Disability and Mobility in Afghanistan and Syria: Changing Perspectives in On the Other Side of the Sky and The Girl from Aleppo: Nujeen’s Escape from War to Freedom

Abstract

Disability is commonly perceived as a condition which associates complications to the existence of one’s self. But it turns seminal to investigate if disability is really a barrier for one’s growth or does the notion circulate through perspectives. While speaking about countries like Afghanistan and Syria, mobility turns up as a daily activity. The natives turning to refugees and their movement, therefore, turn important to be looked at in these locations. The crossing of frontier and leaving one’s home already paints a picture of pain in one’s mind and in case, if that migrant happens to be a person with disabilities, what extra challenges he/she needs to combat also arises as seminal aspects in the discussion of mobility from these places. This paper seeks to study two texts from Afghanistan and Syria, namely, On the Other Side of the Sky (2005) and The Girl from Aleppo: Nujeen’s Escape from War to Freedom (2017) respectively. Both the texts deal with two young girls, Farah (from Afghanistan) and Nujeen (from Syria) and both share a common problem where they combat situations of conflict and  move out of their country. Farah has a prosthetic leg while Nujeen sits on a wheelchair for her cerebral palsy and despite their obstacles, they migrate to different countries and prove themselves by leading  the process. This study navigates how despite being termed as Disabled, these girls break barriers and change the dynamics of their lives and alter the perspectives regarding disability.