Das ist meine Geschichte – Frauen im Gespräch über Flucht und Ankommen
This is my story – women talking about flight and arrival
Polylog Collective, Unrast publishing house, 2019
Languages: German, Turkish, Arabic, Farsi
Synopsis: Since 2015, the height of the so-called “refugee crisis”, isolationism and the tightening of asylum laws in Germany and the EU have increased massively. Growing right-wing populist movements across Europe are creating a social climate in which physical and verbal attacks on people with a migration background are becoming increasingly commonplace. However, refugees themselves hardly have a voice in the debates taking place in this country – in particular, there is a lack of attention to the perspectives of women as witnesses to current events.
In this book, women who have fled to Germany in recent years demand control over the representation of their realities in the public sphere.
This is my story documents seven conversations in which women talk in their respective native languages and in German about their lives and the (im)possibilities of arriving in Berlin. It deals with fundamental questions: What experiences did we have on our way to Germany as refugees? How do tightening asylum laws or restrictions on family reunification affect our lives here? What makes it easier or more difficult for us to settle into German society? What fears and hopes do we have for the future?
The perspectives from which the narrators recount their experiences give readers insight into very personal experiences of flight and arrival, sometimes serious, sometimes humorous.
→ Read the foreword and introduction online
Illustrations: The stories in the book were illustrated by Huda Takriti. Born in Damascus, the artist now lives and works in Vienna. Her most recent works focus on social issues and question the relationship between people, history and the present. The drawings for this book were created spontaneously. They are snapshots of feelings evoked by the accounts of the refugee women – and by which Takriti was guided.