After the day hosts’ announcements, the lights dimmed and a video was played onto the screen on the stage. It was Manal, the contributor of the morning and YIP 9 participant, reading poetry in Arabic. Subtitles gave clarity of what she was saying, but even without them you could hear the sorrow and questions in her voice. The screen turned off, and Manal walked on stage. She wore a blindfold, and explained that this way, she would not see race. We are not our race, or our skin color, or our gender. We are one humanity. She then removed her blindfold, gazing steadily at the audience, and was greeted by her first round of applause (the first of many). 

Manal told us her life story, honestly and openly. She spoke about growing up in Yemen, and being told she couldn’t attend university to learn to be a doctor. But it was her dream, and she wouldn’t give up. She worked in a hospital, and discovered how much she longed to learn. She wanted to feed her brain, her body, and so benefit others. Manal told us about that she discovered YIP, and never expected to be accepted into the far-away program. She expressed her excitement, and how she dreamed about what to bring, and what to do, and how to act, until her father told her that she needed a visa to enter Sweden. How hard can it be to get a visa? It took Manal months and months to get it, and she admitted it was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. The process resulted in her missing six months of the ten month -program. She spoke about discovering her country had no airport, after her flight had been canceled, and how the only option seemed to be applying for asylum in Sweden. 

Becoming a refugee forced her to redefine her identity. She became a number. She cannot leave this country. She found that being a refugee means not being able to ask for your right. And now there is fear. Fear of deportation, of going to jail, of being denied from this world. This is not normal, this way we’re living in. How can living being illegal? How can searching for a better life be illegal? She discovered islamophobia, and how no place is safe. She fired a series of questions at the audience, and spoke the power her hijab gives her. She told us about how matters in her country are going worse, and how she wishes to see her family again. “Borders kill dreams. I just want freedom. I just want peace.” 

Manal is a refugee. She is black, a muslim, and a woman, and it is hard. Her lecture was honest, raw, and passionate. It was fiery and alive, and received a standing ovation and a lot of whoops.