GROSSMONT COLLEGE — My cousin was kidnapped in 2005.  He was 15 years old when that happened. He was walking in the street near his house when two cars stopped near him, and eight men attacked him.  One of them hit my cousin on his head with a gun, and the kidnappers tried to put him in one of their cars.  He resisted them, but he failed, so they took him and put him in their car trunk.

They took him to a house where they hid kidnapped people there.  He was subjected to different kinds of torture from them because he was brave, and he resisted them, which made them angry.  They hit him, burned him with a cigarette, injured him with a knife, and he was covered with a blanket soaked in kerosene.

The kidnappers called my cousin’s parents and wanted a ransom of  $100,000.  They told his parents if they didn’t pay, they would lose their son.  His parents didn’thave this amount of money, and they didn’t know what to do.  The kidnappers told them if they called the police, they would never see their son again, so they couldn’t call the police for fear of killing him.

All the family was scared of losing him, and the kidnappers might kill him if his parents didn’t pay the money; thus, they decided to try to gather the money and
help his parents to save his life.

His mother was very scared, and she was praying all the time because she knew that only God could save him and get him out of this hard situation.  Many kidnapped people were killed although their families paid the ransoms, so there was a possibility of killing him, even if we paid the ransom.

Fortunately, some of the kidnappers were caught by the police, and the others tried to get rid of him.  They called his parents and told them that they reduced the amount to $10,000, and they gave the location where to leave the money.  That morning, his uncle took the money, went to the location, and put it there.

All the family and I were waiting for him to return to the house after a hard week of his kidnapping.  Finally, after three hours, he came by taxi.  We hugged him with tears in our eyes and thanked God to see him alive.  I called the family doctor, and he came to see his injuries and treated him.  My cousin got out of that difficult situation, but he is still suffering from it.

In life, unexpected things happen.  We are exposed to many experiences, which might be happy, exciting, or sad.  These experiences affect us positively or negatively.  Some of them might change our life.  During the past years, Iraqis have faced lots of events that have affected and changed their lives. These events have led many Iraqi families to leave their homes either to another area inside Iraq or to a neighboring country.

These families have escaped from many difficulties such as wars, kidnapping, and extremism.  Iraqis have suffered a lot because of these situations.  Many members of the families have been killed or kidnapped.  The sad event happened to my cousin, and changed my family’s life.

In brief, this unhappy story was the main reason that made me think to find a way to leave the country because I was afraid that my kids might face the same  situation, and I couldn’t imagine myself in this circumstance.

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Haddad is a student in English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) 103