Haiffaa Ali escaped Iraq to join her daughter in Colorado, but the journey was heartbreaking.
First, she had to spend five years in Syria, and truth be told she never wanted to leave her home in Baghdad at all. Yes, Americans, not everyone wants to live here, even those with bombs going off all around them.
KVOD, Colorado’s voice of classical radio, began tracking refugees and came across her in February, a year after she arrived with her husband. What Haiffaa, 53, had to say took the interviewer and this writer by surprise.
“I am leave my country because of the war in my country, because what I see in my country make me scared,” she said. “I decided to leave this country, this is a sad decision, this is a difficult decision.”
She added, “Everywhere blow. I cannot go to chauffeur my family because everyone has gun in his hand. One kills the other. No government.”
No one can control the country and she lacked basic utilities, including water. Coming from a wealthy family this was hard to bear.
Her father was killed in his home during the war. “He is too old to be killed. She is half Sunni and half Shia. Asked how she felt during her years in Syria, “it was just a station to move to another place.”
She definitely did not want to come to the U.S. but her family had preceded her. Her husband had run afoul of Saddam Hussein.
“No, no,” she said with real gravitas.
“For many reasons ... because America has Army in my country.” She had opposed American intervention. "Because America is in my country I don’t think I want to come to America. This is not my dream."
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