I am Karine, 18 years old. I am a Yazidi girl married as a teenager without having the chance to get higher education and proper job opportunity. It is already 12 years that I have been dreaming of becoming a professional painter and an educated girl which is so exceptional in my community. I was small, it seemed like it should be so that I had to marry without accomplishing my education, it was decided that when I grow up I had to have children and family life, putting in a big box all the minutes I spent by writing down my childish dreams and emotions under the fading light. I could not resist, I followed the path chosen by my parents and community, but my heart is weak my dreams are endlessly colourful, and in front of me is a whole life. I have asked myself many times what education I should have received that would allow me to follow my dreams. For me, education has no limits, it is a sign of an educated mind to be able to take opinion into account without accepting it. But my society is cruel towards the girls who have voice.

Can the desire to become a beloved artist be extinguished? Of course NO, but for a person with a family responsibility, painting the most beautiful corners of the world is not so easy. The mind is free, the body  not. Thus, I have decided to be the voice of the voiceless, if my dreams have no path, then I can pave the way to the other girls of my community. It has been the rightest choice I have ever made in my life to become an activist Yazidi girl who can tell the others that education is freedom, education gives a person the dignity, the advantage of accepting life unconditionally.

It is said that each person builds his own path, the circumstances have kept me apart from my desired profession but I have the courage to make other Yazidi girls’ desires come true. My whole goal is to make windows from broken mirrors. I want a light home where my children and grandchildren will be born in dignity, where they will not afraid to speak about their dreams.

Overcoming life circumstances now I feel that these challenges become my opportunities, my life becomes valuable as it is devoted to the creation of a long journey - journey to self-education and self-respect. And I believe that the only way of increasing the perception of equal rights in my society is through education. If you choose to join my journey, you have to fight, you have to dedicate yourself completely, with your soul, with your heart, with your body.

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