12/05/2021 | Writer: Kaos GL
'How was your day?' we asked the refugee LGBTI+s. They answered, we translated from Arabic and Farsi and now sharing them with you. Here is the eighth story: The Dreams Behind a Sewing Machine
Kaos GL Refugee Rights Program aims to facilitate LGBTI+ refugees' access to basic rights, official bodies and social networks in the cities where they reside, the program provides legal and social advice through lawyers and social workers working within the program. In addition to all this, the Refugee Rights Program organizes developmental and social events on various topics.
Throughout 2020, the program has met with LGBTI+ refugees who speak Farsi and Arabic. Some of these events were online drama workshops. Kaos GL Refugee Rights Program organized 'Storytelling', a sub-branch of drama, workshops with refugee LGBTI+'s on November 23, 25 and 27 led by theatre and performance artist Gökçe Yiğitel. Refugee LGBTI+'s from seven cities participated in the workshops and told their stories.
We share those stories with KaosGL.org readers by saying "Every day of us is valuable and worth telling". The eighth story is coming from Baran.
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Friday, November 13th, 2020. The sound of my phone rings at 7 am, waking me up. I said "I wish it was Sunday, so I could sleep a little more" to myself. But I realized it was just one day away from Sunday and that got me pretty happy. Then I said "get up" to my partner, "get up or we will be late" After washing our hands and faces, my partner went to prepare breakfast. And I went to our bedroom to tidy up. Then we started to work. We started to work around 8 am and I sat on my chair in front of the sewing machine to work. I worked until 10 am. 10 am is the start of our teatime. I've taken my tea with the sandwiches my partner made. Then I went back to work till 12:30. It's our lunchtime. The lunchtime bell started to ring. They make my favorite food on Friday: rice and chicken. After finishing our lunch, I and my partner went to the outdoor market with the 50 liras we had. The market we went to is close to our work. Our workplace is very conservative. We're trying to act conservatively too. We don't want anyone to know about us. Me and my partner are terrified of that hurtful behavior. A lot of fooling around goes on between me and my partner while working. My partner makes lots of jokes, and I resent to them frequently. Sometimes I say to myself, "I wish we were in a more liberal environment, then we could live a relaxed life" and I always dream that one day I'll go to Hollywood and become a Hollywood star.
The three most important things of the day are my mind, my hands and my phone. I have to be careful about everything; my work, my home, my partner, my life. And I have to pay a lot of attention to my hands to prevent getting hurt by the needle. And I pay a lot of attention to my phone because I'm waiting for the call of ICMC.
Object: Phone, needle
Extension: Mind and hand
Action: Being careful, waiting
Tags: human rights, arts and culture
