from anyone, I will never let my kids to be hungry.Being a woman is very difficult in this country, a lot of the time despite your responsibilities, you will have to act as the man figure as well. Money is not everything in life, I always say that money can make you forget your religion, or even make you more religious. To me, seeing my sons for one hours means the whole world.” ...
“My whole family lives in Adana, North of Kurdistan, but I came to West of Kurdistan as a kid and settled in here in this neighborhood. I got married and had kids, but 15 years ago my husband passed away, and I had to be responsible for everything. Once my kids grew up, they left to outside of the country and only five of them have stayed here with me. I have visited them several times in Germany and Cyprus, and thankfully they live very well. My oldest daughter lives in Germany, she always pushes me to go and live with her, but I can never live away from my home for four months. I sit down in front of my house everyday and whoever passes says hi. In the evenings, the women from my neighborhood gather around and we talk. Many people call me chief of the neighborhood because I know most of the people who pass through here.” ...
“When I used to see people at a bookstore buying my book, I was getting the feeling as Roland Barthes states, "The birth of the written lines must be at the cost of the death of the Author." However, I don't feel that way anymore.I admit that I am very happy when I see people buy my book, because of two reasons:First, because as an Author I feel like that my time and efforts for my writings have been paid off and I have delivered my message.Second, when a book is bought, it means to me that the book has its value. I never support the idea of donating books, I believe that if books are sold for even a small price, they should still be valued. The best thing you can do for an Author is to buy their book because the Authors that make a living off of their writings are very few. Unfortunately, buying books is not a culture here yet, while Kurdish books are usually much cheaper than international books.” ...
“I have been a shepherd since I was a kid. I didn't really have my own animals, but I was doing the work for other people. Little by little, I bought my own animals and now I own these all. If someone had been a shepherd for a long time, they almost become a veterinarian because they usually treat their animals if they are sick; they can simply go and buy the needed medicine, no need to move the animal to the doctors. As a shepherd, I really have no stress, all I think about is to find food for my animals. Your mind is really not on this world as a shepherd, you don't need to think about what you must do and mustn't do or to meet who.My family are constantly pressing me to get married, I will think about it this fall when I have less work because currently, I have dedicated all of my time to the animals.” ...
“It was 1974, I was sitting down with one of my friends, and a gentleman was busy reading here. On the cover of his book there was a photo of a man, and he was reading loud. I went to him and asked him who the man was on the cover of his book, he told me that it was Albert Louis Gabriel, a French historian. In 1930, the governor of Diyar Bakir decided to take down some of the cities’ historic towers, and once Gabriel is aware of this, he notifies other writers in Turkey. Thanks to Gabriel, the process of destroying the towers was stopped. I was very happy to hear this story, and so I decided to hang some of his photos in my office.” ...
“When I used to watch TV as a kid, the cartoons that had horses were more interesting to me. In my imagination, I had a white horse that I was talking to, that I was taking care of, and I was riding to places. At the age of seven, we went to my mother's village, and for the first time I saw a horse up close. Without hesitation, I got close and felt the horse's back, and asked my dad to take me for a ride. I was so happy that I thought I was flying. After that, I was even more interested in horses and I was dreaming of it day and night. Unfortunately, in Mahabad, at the time there wasn't a place specific for horse riding. Also, my father and brothers were not supportive of the idea of keeping horses.” “The only person who supported me and helped me was my mother. However, due to the lack of proper stables in Mahabad, I got rid of the idea and started studying at the College of Economic and once I graduated, I started working as an accountant until five years ago. Then, they opened an equestrian center, and I finally was able to learn properly to ride a horse. After training very hard, I was able to become a coach assistant and help the people who want to learn to ride horses.Today, I am a training student at the equestrian center in Taran University, and it's been for about three years that I am the vice president of union of equestrians in Mahabad.” ...
“I'm twenty eight years old, and don't be surprised if I told you that I have become the chief of my village. Being the chief of a village has changed. Previously, people used to go to their chief looking for a solution to their social problem, but now they come to me to fix their electronic devices. In 2003 I was introduced to satellite TV for the first time, and I started working on it since then. Then I bought a computer and little by little I started learning to work on it. After that, as you know mobile phones were in every home and have become an everyday used device, and I was also the person everyone came to when they had problems with their phones. Now that social media is used by more people, I take the responsibility of creating people's accounts, I may have made more than 200 accounts and emails. I'll admit that I have broken many devices, satellites and computers until I started getting the proper experience” ...
“When I was an elementary student, I started painting. I always used to explore new painting books to imitate the paintings. Ever since, I work on sketching and I only use graphite pens. I was always one of those students who used to participate in the exhibitions around Hasakah. I participated in a few contests and was the first of my school several times, and a couple of times first of Hasakah. In 2014, I opened a teaching center for painting and so far, I have trained 300 students, and some of them are now great painters. In 2016, a huge explosion happened in 2016, I made a painting that was 8 meters long and hung it over the fallen over building. I dedicated that painting to all the victims and families of the victims of that explosion.” ...
“My mother has attended childbirth many times, and I have the same gift as she does. God is the reason for everything happening, but I am also the mediator. I used to be afraid from the beginning, but the first childbirth I attended was of a woman weighing 280 kilograms, from that occasion I have gotten used to difficult childbirths. As much as I have experience, I also implement the academic process. I have a certificate from a Korean organization that teaches how to attend childbirth the scientific way. I only use herbs as medicine, they have no risks at all. I have attended over 250 childbirths, among them European women, or even some medical staff who gave birth to their children. I truly hold my job dear to my heart and believe it brings good. You don't even realize how happy I am that I see families that are hopeless to have children, but at one point they were blessed with a child.I always tell women to not lose hope, God always gives. There are many women who have been about fifty years old and I have attended their childbirth.” ...
“I never understood why grown ups don't find playing amusing, or why they constantly say sit down to the kids. Now that it is a holiday season, all what we have is playing games. What else do we have to do? Since the breakout of COVID19, I haven't seen my classmates, we haven't played football even once. I was attending my classes online alone with my mother, and I really didn't like those days. Now that school has come to an end, we have come to our farm in the hopes of staying away from COVID19. My mother always tells me that I have played so much under the sun that my skin color has darkened.” ...