STORIES FROM IRAQ|

 A journey from London to Middle East.

Her name is Zahra, she was Born in London 1991, and raised in east London with multicultural and different background community. She studied English literature and government politics and law, and then majored in English and drama, and got her master in international relations. She worked as a freelancer for some time and then got her ticket to travel to Gaza to work as community engagement manager! Zahra said "My parents went crazy, they didn’t accept traveling to Gaza but then they accept it as I traveled to Gaza" Zahra said that she acquired a lot of information about the culture and the nature of life and people in Gaza that all the information she got from there applied it when she moved to Erbil to work as a program manager in Re:Coded. "I'm more with implementing more than reading, I can take the research and then implement it, and that's why I'm here to (implement) and build the tech community in Erbil and Middle East"

zahra at the tech summit in paris on behalf of Re:Coded

Zahra believes that in order to have a better education system the schools needs to update their curriculum and adopt the change instead of refusing it. "Currently the schools in UK and Europe have coding classes for children to fill the gap of jobs in the future"

women in tech event, organized by Re:Coded

Zahra currently based in Erbil, trying to help the fellows of Re:Coded bootcamp and organizing several workshops and events in Kurdistan. zahra said "The graduate fellows of the bootcamp now has a message to deliver to their community, each fellow must affect his circle of friends and family, and that's how a tech community will be built eventually" 

the end | | 

 

My name is sulaiman, and this is my stor

I live in erbil, capital of kurdistan, i born in mosul the center of nineveh government. I raised there. and i studied in it's schools and university. My situation like many other's; displaced from our original city. And gathered~contained by other cities like erbil. This is part of my story.. But not the full of it! My story begins everyday 5:20 AM.  When the alarm wakes me up. I brush my teeth. Wash my face. change my clothes and drink a hot cup of milk. I prepare my bag. i Put the laptop, lectures, and cookies made by my sister or my mother. Then i went out to the trafficlight opposite to my apartment in erbil Wait for 5 min the bus. And then travel 90 km to mosul, were my university We arrive 8:15, i rush from the student's center to my college which is in the east-nothern side of the uni campus. Attending lectures, and attending the practical experiments in the lab. I finish at 2 pm. Coming back to erbil to begin another story of my life. I arrive at 4. I eat my launch in the bus. I had a prepared food in my bag. My bag, like a magical bag has anything you can imagine. I have cookies, croissants, water, gom, sweets, styling gel, and other things. When i arrive erbil. I head to the android bootcamp by udacity with the cooperation of recoded. And this time i work on my laptop,my peer, my friend.. 

Working on laptop. Programming, bugging, fixing errors, and most importantly 

having fun with my colleagues.. 

You can see that my life is split between two cities, two colleges. And a long boring road full of checkpoints and bumps. 

My friends tell me i'm crazy, my relatives thinks i'm wasting my time and my efforts.. And only my parents believe in me.. And support me.  Which gives me power to work hard and overcome the difficulties and problems facing me everyday life, and this is the only motivation fot pursuing my learning path... 

ماركو.. يبحث عن وطن

منذ صغرك تحلم بإمتلاك حقيبة سفر خاصة بك وحدك؛
كنت تدخل غرف والديك، تبحث عن حقيبة. أي حقيبة كانت،كيفما كان شكلها.. أو حجمها.. تضع فيها حاجياتك القليلة.. دفتر رسمك، أقلام تلوينك، ألعابك، و محفظة أقلامك الحديدية مرسوم عليها خارطة وطن عربي كنت تألفه صغيرا. كنت تعشق تلك المحفظة.. تبحث عنها في محلات القرطاسية علك تجد ألوان جديدة للمحفظة غير اللون الاصفر و الأزرق..
تضع حقيبة سفرك الافتراضية  كيفما اتفق على ظهرك. تفتعل صوتا لينتبه والديك إليك.. تنتظر السؤال الجدلي المطمور فيك.. ثواني.. ثم يسألانك بصوت واحد (وين غيح؟!).. تسحب نفسا عميقا.. ثم تجيب بنبرة تشبه نبرة المحقق كونان عندما يكون واثقا من نفسه
_ ( انا مسافر!).                        
_(وين؟).
تفتح الحقيبة، تبحث عن محفظتك الاثيرة. تخرجها الى النور.. تؤشر بيديك الى الخارطة الموشومة عليها (هوني راح اسافر).
ثم تمشي واثق الخطى.. مبتعدا..

كنت كماركو... تقلده في مشيته. تلتقط غصن شجرة من الارض. ثم تدخل الغصن داخل الحقيبة.. تعلقها على كتفك كبطلك الاثير.. تتخيل نفسك.. تتنقل بين قرى و مدن أوروبية/عربية. تغير الاسماء.. تبحث عن كل شيء ضائع داخلك.. في خارجك.