When I first came to the United States, I spoke zero English.
I started with A, B, C and number 1, 2, 3. I had to start from zero.
We talk about girls’ issues, we talk about what needs to be done for girls and their education 
and their empowerment 
Hi everyone
This is a video series in which girls from countries around the world
 are sharing their stories and telling what matters to them
This is Roll Call.
I grew up in a small village in northern Iraq, called Sreshka.
Since I was one of the minority religions in Iraq, known as Yazidis
I was the main target for ISIS.
At a very young age, I witnessed the Yazidi genocide right in front of me.
We were heartbroken because of what happened.
Today, I’m grateful that I’ve got to a point where I’m safe with my family right now
and I’ve got to a place where I’m receiving my education just like any other boy.
By the time I arrived in America, that was around graduation time.
My cousin took me to one of my friends’ graduation.
The girl gave a speech and I sat there and I said one day I will speak there.
My own cousin, he was like ‘yeah, you can do it, I believe in you’.
I’m a freshman but I live off campus
This is my apartment.
Coming here, I wanted to be more involved, I wanted to do everything
I didn’t want anything, my gender, nothing stopping me from what I wanted to do.
I remember going to one of the after school programmes
and I asked my teacher if this was only for boys.
She laughed and said, there’s nothing here in America that’s only for boys
For me, it was not that easy a transition
I remember going to school for the first few days
and just sitting down and listening to teachers talking and you’re not able to understand
My dad, he said that it’s just not for you to learn the language, it’s for your family as well
and that immediately increased my motivation saying ‘Oh, I will do this for my family’.
And that’s where I got the motivation to learn 10 vocabularies every single day 
and for a year and a half, I just on getting the language, or knowing the language 
So, when I first came to America, I remember the first day
the first person that I saw and I met 
and we became best friends for life was Mahsa. 
During the weekends she comes down to my college
and I come down to her college
and despite education, we just try to have the best time together
She plays guitar and she plays it for me every time
and she’s trying to learn some Kurdish right?
Yeah, I’m trying.
Right now, our families are like best friends and they hang out all the time together.
It’s the first day of spring and we call it Nowruz
It’s not a religious holiday
it’s really special because it’s the only holiday where everybody comes together and celebrates it.
You’re away from the country but you're still proud of your heritage.
And just to say, Happy Nowruz to everyone.
To me, freedom is just having rights just like anybody else.
To go to school, you don’t need freedom for that
it’s my right.
Me and Mahsa always say that if an American has to study for 1 hour
we have to do 2 hours, we have to do double, triple as much as them
to get to the same place
because we both didn’t want the status of being a refugee and not knowing the language
to stop us from continuing our education 
continuing and achieving our dreams.
It’s women like Malala and Amal Clooney and Nadia Murad
who inspire me every single day
to work hard enough and to improve my skills in many different ways.
Just to one day I can give that back to my community 
and I can give back to all those girls who have been facing so many things throughout their lives
and it’s my dream that one day no girl should face what I had to face.
I hope that these stories will have inspired you and that you will share it with you friends as well
and please do not forget to subscribe to our channel.
