A young group of Iraqis gather in Cairo’s Azhar Park on a Thursday afternoon. While far removed from the sounds of bombs and bloody scenes they could recall in the streets of Mosul, Baghdad and Irbil, the Iraqi refugees were not willing to forget what had befallen their homeland. Instead they turned their painful memories into art- sharing poetry,songs and stories with each other to unite themselves in their adopted country.
"I recite poetry when I miss my home and friends" said Usama Al Shaer, a graduate student of law in Cairo University." It makes me feel secure in a place that is not my home."
The number of Iraqi refugees in Egypt is around 100,00- 150,000 according to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman on the site Iraqis in Egypt. But the Iraqi embassy says they are not more than 7,000 now. Lots of them either went back home or immigrated to the US and Europe.
While those Iraqis have escaped the insecurity of their homeland, Cairo still has its challenges.
Hussam Hamed , the youngest member of the group who is 20 years old, and a mass communication student in Cairo University, said while he loves walking down the streets of Cairo, he still has to face the questions of Egyptian security.
“ Whenever they know I’m Iraqi, they ask me what I’m doing down the street at 1 am,” he recalled. “ I’d say’ hm, maybe I’m planning to bomb that store?’”
But not everyone is as lighthearted about the scrutiny they receive from the police.
Yasir Qassim, a graduate student of psychology said he is often stopped by police in areas like historic Hussien area where the young Iraqis like to gather.
“ ( They) keep asking me what I am doing in Cairo after showing them my student card,” he said.
Hamed said because of the scrutiny he avoids tourist spots “because I’m always concerned … if something happened there, they would suspect Iraqis.”
Gatherings
The young Cairo University students found that gathering together and losing themselves in poetry helped them to fight the loneliness and insecurity of being an Iraqi refugee in Cairo.
Normally those who come to the gatherings are around 15 people. They gather to have fun and do different activities, but poetry seems to dominate.
So when the table is full, the competition starts between Al Shaer and Hamed. They mainly recite traditional Iraqi poetry and the competition would last for half an hour when Hamed gives up because Al Shaer knows a lot.
“ Still no one can beat Al Shaer, he is our poet” said Saad Saleh, a graduate student of political science.
The gatherings have even attracted native Egyptians that are drawn to the beauty of the Iraqi
poetry.
“I can’t get enough of his poetry… it’s really appealing and you can feel the sadness of the Iraqi nation in his voice,” said Dina El Sayed, an Egyptian friend.
But sometimes the sadness of the Iraqi nation brings back the horror of war for some of the group like Muhammad Nazzal, a graduate student of political science in Cairo University. He begs the group not talk about political issues.
“I just feel unsecure and remember situations that happened to me during the war” he said recalling one instance where he “saw two dogs eating a corpse”while he was driving in one of the streets in Mosul.
Overcome with emotion, Nazzal could not complete the story and started mumbling
“ God is the greatest… God is the greatest.”
In order to change the sadness that hovered the place after such poems, songs and stories that were narrated by Al Shaer and Hamed, Nazzal suggested to start dancing Choube ,a type of cultural dancing in Iraq, in the middle of the park. There were not so many people around but their closest friends who were from both gender.
“Let’s just seize the moment,” Nazzal said.
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Click below to listen to Hamed reciting a poem called " Manta Be'eed" by Abbas Chechan, a well known Iraqi poet.
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