Feeling the Pains of Genocide with Kiss the Dust

Genocide is never an easy topic to discuss, but when it is talked about, it's usually only in the context of the Holocaust, or maybe Rwanda. In this text set, we chose from a range of books that exposed us to genocides that have occurred across the globe. I had no idea there were so many, and even if I knew how many had occurred I knew very little about the conflicts which caused their extreme violence.

The text I chose to read was Kiss the Dust by Elizabeth Laird. This book focuses on the a girl named Tara who grows up during the Iran and Iraq conflict in which Tara's people, the Kurds, were being fought and killed as a form of ethnic cleansing by the Iraqui government. Tara does not understand the oppression that her family faces until the are forced to leave their home in urban Iraq to live in a Kurdish village far away from her school and friends. When the village is bombed, Tara and her family must cross the border as refugees into Iran. From here, Tara has to navigate culture shock after culture shock. Eventually the family makes it safely to Great Britain. Even though this is also, a shocking experience, they are able to find peace.

Before reading this book, I had no knowledge of the Iraq/Iran conflict. I didn't even know what it meant to be Kurdish. I had to do some research before I started reading just so that I could fully understand the context of the book. I did realize, however, that I had an English teacher in high school who was an Iraqui refugee who moved to Spokane in the 80s. His story now makes more sense with this new knowledge I have gained. I think it is so important to learn about these histories because they continue to happen, even in modern day, and it is important to be aware of these injustices so that we can hopefully prevent them from continuing to happen.