The Girl from Aleppo by Nujeen Mustafa
disability, 23–4, 27–8, 32–3, 130, 221
‘disability benefits’, 46, 69, 90, 152, 175, 216, 224
and execution of Saddam Hussein, 136, 148
experience in Slovenia, 189–201
favourite colour, 3, 258
favourite saying, 31
fear of flying, 127–8
goes on school trip, 253–5
imagines European future, 188
impressions of Germany, 233–6, 239
journey to Hungary, 173–85
journey to Lesbos, 1–8, 139–60
journey to Macedonia, 166–72
learns Arabic, 28, 59
learns German, 207, 224, 234, 254, 258
leaves Gaziantep, 113–15
leaves Syria, 104–9
leg operation, 38, 41–3
and marriage, 246
meaning of her name, 13
meets Shiar for first time, 91
and Mustafa’s wedding, 96–7
‘Nujeen principles’, 31, 135, 239
and reading, 89–91, 101
recognised from photograph, 190
Rhine trip, 263
speaks English, 99, 115, 148, 151, 154, 157, 177, 180, 184, 242, 265
suffers asthma, 24, 27–8, 58, 169
Nuremberg, 218
Obama, Barack, 117
O’Brien, Stephen, 256
Öcalan, Abdullah, 195
Oliver, John, 225
Oman, 48
Orbán, Viktor, 179, 181
Orhan (cousin), 17
Ottoman Empire, 15
Pakistan, 12
Palestinian family, 199–200
Palmyra, 117, 119, 255
Panarbora park, 253–4
Paris attacks, 237–9, 256
Pegida, 248
people smugglers, 134–6
Perišče, 192
Pharaoh and the Sphinx, 241–2
Picot, Georges, 15
Pikpa camp, 155
PKK, 83, 195
Plato, 4
Political Security Directorate, 50
Poseidon, 145–6
Postojna Centre, 194, 201
Power, Samantha, 260
Prince (rebel commander), 80
Princip, Gavrilo, 75, 175
al-Qaeda, 73
Qatar, 58, 65
quarks, 263
quiz shows, 40–1, 109
Ramadan, 65, 69–70, 72, 78, 136, 257–8
Raqqa, 53, 94, 102, 257
refugees, suffocated in truck, 203, 209
Reker, Henriette, 235–6, 263
rihlat al-moot (route of death), 8
Road to Aleppo, 92
Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez, 102
Rosenheim, 217
Röszke, 178
S., Frank, 235–6, 263–4
St Paul, 4
St Petersburg, 253
Saladin, 16
salep, 21
Salzburg, 212
Samar, 78
Samos, 125
Sardar (aid-worker), 152–3, 158
Saudi Arabia, 48, 58, 65, 95
Schengen Agreement, 121
Scott, James, 115, 226, 247
Scud missiles, 86
Second World War, 75, 266
Seehofer, Horst, 219
Serbia, 123–4, 171–4, 179–80, 187, 238
shabiha, 63, 66
Shamsa (aunt), 85–6, 103, 118–20
Sharm El-Sheikh, 48
Shereen (aunt), 130, 145, 149, 161, 223
Shia prayers, 194–5
Shiar (brother), 13–14, 19–21, 24–5, 43
his daughter, 33, 93
and family’s leaving Syria, 108, 110, 115
filming in Syria, 91–3, 95, 99
flies to Athens, 163–5
and Nujeen’s arrival in Germany, 219–21, 223, 236
and Syrian revolution, 66, 69
transfers money, 134
SIA refugees, 169, 171
SIM cards, 156
Six Day War, 50
Skala Sikamineas, 150
Slovenia, 185, 187, 189–201, 204–5, 212
Slumdog Millionaire, 109
smoking, 27
Sofia, 122–3
Somalia, 12
Soros, George, 243
Sound of Music, The, 211
Spielfeld, 205
Sriaa (tortoise), 38–40
Stalin, Josef, 59–60
Streets of Freedom, 80
suicide bombers, 237–8
Sweeney, Alison, 115, 226–7
Sykes, Mark, 15
Syrian National Council, 106
Tahrir Square, 46
Talabani, Jalal, 55
Taliban, 216
Tehran, 16
tennis, 41
Thatcher, Margaret, 259
Thessaloniki, 166–7
Thutmose, Pharaoh, 241–2
time dilation, 166
Tishrin dam, 13
Tomislav, King, 189
tortoises, 38–40
torture, 50
Tower of London, 253
Treaty of Sèvres, 15
Tripoli, 57
Tunisia, 48, 56
Turkification policy, 17
Turkomans, 58
UAE, 117
UN Convention on Refugees, 122
UNHCR, 171, 177, 193, 262
vendettas, 97
Victoria, Queen, 11, 115–17
Victoria and Albert Museum, 156
Vienna, 124, 203
von Trapp family, 211–12
Walking, 19
Wesseling, 231, 254
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, 40
William, Prince, 96, 194
wristbands, 206–7, 217–18
Würzburg attack, 264
Yaba (father), 13, 16, 18, 21, 38, 267
and family’s return to Manbij, 77–8, 84
and Nujeen’s arrival in Germany, 215, 246
and Nujeen’s departure, 114
and Nujeen’s disability, 24, 32
returns to Aleppo for belongings, 86–7
sadness for Syria, 257
and Syrian revolution, 53–4, 58, 61, 63–5, 69
and tortoise, 39–40
Yarmouk, 199
Yazidis, 117, 193, 198, 256
Yemen, 48
YPG, 57, 65, 68, 101, 118, 120, 257
Zagreb, 188–9
Zenobia, Queen, 116–17, 137
Zorba the Greek, 13
Zuckerberg, Mark, 115
Zuhak and Kawa, 17, 36
Žumberački put, 191
Photos Section
Me and my brother Bland – he has been with me for every important event of my life.
