Mohammed's Journey

by Young, Annemarie; Robinson, Anthony; Allan, June

• ISBN13: 9781847802095
• ISBN10: 1847802095
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-27
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Summary

Mohammed was born in Kirkuk - the Kurdish part of Iraq. He speaks Kurdish, and now English too. Saddam Hussein persecuted Mohammed's people long before he was born but Mohammed's journey started in October 2000 when Saddam's soldiers came to his house, beat him and his mother and took his father away. Mohammed never saw his father again. This is his story. From that terrible night, to the escape from Iraq by bus, on horseback, in a small boat on a raging river and finally, hiding in a lorry on a ship. It covers his journey from Kirkuk to the Iraq-Iran border, through Iran, into Turkey and then on to England and safety. Mohammed and his mother we were granted 'leave to stay' in England in 2002. Other titles in the series: Gervelie's Journey, Hamzat's Journey, Meltem's Journey To read a speech from the authors given at the booklaunch, click here

Author Biography

June Allan has illustrated many children's books. She lives in Edinburgh, U.K.

JULIAN ROBINSON is a graduate of the Royal College of Art and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He worked for fifteen years as a professional fashion designer, with his own label and as a consultant, working with Sir Norman Hartnell, Yves Saint Laurent, Mary Quant and Zandra Rhodes.He worked as a lecturer at colleges and universities in the UK and Australia and is the author of numerous books including The Brilliance of Art Deco (1987), The Fine Art of Fashion (1989) and The Golden Age of Style (1983).

Excerpts

My name is Mohammed. I was born in 1994 in Kirkuk, a city in the north of Iraq. My family is Kurdish. I lived with my mum and dad. We had a happy life together. My mum was a cashier and dad was a taxi driver.
Things started to go wrong for our family before I was born, way back in 1991. My mum's brother was killed by Ali Hassan, a relative of Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq at that time. He was killed outside our door. Shot. Along with 40 other people. Trouble came into our family then. Like a dark thing, my mum says.
But the real trouble started for us in 1994, just before I was born.

The beginning of the end - Kirkuk, 1994

My dad, along with many other Kurds, was secretly working for a group in opposition to Saddam. A lot of people were doing this - these opposition groups were our only voice. Saddam hated the Kurds and gave us a lot of trouble. That's why, in 1994, when Mum was pregnant with me, the soldiers came for the first time. That was the beginning of the end for our family. We were scared all the time after that.

They took Dad away for six months and Mum for 40 days. And they also later took Mum away twice for interrogation. it was hard because she was pregnant with me, and Dad was in prison. Mum was working as a nurse at that time too. There was a war with Iran, and everybody had to help out.

Kirkuk - 1994-2000

Even though we were scared, life went on as normal. I played with my friends and cousins. We played a lot outside - football and with toy cars. I wasn't at school. You don't start before the age of six in Iraq. All my friends and some of my family lived on the same street. We all played together. And all the houses were the same too. Single storey. None of them had stairs. That's one thing which is strange in England. Up and down. I always have to remember what I need when I come downstairs because otherwise I spend all day going up and down. It's funny.

Anyway, in those days, my mum worked and I would go to my grandmother's or Mum's sister's while she was at work. Dad's sister also had kids and we would spend time with them too. It was nice. Nice and normal.