Searching for Home (ft. Alia Malek, Dina Nayeri, Rami Karim, and Roja Heydarpour)

Novelist Dina Nayeri, journalist Alia Malek, and poet Rami Karim's work surrounds Middle East politics, revolution, and the refugee experience. You may have read Iranian-American novelist Dina Nayeri’s viral story in The Guardian, “The Ungrateful Refugee: We Have No Debt to Pay.” She reads from her book Refuge, a powerful story of a daughter who leaves Iran, but leaves her father behind. Syrian-American journalist Alia Malek returned to Damascus to live in her grandfather’s home–just as the Syrian conflict started. She writes about it in The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria. They read with AAWW Margins Fellow Rami Karim, the author of lyric poems set against the Civil War in Lebanon. This mashup of poetry, fiction, and memoir speaks to the complex nature of home: a place that elusively remains in flux through return and exile. This event is moderated and introduced by AAWW Muslim Community Fellow Roja Heydarpour. Watch the video for Searching for Home here. Music by Robert Rusli & Lu Yang.  http://aaww.org