Autobiography

A year and a half ago, I got interested in the Middle East after writing a research paper about the West’s culpability for the comparatively lacking rights for women in many majority Muslim countries. The region’s richness, beauty and complexity, as well as many Americans’ misperceptions of it, all draw me to its history, language, and people.

Around the same time, I became interested in investigative journalism after reading two astonishing books: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo and Show Me a Hero by Lisa Belkin. The former is a story that came out of the author’s visits to a slum in India over the course of several years. The story is beautiful and haunting and reads like a novel. The latter is an investigative report about the de facto racial segregation in Yonkers, NY, and the backlash that threatened to destroy the city when steps were taken in the 1990s to remedy it.


My combined interest in the region of the Middle East and investigative journalism led me to undertake a project last year that somewhat combines the two. I volunteered last year at the after-school program of the Refugee and Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus (RISSE), taking notes on the children (many of whom come from Middle Eastern countries) and gauging potential subjects for an investigative story or stories that I will work on this year. 

At this point, I am gearing up to interview my chosen subjects about their experiences as child refugees in America, and how they feel about leaving their home countries. Ultimately, I hope to write an article or a series of articles about the information they share with me, as well as any systemic injustice or inadequacy that this information might end up revealing.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 5, 2017 at 7:14 AM

    Thanks for your thoughtful post! I have a clear sense of your journey to your Signature project. I really enjoy your writing style!

    ReplyDelete

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