There are now eight
Christian families living in St Mary's Church in Amman. It was one of several
churches in the Jordanian capital that opened its doors to refugees who arrived
paralyzed with fear, and with nothing but the clothes on their back.
Crammed into a room with
just curtains separating the families from one another, this is now home.
It has been two years since
her family fled from the Iraqi city fearing for their lives, as ISIS ushered in
a reign of terror.
As part of the local
Christian population, there were only two choices facing Anne, her husband
Sabhan and their two children: run or die.
"When we left it was
all over for us," she told CNN. "We lost our homes, our memories...
everything.
"We even lost our
jobs, which we had worked hard for all our lives... I don't think we'll ever go
back. It's too hard."
It was in 2014, that I met
Anne and her family after they had reached safety in Jordan.
Her daughter, Rita, was
just seven and struggling to cope. She missed her toys, her own pillow and more
than anything she missed Mosul, the place she called home.
She told us of her hopes
and dreams and the desire to create a new life for herself in Australia because
she had only ever seen the sea on television. She wanted to experience it in
real life.
Perhaps it was fate.
Earlier this month the family received the news they had been waiting for --
they had been granted asylum in Australia. They will travel there to begin a
new life in the coming months.
But the prospect of yet
more upheaval takes its toll.
Rita cried. She does not
want to leave home again. She told her parents she did not want to leave her
new friends behind.
Anne too had mixed
feelings, the anxiety of moving to a country so far away with a vastly
different culture will not be easy to adjust to -- though she remains adamant
that it is imperative for the welfare of her children.
"I do not want my
children to live through the same experience again," she said. "We
paid the price and I don't want to go back in a few years and go through it
again.
"There is constant
violence in Iraq. It's never quiet. We had a much better life before the fall
of the regime."
Before the US-led invasion
of 2003, Iraq was home to an estimated Christian population of more than a million.
Christians had already become a target for extremist groups like al Qaeda long
before the emergence of ISIS, but Anne's family remained in Mosul.
Churches were bombed,
Christians were kidnapped, killed and many followers living within the city
were made homeless.
But it was the arrival of
ISIS that persuaded Anne that it was time to leave. After capturing territory
in northern Iraq, ISIS drove out the local Christian population and began to
eviscerate any remnants of the religion from the area.
Photos showed militants
vandalizing monasteries and churches, smashing statues and replacing the cross
with their black flag of terror.
Two years after ISIS
conquered Mosul, some of the city's Christian residents are still
living as refugees in a church in Amman, Jordan.
Two years after ISIS
conquered Mosul, some of the city's Christian residents are still living as
refugees in a church in Amman, Jordan.
"They are trying to
wipe out all our history," Anne said, trying to hold back tears. "It
is why they forced us out. But they don't know that in our hearts we will
remain Iraqis, and our grandchildren will always say they are from Mosul."
Washing lines and baby push
chairs cram the corridor. The families sit quietly, each with a cup of tea as
they contemplate what happens next. They cannot go back.
Even now, as Iraqi forces
and their allies launch a major offensive to reclaim Mosul, the prospects of returning
appear bleak.
CNN
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