At home in Manbij 2002 (aged three) in a special white dress Yaba (my father) bought me as a gift back from Mecca where he had gone on the Haj pilgrimage.
On the terrace of our apartment in Aleppo – my only interaction with the outside world.
At Newroz 2009 – our traditional Kurdish new year celebrations – which was the only time I ever went out. We were made by the regime to go to a rocky place outside the city.
Yaba (my dad) and Ayee (my mum) in traditional Kurdish dress.
Me and my mother on the edge of the Queiq river dam for a family picnic in 2009. The river flows through Aleppo and in 2013 was the scene of an awful massacre when 110 corpses appeared shot in the head.
Here I am at a family barbecue on the bank of the Euphrates river celebrating Newroz 2011, just before revolution then war swept the country.
After a series of operations in 2010.
LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
President Bashar al-Assad and his British-born wife Asma in 2003. When he took over in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez, we had great hopes but they soon faded.
RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Aleppo, with its ancient fortress in the background.
GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
JOHN CANTLIE / GETTY IMAGES
Some of the biggest demonstrations against the regime in 2011 took place in Hama after Friday prayers in July and were brutally put down; the city had been the scene of a crackdown by Hafez al-Assad in 1987 which left around 10,000 people dead.
HANDOUT / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Daesh militants moved into Syria in 2014 and set up their capital in Raqqa.
IVOR PRICKETT / UNHCR
Arriving on the beach in Lesbos after crossing in a dinghy from Turkey on 2 September 2015.
ZELJKO LUKUNIC / PIXSELL / PIXSELL / PA IMAGES
Being taken away by Croatian police in a prison van – we were terrified we would be fingerprinted and forced to apply for asylum there.
Talking to BBC reporter Fergal Keane on our journey through Serbia – I told him I wanted to be an astronaut.
The Serbian-Hungarian border – we got there just as Hungary closed the fence and stopped letting people cross, leaving us stranded and forced to find another route.
In Germany at last, but waiting in a queue for five hours for a bus to a camp. Nasrine’s brithday, 21 September 2015.
Tired, bored and wanting to see my brother! In a refugee camp in the German city of Rosenheim.
Reunited! Nasrine and I with Bland in our new home in Wesseling.
SILEV MOHAMMED
Everything smashed and broken: my home in Aleppo, Christmas 2016.
Lourenço Anunciação
At Cologne Zoo, looking at the animals I knew about from the documentaries I used to watch all day and night in Aleppo.
Playing wheelchair basketball in my new chair in Germany, June 2016.
Exiled from their country; my brother Mustafa and my parents in Gaziantep, April 2016. I miss them terribly.
About the Author
CHRISTINA LAMB is one of the world’s leading foreign correspondents. Author of Farewell Kabul and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller I Am Malala, she has reported on Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1987. Educated at Oxford and Harvard, she is the author of five books and has won a number of awards, including Britain’s Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times, as well as the Prix Bayeux-Calvados, Europe’s most prestigious award for war correspondents. She works for the Sunday Times, and lives in London and Portugal with her husband and son.
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Credits
Cover layout design HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Cover photograph © STR/AFP / Getty Images
Copyright
First U.S. hardcover edition was published in 2016 under the title Nujeen by HarperCollins Publishers.
THE GIRL FROM ALEPPO. Copyright © 2016 by Christina Lamb and Nujeen Mustafa. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST HARPER WAVE PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED 2017.
All photographs from the Mustafa family collection unless otherwise credited
ISBN 978-0-06-256774-1 (pbk.)
EPub Edition October 2017 ISBN 978-0-06-282125-6
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Nujeen Mustafa, The Girl from Aleppo