Nujeen audiobook

This memoir puts a different face on the Syrian refugee crisis. Nujeen was born with cerebral palsy and has spent her life in a wheelchair. She is a sixteen-year-old Kurdish girl and has very little formal education. She taught herself English by watching U.S. soap operas on television. In 2014 her City, Koban, was the center of fighting between ISIS and the U.S. backed Kurdish forces. They escaped to Aleppo where they lived a few years and then fled to Turkey.Her sister Nisreen helped her and they fled to the island of Lesbos in Greece. This is where Fegal Keane of the BBC interviewed her. They traveled by ferry and bus to the Serbian/Hungarian border; they arrived as it was closed to the refugees. This is where the BBC again interviewed her. They had to then walk to Croatia and on to Germany. The sisters finally reached Germany and were reunited with brother Bland and sister Nahda. She has asked Germany for Asylum. She is attending a special school for pupils with disabilities. She states that Germany and the German people have been kind to her. She is learning German and making friends. Her parents remain in Turkey.This is an uplifting story. Nujeen faced many dangers and met life with a positive attitude. I have great admiration for her sister Nisreen who took care of her on the trip. The memoir was written with Christine Lamb who also co-wrote “I am Malala”. The courage of both these young women is amazing. The memoir is clearly written and the details from life in Aleppo to the trek to Germany are dramatic. This is a must-read book for everyone of all ages.Raghad Chaar does an excellent job narrating the story. Chaar is an actress and producer. She is a graduate of The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and an audiobook narrator.

I fell in love with Nujeen Mustafa, like many did, when Last Week Tonight host John Oliver used BBC interview clips of the teenage Syrian refugee at a way station on the Serbian-Hungarian border as she traveled to Germany with her sister. She was so sweet and optimistic despite her unimaginably difficult journey and experiences in the war-torn homeland she’d fled. And she was so unabashedly in love with Days of Our Lives, it was impossible not to be charmed by her. And at the same time, heartbroken for her – separated from her parents, on the way to an unknown destination through difficult terrain in European countries that were often less than welcoming to the flood of refugees fleeing ISIS and war in the Middle East. It’s a situation incomprehensible for us in the West, and in the last years it’s been the reality for thousands.Nujeen, a Kurd originally from Manbij in northern Syria, tells her story with eloquence and a wisdom that exceeds her years, plus a rare talent that many adults don’t even have, of directly acknowledging her flaws and how she’s trying to learn and grow. It’s clear she’s had to grow up faster and differently than many her age, not only because of her life in the troubled Middle East but managing her physical struggles. Born with cerebral palsy, she’s confined to a wheelchair and tells in her memoir of the distance that disability created between her and other kids, even in her own family. At the same time, it helped her illuminate a life of the mind instead. Unable to easily leave her family’s fifth floor apartment in Aleppo, she became a TV fanatic but a smart one, consuming documentaries on all kinds of topics but with a special preference for science, space and nature, and of course honing her English with the melodrama of Days.We learn a lot of what makes her tick – she likes entrepreneurs – Google’s Sergey Brin, Apple’s Steve Jobs; and she doesn’t like being deceived, whether that’s by manipulated marketing or government propaganda. It’s in passages like these that so much of her exuberant, optimistic personality shines through, and like John Oliver said, she would enrich any country lucky enough to have her. Her expression is certainly helped and shaped by co-author Christina Lamb, the British journalist and foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times. She’s written extensively about current events in the Middle East and also collaborated with Malala Yousafzi on 2013’s I Am Malala. Now living with two of her sisters in a suburb of Cologne and still awaiting her official asylum permission, Nujeen writes about new difficulties she faces, like the prejudice against refugees and the challenge of going to school after a lifetime of self-education with TV documentaries at home. But she’s also had a lot of triumphs and been the recipient of small kindnesses shown to her and her sister, like a bag of chocolate from a German neighbor, or an iPad from fellow Days fans. She’s far more adept than some people twice her age at taking the good with the bad, and making the best of situations that would’ve broken others with her own brand of light, breezy philosophizing.When refugees began arriving on European shores, they were faceless. Nujeen talks about this, pointing out the insensitivity of much of the language used to refer to them. She forces us to confront this, and to see them individually, the same as everyone else. It’s not such a big request.I received an advance ebook copy for review courtesy of the publisher.

Such an incredible story. The refugee crisis is so relevant, especially here in Germany, and it was eye-opening to hear Nujeen's story of how she had to flee her country Syria in a wheelchair (!!) and how she settled here in Germany. While being a fangirl of Days of Our Lives, hahah.

http://amulherqueamalivros.blogs.sapo...

