Kurd publishes memoir recounting journey from Kurdistan to US

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A Kurd in the United States recently published a memoir chronicling his journey from the Kurdistan Region to America.

Newzad Brifki released a memoir about his struggles and triumphs titled “My Journey to America: A Kurdish-American Story.”

Brifki was 3 years old when his family was forced to flee the Kurdistan Region under the oppressive Iraqi dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

The Kurdish-American spent four years in a refugee camp in Turkey before arriving in the US in 1992.

“My book covers how I left Kurdistan and why I left, and being in a refugee camp for four years as a child, growing up in the United States, and my gratitude for the country,” he said.

“I took advantage of the good things, and I got everything I ever wanted,” Brifki added.

The Kurdish-American, now a father and husband, earned a degree in business administration from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2008.

A year later, he founded the Kurdish Community of America, a resource facility in Moorhead that serves the area’s Kurdish population.

He went on to complete a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Mary in 2014.

Brifki said he hopes his book helps “those who are not informed about different cultures to recognize and realize that there are good people” in the US.

Over 200 copies of the memoir have been sold since its release in March, according to the Kurdish-American.

The book is available online through Amazon and Next Century Publishing, as well as Barnes and Noble.

Editing by Nadia Riva