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Nisreen Al-sabie |
She fled a war-torn Iraq and
sought safety in Jordan before moving with her family to El Cajon. Now Nisreen
Al-sabie, 19, is on the verge of completing her studies at Cuyamaca College and
transferring to the University of California, Riverside, en route to a career
with the United Nations or perhaps as a human rights attorney.
“I’ve been fortunate in a lot
of ways, really,” Al-sabie said. “I just feel bad for the people who are still
in Iraq or Jordan, or the whole Middle East really, who are my age and don’t
have the same opportunities that I have here.”
Al-sabie was born in Baghdad
and was living there with her family when war broke out in 2003. That’s when her
mother, who worked at a United Nations compound, was injured during a bombing
and needed life-saving medical treatment in London. Al-sabie was shuttled back
and forth between Iraq and Jordan in the ensuing years before she and her
family made the journey to the United States four years ago.