Gulnessa Quotes

“I wouldn’t have done it if I had known people wouldn’t believe us.”

“Officers try to prove we are lying.”

“Not weak, not strong. Different...”

“His quiet presence since leaving home had helped and reassured me. And more and more I’d found a liked being near him.”

“Muslim women should dress traditionally and wear a scarf, even though he always wore western gear.”

“I sat quietly in a kind of daze (...) far from my bubbly little sister.”

“They take away our people’s lives.”

“It’s not possible to be this frightened and to stay alive.”

“Why do they keep us behind high wire fences like we are criminals?”

“So we are in prison here because the government doesn’t want us.”

“While it is true there are people who don’t want us here, there are others who welcome us, and are happy to share their country with us.”

“Mum seemed more and more often to sit gazing out of the window, oblivious to us.”

“She was getting more and more headaches, and spending more time in our room.”

“Zainullah’s angry now. Zahra’s withdrawn. She used to be so bright and bubbly. But I think it’s making Hassan get some sense. Everyone gets nightmares.”

“Guards kept telling us that no one wanted us in Australia.”

“Any problem that arose was too much for Mom now.”

“But that’s like the Terror. Everyone who didn’t do what they wanted was removed. Had we landed in a situation like the one we’d just escaped from?”

“I usually tell the two Z’s stories about home, and about Dad and our Bahkhuls or Arjays. Yes, it is good they hear these stories. Not about things from here.”