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Aygun
On Aygun’s bedroom wall there is a drawing of a Muslim prophet. Underneath, scrawled in Turkish, are the words: “Don’t carry hatred in your heart.”
As a member of Turkey’s Kurdish minority, the 34-year-old mother of two knows the consequences of hatred all too well. “My husband’s cousin was killed by the authorities because they thought he was one of the Kurdish guerrillas,” says Aygun.
“Because of this they suspected my husband as well. He was beaten and tortured. They drove us out of our village. They interrogated us, sometimes all through the night, called us ‘dirty Kurds’ and said: ‘We’ll burn you all.’ My husband escaped to the UK. Then one day they beat me in front of my children. That was when I knew I had to get out. When we made it to the UK I felt like a new-born person because we were safe. I was so happy.”
Yet today, as she waits for a decision from the Home Office, Aygun is once again living in fear. “Children on the estate are throwing stones at us, smashing our windows and calling us names. They are making racist attacks on us. One of our neighbours threw a lit cigarette at my child. I am afraid to go out and I keep my children locked inside the house.”
Despite this hostility, members of the local school and church community have been supportive of Aygun and her family. “The teachers are very kind to us. They give my children special attention and in one year they have learned to speak English very well.” But due to her own lack of English, Aygun still feels unable to get vital services.
“One of my children had an infection but I couldn’t explain to the doctor what was wrong. I couldn’t understand how to use the medicine they gave us. Then it turned out they had given us the wrong medicine.
“I have told the police about the attacks many times, but there was no interpreter. The police asked my child Dennis to interpret for them. He is seven.
"I want to be allowed to work and contribute to the community. People shouldn’t be racist. Then I could let my children go outside and play with theirs.”
Refugee Action has appointed a women’s officer to work closely with Turkish Kurdish women and help them address the problems they face.
© Refugee Action 2002. Photograph by Andrew Lamb. No part of the contents of this page may be reproduced without prior permission. Some names have been changed.