The ride of her life: Syrian refugee'sperilous journey — in a wheelchair

Nujeen Mustafa, a refugee from Syria in a wheelchair, moves toward the Croatian village of Tovarnik, close to the official

Serbia-Croatia border, on September 16, 2015. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Nujeen Mustafa lives in the kind of a boring German suburb that most 17-year-olds could

not wait to escape. The streets in Wesseling are lined with neatly trimmed hedgerows and

even more neatly parked cars. There are new houses and vast gardens with not a child

playing in sight.

A year ago, Nujeen completed a 3,500-mile journey from Syria to Germany in a

cumbersome steel-frame wheelchair. Her adventure involved dodging masked Islamic

extremist fighters, navigating Mediterranean waters, and fending off packs of wild dogs.

Now the wheelchair is folded up on the porch, and she sits in the living room of the

apartment she shares with two sisters and four nieces.

Nujeen was born on New Year’s Day 1999 in Manbij in northern Syria. She is the youngest

of a Kurdish family of 11. Her pride in her cultural identity as a Kurd, an ethnic group in the

Middle East, is fierce. This pride has shaped her view on her country’s descent into civil

war. As the Syrian population divided into supporters and opponents of President Bashar

al-Assad’s regime, “the Kurds had their own side as they couldn’t trust anyone,” Nujeen

By Philip Oltermann, The Guardian, adapted by Newsela staff on 11.15.16

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wrote recently in a book about her life. Called "Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from

War-torn Syria in a Wheelchair," this memoir was co-written with the journalist Christina

Lamb.

Islamic State Less Than 100 Miles Away

More than a year ago the Islamic State set up its headquarters in Raqqa, less than 100

miles from Manbij. The Islamic State is an extremist group that wants to start its own

country under Islamic law. Its fighters have taken over parts of Syria and Iraq.

Nujeen and her siblings knew that as members of Syria’s largest ethnic minority they would

be in danger. Her family decided to flee Syria for Turkey.

For Nujeen, the journey was particularly hard. She has grown up with a condition known as

“tetra-spasticity” and cannot control her legs. “They kick up when I am speaking, my

ankles turn inwards, my toes point downwards, my heels point up, and I can’t walk," she

says. "I am forever stuck on tiptoes.”

Nujeen learned to make up for it with an exceptional intellectual curiosity. In Syria, she

watched nonstop satellite TV: Disney cartoons, science documentaries, football matches.

But it was discovering the Internet that changed Nujeen’s life. “I would go on to YouTube

and look up the most famous pieces of music in the world, or the most famous museums,"

she says.

Learning English From TV

Nujeen learned English by watching an American soap opera called "Days Of Our Lives."

Speaking English turned out to be very helpful as she and her siblings made their way

from Turkey to Greece, then through Macedonia to Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia,

Austria and eventually Germany. Nujeen's parents did not make the trip with them; instead,

they stayed in a Turkish city north of Syria.

Her worst memory of the entire trek across Europe is the five-hour line at the German

border. “I am a very impatient person. I like everything to be perfect, and if things aren’t

perfect, then I can be very annoying," she says.

Germany had always been the final destination of their journey. When Nujeen was pushed

over the river Saalach on the Austrian-German border on September 21 last year, she

became one of just over a million refugees who entered the country in 2015.

Last October, she enrolled at a school for children with disabilities. She initially struggled

with the unfamiliar educational system but has become fluent in German at a frightening

speed.

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Dreams Of Being An Astronaut

She has started to make friends at school, even though the children in her class are two

years younger than she is. Recently, she says, she has even started dreaming of them

rather than the war. Becoming an astronaut is her long-term goal. “But if it doesn’t work out,

I still have my imagination,” she says. She has recently developed an interest in geography

and biology and is determined to go on to university in Germany.

Nujeen has applied for asylum in Germany. If granted, it would protect her as a political

refugee and allow her to stay in the country. Almost a year after arriving in Germany,

Nujeen is still waiting for the residence permit that would let her live there.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently announced that all refugees who arrived last

year would be registered by the end of September. For Nujeen, time is running out. She

has only three months, until she turns 18, to apply for her parents to be reunited with her in

Germany.

"A Waiting Expert"

Nujeen is optimistic, though, explaining via email that she has become "a waiting expert."

Most of Nujeen's family and friends are now based in Europe. Still, Nujeen follows the news

of what is going on at home -- mostly because she can't avoid hearing about it.

“It’s horrible what’s happening in the world now," she says. "One of my basic rules is that

no one is born evil or bad, and I think watching the news will make the basics of this

principle shake. We need a major, major thing to restore our faith in humanity now, but I still

have hope. When you keep hope, you are pretty much in a good situation.”

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