I want to put this book into the hands of every politician on the planet. Nujeen is the face and spirit of Syrians forced out of their homes. The abuse and obstacles she and her sister faced as they met barrier after barrier in their search for peace and rest.Let us show that we can learn from our mistakes and that we can take pride in doing the right thing, which is seeing refugees as people with the right to live anywhere they want.

Me llegó muchísimo esta historia. Nujeen, pasa por mucho y nunca se rinde a pesar de su discapacidad. ¡Qué valiente!

(Ich habe es als Hörbuch gehört)Ein eindrucksvolles Buch, das meiner Meinung nach zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit erfährt. Ich kannte zwar viele der hier genannten Fakten schon, aber sie alle zusammengeführt und mit Nujeens Lebensgeschichte verknüpft zu sehen, hat mir die Augen geöffnet. Es ist ein bewegendes, wichtiges und aktuelles Buch, das mir neue Einblicke in das Leben von Flüchtlingen gegeben hat und mich gelehrt hat, mehr zu verstehen. Zudem war es mein erstes Buch über eine Frau im Rollstuhl - Es hat mich staunend zurückgelassen, v.a. in Anbetracht dessen, was sie durchgemacht hat. Nujeen ist eine beeindruckende Person und ihre Geschichte ist nur eine von so vielen, die wir eigentlich alle hören sollten.

How do you rate someone's life story? This was a very interesting story of one person's escape from the war in Syria into Germany. This situation is something I wish my country (New Zealand) would do more about and make more of an effort to understand- myself included, so this was an important read in my opinion too.

Nujeen : An extraordinary story of a Syria girlTo be a successful migrant you need to know the law. You need to be resourceful. You need a smartphone and to be on Facebook and Whatsapp. You need some money. Ideally you know a bit of English. And in my case you need a sister to push your wheelchair.– NujeenAn inspirational story of an extraordinary Syrian teenager. Read this book and feel the pain of all those people who had left their countries either because of the war or natural calamities, and because of which they are living as refugees in an unknown country.The language of the book is very easy to be read. And I recommend to all the readers to read this book. Very inspirational story.My Ratings : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)I hope you like this, thanks for reading, Jai Hind.For more information You can visit - https://dontbignorant.in/

This book was co-written by the same person who co-wrote Malala's book. It is an easy enough read to be suited to young adults but an interesting enough book to be read by adults as well. It tells the story of teenage Nujeen, a Kurdish girl from Syria who also happens to have a form of cerebral palsy. The book starts as she waits to board a boat to Lesbos in Greece but then goes back to her early days as the youngest child in a large family, spoiled by all because of her disability. Her family lived in a fifth floor walk up apartment, so Nujeen rarely left her home. Eventually her family moves to Aleppo because of fears for where they were living but life in Aleppo gradually gets worse and worse until her family makes a decision to send the younger family members to Germany where a brother lives. Nujeen has never been to school but has watched enough television to teach herself English from watching "Days of Our Lives" among other shows. She tells from her perspective how the war in Syria began and escalated and I personally came away with a much better understanding of the issues than I had before reading the book. Each refugee faces their own unique challenges as they leave Syria for what they hope will be a better life. Nujeen felt that relatively speaking, her journey was easier than that faced by others because of special care she received as a person with a disability. All her life she had really defined herself by her disability and on reaching Germany and going to school for the first time she finally came to see herself as a person who could be more independent. I think this would be a great book to have on a school reading list as it truly shows that a refugee is also a human being who loves and cares for others and who has hopes and dreams just as we all do.

E' davvero difficile scrivere una recensione per una biografia, però sono davvero contenta di averla letta. La storia apre gli occhi sulle difficoltà incontrate dai migranti e dai rifugiati. Nel corso del viaggio di Nujeen non ci vengono mostrati solo la difficoltà della guerra e della disabilità, ma soprattutto la forza, il coraggio e la speranza di una ragazza piena di sogni. Ho apprezzato il fatto che nel libro siano presenti anche foto di Nujeen con la sua famiglia e con altre persone importanti nel suo viaggio: permette al lettore di immedesimarsi completamente nel racconto di Nujeen. Ovviamente questo libro non sembra scritto da una diciassettenne: Nujeen è molto matura per la sua età. Tutto ciò che sa lo ha imparato guardando soap opera, documentari, reality show: i suoi unici contatti con la realtà. Infatti Nujeen non può camminare ed è costretta a rimanere chiusa in casa, in compagnia dei personaggi dei libri o della tv. Nel libro sono presenti informazioni politiche e religiose che danno un quadro completo della complessa situazione nella quale viviamo. Consiglio questo libro a chiunque voglia approfondire i seguenti temi: disabilità, indipendenza, libertà, immigrazione. Voto: 4.5/5.

