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Tell Me Your Story – Interview with Khalid, champion body builder
Interview conducted by Azher Adnan
Azher: Khalid, 36 years old, told me. “I arrived in Egypt on September 2, 2006 after a severely painful period in Iraq. I applied immediately to the UN Refugee Commission and received refugee status but I remained waiting for an interview appointment until January 23, 2007. The interview was nothing more than receiving the Yellow Card [provisional refugee status card] and the question – “are you Sunni or Shi’a?”
He currently lives in 6th October City with his family which consists of himself, his wife, and his two children.
Speaking about his work inside of Iraq, he says: "I am one of Iraq's champion body builders, and I owned a center for training and rehabilitating athletes for championships. The center was burned down by unknown persons – we do not know who was behind it - but it was certainly the work of a terrorist. I was threatened more than one time by people who would come to my center and demand that I close it or I would die. I did not obey their orders and so they kidnapped my 5 year old daughter on July 27, 2007 [sic: the year is probably an error, meaning 2005]. After three days, they released my daughter and burned down the sports center. There was nothing left for me except to flee in fear from the seriousness of the threats. The problem was that I did not have sufficient money to travel – how and where would we live and from what source would I support my family? I turned to friends and relatives to lend us any sum of money, and was able to gather enough to make it possible for us to travel to Egypt and live there for a period of time.
Khalid: At the time of my arrival in Egypt, I rented a flat for 400 Egyptian pounds a month, and was expecting that I would work in my field of specialization so that my family and I could live. However, I and many other Iraqis were not able to get work, so today I live off of the assistance of friends here. We do not own any of the basic elements of human life.”
Azher: As for his opinion of the [Refugee] Commission, he says: “Nothing in my life surprised me the way that the Commission in Egypt did – I was expecting that when I arrived to them – the Commission, I mean – they would provide assistance because I am going through a very difficult time - psychologically and physically. They didn’t even concern themselves to question me, knowing that I am wounded by shrapnel from a hand grenade explosion during the war, and that I suffer from terrible pain – I am not able to get treatment or to buy the drugs I need.”
When asked if he expects to return to Iraq or stay in Egypt, these are his words: Khalid: “Some days, the world turns black before my eyes and I say that I will return to let whatever will happen, happen – because death would be better than the life of humiliation that we now live. The thing that stops me is the lack of the necessary monetary resources for return. As for staying in Egypt, that is a harder decision than the decision of returning to Iraq. All that we had hoped for from this country was that it would pay attention to our plight and lend a helping hand.”
