Thesis

Abstract

This thesis is a political memoir about war, identity, and finding home. The story takes readers through the Iraq War from the eyes of an Iraqi girl living in the United States. I visit five Middle Eastern countries, the five sections of my memoir, over the course of my childhood to stay connected to my roots and my family after having lost loved ones, our homeland, and our sense of self to unimaginable violence. The narrative unfolds with our history and the political and personal consequences of the war for my relatives abroad and my family in the US. Growing up in isolation as an Iraqi Muslim in New England during the War on Terror proves to be an alienating yet enlightening experience. My anger toward the West feeds into my preoccupation and eventual disillusionment with the Middle East and leaves me reconsidering where I stand, and where I belong.

CLICK HERE TO READ "REFUGEE HEART," MY GRADUATE THESIS FOR MY MFA!

Disclaimer

Dear reader, please note that my MFA thesis, which is essentially my life story from early childhood to late adolescence, preserves my thinking at the time I wrote it, which has continued to evolve since then and insha'Allah always will; in the YouTube video below, I explore my diplomatic use of rhetoric from ideologies I don't agree with, a practice I've since moved away from, alhamdulillah (and please also refer to the "Free Palestine" playlist on my channel to get a much deeper look into the political themes I explore in my thesis, since I wrote it before the genocide exposed everything about the evil of Western imperialism and the corrupt Zionist world order more clearly than ever before).