A must read

Ce témoignage est tout simplement incroyable. Je viens de le finir et je suis encore toute émue par cette lecture. On connait tous la traversée des réfugiés syriens quittant leur pays en guerre sous le régime Assad, pour l'Europe, dont l'Allemagne et la France. Mais dans cette foule, nous rencontrons Nujeen Mustafa, c'est cette jeune fille sur la couverture, âgée de 16 ans, tellement intelligente, si admirable et attendrissante dans ses réactions, qu'il est impossible de ne pas l'aimer. Elle a été découverte par un journaliste anglais de la chaîne BBC, envoyé sur place pour suivre les migrants ; complètement sous le choc mais surtout admiratif de la voir ainsi, en chaise roulante, qu'il lui pose quelques questions, qui vont par la suite, faire le tour des médias et des réseaux sociaux.On fait connaissance avec toute sa famille, à Alep. Elle, c'est la dernière de la fratrie, arrivée bien tard avec une malformation au niveau des jambes. Comme elle ne peut pas faire grand chose à cause de son handicap, Nujeen, décortique tous les programmes télé et du coup, fait son école ainsi. D'ailleurs, c'est en regardant une série américaine, qu'elle apprend l'anglais. Une langue qui l'aidera énormément au moment de la fuite. On s'aperçoit très vite, que c'est une jeune fille très intelligente, en soif de connaissances, qui rêve d'aller à l'université pour devenir plus tard, astronaute. Nujeen est souvent dans l’autodérision, c'est souvent comme ça quand il y a mal-être quelque part. Elle ne s'apitoie pas sur son sort, bien au contraire. Pour moi, cette fille est dotée d'une force, d'un courage et d'une détermination, que moi-même, je ne suis pas certaine d'avoir. Alors quand le président syrien, Bachar el-Assad bien plus dictateur que président, déclenche cette guerre civile, que tout le monde connait à travers les infos, toute la famille décide de partir dans une ville à côté, pour être en sécurité. Hélas, cela empire et la situation devient alarmante quand les maisons s'écroulent sous les bombes, ou les civils tombent comme des mouches ou encore, quand le manque de nourriture se fait sentir. Mais c'est surtout quand les djihadistes prennent le contrôle et imposent leurs règles que là, tout le monde comprend qu'il est temps de partir. Choisir entre vivre ailleurs ou mourir, ici.C'est dans la deuxième partie et la troisième, que l'on va suivre cette aventure hallucinante, car c'est bien le mot. Nujeen décide de vivre et part avec sa grande soeur, pour rejoindre leurs frères en Allemagne mais le parcours sera terriblement long, chaotique et périlleux pour arriver à destination. Cette histoire est véritablement une belle claque sur la détermination et l'espoir depuis la Syrie jusqu'en Allemagne qui les accueillera les bras ouverts malgré quelques réticents, bien évidemment. Un livre que je vous recommande. Gros coup de coeur !

"I hate the word refugee more than any word in the English language. In German it is Fluchtling, which is just as harsh. What it really means is a second-class citizen with a number scrawled on your hand or printed on a wristband, who everyone wishes would somehow go away. The year 2015 was when I became a fact, a statistic, a number. Much as I like facts, we are not numbers, we are human beings and we all have stories. This is mine" What an incredibly important and eye-opening story. Born with cerebral palsy, ‘The Girl From Aleppo’ chronicles the life of Nujeen Mustafa, a 16 year old Kurdish Muslim girl from Syria, and her journey all the way from war-torn Aleppo to Germany in search of refuge. This is one of those stories that everyone should read because it really looks at the true face of the Syrian refugee crisis and at the awful reality that is at the core of why people are forced to leave their homes, their lives and often their family and risk everything for a new life. It is hard not to admire Nujeen, her incredible optimism and fiercely determined outlook on life, her intelligence and wit, as well as her honest and insightful thoughts on what it is to be disabled, a minority even within her home country and a child refugee. She is curious and smart despite little access to formal education, she’s delightfully funny and charming, candid about her feelings and experiences and at her core she’s a fangirl and a dreamer with unbelievable resilience and faith. Her story is told with eloquence for her age as well as a surprising degree of self-awareness and maturity, addressing racism and discrimination and asking people to confront the deeply troubling ways in which refugees are perceived and treated. Her bond with her sister Nisreen with whom she made the journey is beautiful and touching. It is important to note that, while this novel focuses on Nujeen, without her sister to push her wheelchair and care for her along the way because of the nature of her physical disabilities, this journey would have been all but impossible, something that raises profoundly upsetting questions about what happens to the people who simply cannot travel to seek asylum in another country. I have nothing but respect for the courage and resolve displayed by both of these young women as they confronted and overcame countless obstacles and challenges and highly recommend this book to everyone. It is at times heartbreaking and difficult, but incredibly needed in a world determined to prioritise politics over human lives.