Two sisters

For a parent, a child leaving home without any intention to return may be one of the hardest trials to bear. This pain is amplified when knowing that the exodus is to one of the currently most dangerous places on earth, Syria, coupled with a strong probability that they may never see them again. It raises conundrums regarding how parents respond to such a crisis and what are the lengths they are prepared to go when attempting to retrieve their children – which begs the question: ‘To what extent is it possible to save people from themselves?’ Why this is continuing to happen remains a taxing issue. The extent to which the answers to some of such cases lie within the complex compilations of profoundly unequal societies which fuel experiences of injustice, anger, humiliation, resentment and discrimination, which when suffused with imbibing hard-line misinterpretations of Islam prove a toxic combination – remain open to consideration.