Voices from the Womb of War: “When Home Became a Memory” A Book That Grants Refugees the Right to Tell Their Own Story

The book When Home Became a Memory: True Stories Told by Refugees from the Middle East and North Africa in Their Own Words, by author Amro Salim, has recently been released in both Arabic and English. It is available on the Neel and Fraat platform as a digital edition, and on Amazon in both print and e-book formats — offering readers a rare opportunity to hear the voices of people who have lost their homes to war and conflict, yet have not lost hope for a future defined by greater peace and humanity.

The book brings together first-hand testimonies told directly by refugees, documenting the devastating impact of armed conflict on individuals, families, and communities, while illuminating the values of resilience, dignity, and human solidarity.

The book’s message resonates with a recently published symbolic children’s story, The Village of Friends, which follows three children of different faiths in the Middle East and North Africa, united by their belief in the worth of every human being above all difference. When their village faced the threat of drought and thirst, the three children worked together, transcending the divisions and disputes that had fragmented the adults around them — and succeeded in saving the village, restoring both water and life to it.

This story embodies the book’s core message: that the future of the region cannot be built through conflict or exclusion, but through cooperation, mutual respect, and collective action among the diverse peoples of its communities.

Author Amro Selim said: “17 million refugees and displaced in the MERNA region may be just a number to some. But the truth is that behind every number lies a complete story and a full life — a family whose present has been shattered, whose future has been lost, who has been stripped of every meaning life once held, and who now wanders the dark roads of the world. And yet, none of this prevents stories of success from existing — candles lit in the depths of the darkness.”

At a time when humanitarian crises and conflicts continue to ravage many parts of the region, When Home Became a Memory stands as an open call — to governments, educational and religious institutions, civil society organizations, and individuals alike — to work together toward spreading a culture of peace, love, and tolerance, and to build communities more capable of coexistence and flourishing.