3/11/2019
by Shwan Hussein
My name is Shwan and I recently graduated from the American University in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan with a degree in energy engineering. Kurdistan is home for many ethnic and religious groups, such as Kurds, Yazidis, Turkmen, Arabs, Assyrians, and each of these groups have their own religions. The Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims, and a minority of them are Christians. Also, the Yazidis are considered as Kurds with few cultural differences. All of these different groups live in Kurdistan in peace. I was born into a Sunni Muslim Kurdish family in small hometown called Darbandikhan in Sulaymaniyah. Born into a family like this, your identity is set as a Sunni Muslim Kurd, and you are surrounded by typical Kurds like yourself without little understanding of other cultures and people different from yours. Although Kurdistan is a multicultural and diverse region, the communities have not much exposure to each other as the communities are separated. For instance, the Yazidis are mostly living in Sinjar and Bashiqa, and they are confined to these areas with little exposure to other people. After I was admitted to study my undergraduate study at the American University in Sulaymaniyah, I saw students from all different cultures, religions, and nationalities. It was a suitable environment to exchange ideas and interact with these new students, and it made us more aware of diversity eventually. As I mentioned earlier this was a small community and could not be seen in most places. While I was a senior in college, I applied for an exchange program call Study of the Unites States Institutes (SUSI) to study about religious pluralism in the States.
20 students were accepted to participate in the exchange program in four countries; Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. Students were selected from different backgrounds, and each were culturally different from one another. This experience was a lifelong opportunity to learn more about diversity and be more open minded. I would like to share with you how this experience was beneficial to me.
I liked the idea of how the SUSI program brought together 20 students each coming from a society with different cultural values and made them into a family. They showed us it is possible to live together despite the differences we had with each other in identity. In fact, the thing that was least important to all of the students was our identity. We lived together for five weeks, but we made a lifelong friendship with each other. At the end of the program, I had the epiphany that our identities are like out clothes we wear every day, and they do not define us. Above all things, we are all humans, and the diversities make us more beautiful. It is not about which race or religion is superior. One thing that caught my attention was during a site visit we had to a mosque in Philadelphia. An Indian guy named Fazal was explaining the rituals and basically what was going on in the mosque every day. He gave an example of how they interact with the Jewish and Christian followers because the mosque was close to a synagogue and a church. He said that they invite each other to ceremonies and the important events. This is something that cannot be seen in Middle East. I am sure this example had an impact on each one of us. I can say that the program is worked based on the principle of “knowledge is power”. By participating in the workshops and the opportunity to have conversations with each other, they gave us the knowledge of understanding each other and realize our differences and made sure they are not a threat to our identity. We were led to find our common grounds and work from there to live in peaceful coexistence, and the program tried to build a bridge of mutual understanding among the students.
To immerse us more into the lifestyle of Americans, the 20 students were divided on the host families to spend a weekend with them. I spent the weekend with the Needleman family. This was a Jewish-American family living in Philadelphia. We received a warm welcome from them. I want to share how I felt after spending the weekend with them by sharing a letter I wrote for them and read for them, and I quote, “I could not appreciate more for the hospitality and the warmth welcome we received from the Needleman family. The weekend was gone like a second for me as we were kept entertained and satisfied the whole time with lots of activities and productive conversations. The Needleman family is like a door for me to see the decent life and quality of American families in general and the American Jews specifically. Lastly, I want to thank you for your warmth welcome and hospitality.”
Speaking of meeting with new and brilliant people, I came across a young, kind, generous, and talented Kurdish guy called Huner. He is a citizen of the United States, and we bonded within three hours as if we were friends for a long time after we met for the first time. A funny thing about meeting for the first time was that after three hours, we went to the train station to pick up a Jordanian Journalist, and she asked us how we met. Huner told her guess for how long we have known each other, and he gave her three choices three years, two years, and one year and three months. She said one year and three months, we laughed and said in fact it is been three hours we have met. I think there are two main reasons we made a friendship that fast. The main reason was Huner’s personality. He was not like a typical Kurdish guy because he was more culturally open minded, and he was a good listener. When I expressed my thoughts on something he listened to me, and he answered accordingly. This also contributed more to my experience with the SUSI program. Another reason is that always people are attracted to their own type and like to spend more time with each other because we share almost everything in terms of history, cultural values, and language.
