childhood memory

Growing up in a refugee camp in Turkey

Kavout Mahy speaks of the hardship of growing up in a refugee camp in Mardin, Turkey, when her family was forced into exile during the murderous Anfal campaign waged by the Baathist regime against Kurds.

Storyteller: Kavout Mahy

Date of Story: 1988-1991
Location of Story: Mardin, Turkey
Location: Toulouse, France
Date: 17 November, 2015

Hiding in a cave as Saddam’s planes attacked

Kavout Mahy recalls an early childhood memory, which she can now attribute to her experience living in caves during Saddam Hussein’s aerial bombardment of the Kurdistan Region in the late 1980s. Kavout’s father was a Peshmerga fighter, who were fighting a guerrilla war against the Baathist regime at that time, and his entire family was forced to flee their homes into the mountains to avoid arrest or murder.

Storyteller: Kavout Mahy

Date of Story: 1987-mid 1988 (before the Anfal arrived in the Badinan area)
Location of Story: Haterche area, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Location: Toulouse, France
Date: 17 November, 2015