Interview With Aziza Ahmed : A Somali’s Point of View
Aziza Ahmed is one of the hundreds of people whose families fled civil wars and famine in their countries to seek asylum in the United States. And since she is Somali, President Trump’s recent seven country travel ban directly affects her and her family. Ahmed’s family originally hails from Mogadishu, Somalia, but after the break out of the civil war they fled to Kenya, and there Ahmed was born. She is one of six siblings, out of 10, who made it to the US. Now 18 years old, she has lived in the USA since the age of five, when her family moved here from Kenya.
Ahmed is a second year student at Green River College where she is studying for a general AA degree, for a direct transfer to either the University of Washington or to the Pacific Lutheran University, where she plans to double major in Social work and urban development and minor in Africana studies. Prior to the ban, two years ago, after a long a laborious legal process, Ahmed´s older brother successfully got into the US. Her mother´s lawyers had begun the legal process to get her older sister here into the US when the travel ban was ordered. Ahmed said that her mother´s initial plan was to bring the rest of her children here to the US, but now with the presidential order of the travel ban, nothing is certain. Speaking about the impact of the travel ban on the Somali community, with a look of sadness in her eyes, Ahmed said “For us, it´s hurtful, because when we leave our country, there’s war and there’s famine and we’re seeking a better life and trying to escape danger. But with this ban, there is the assumption that we are going to cause danger, when in truth we just want to escape it.” Continuing, Ahmed said “Let’s just call it what it is,” said Ahmed, “this is a Muslim ban.”
When asked what she would say to the people responsible for the travel ban, on behalf of her friends and family, Ahmed replied, “They need to truly look at the people whose lives they are affecting and realize that our coming here to the USA for a better life is not so different from when their ancestors came here to escape oppression in England. We all want a better world, we all hope for better lives. But separating families and discriminating against an entire people because of their religion, is really not the best way to go. We continue to pray for all of us, and I hope for the day when we all can find peace.”
