Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

DON’T JUDGE A BOOK

BY ITS COVER Human Library conference encourages open and respectful dialogue between “books” and readers

BY MUNA AL-ALUL

W Survivor

by Yousef AlBunniah ’19 My story started on the day I was shot. There was a political vacuum in Iraq and everyone wanted to be in charge; to get control they would kill anyone who was competition. They shot the car to assassinate my father, but they killed my mother and shot me three times. It is my first memory, the only memory, of my country. They wanted to kidnap me, but we escaped to Jordan.

When people see the scars, they feel sorry for me. They don’t realize that it made me stronger, it changed me completely. It changed how much I value safety, and also, whenever something

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bad happens, I know it will pass, because I’ve been through the worst. If I had a choice between living a life where I take risks to make an impact, I’d choose that life instead of living a normal life where I don’t make an impact at all. I’ve lost a lot, what more can I lose? Life didn’t stop. Life went on, and I’m great, thankfully.

The purpose of life is to make an impact, so when I share what I learned from my story and I see the impact, I’m really glad because I’m achieving my goal, which is to live in a more peaceful world where people appreciate safety more. I hope they see life now in a different way.

hen Carl Wakileh ’18 first heard about the Human Library, a movement aiming to challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue, he was determined to introduce it at King’s Academy. Founded in Denmark in 2000, the Human Library works similarly to a traditional library, except, rather than checking out books, you check out people.

The human books then engage in conversation with their readers, and by sharing their stories, help them to challenge their stereotypes.

Wakileh decided to contact one of the founders, Ronni Abergel, to learn how he could host a Human Library event at King’s Academy.

The organization, which is currently active in over 70 countries, added Jordan to that list. Enlisting the help of fellow seniors Laith Akasheh ’18, Wael Kanaan ’18 and Abdul Aziz Al Bunnia ’18, Wakileh got to work on organizing King’s, and Jordan’s, first Human Library conference.

The plan was to invite a broad range of “books” to share their stories with

the experience of telling their stories to different people. The only downside was time, the books were so passionate they would go over.”

Al Bunnia agrees: “We were worried not many people would sign up as books, but at this event we heard about so many other stories, so the next conference will be a lot bigger.”

Victim

by Elias Tannira ’20 I grew up in a village in Palestine, in a house full of books. My mother is the reason I started reading so much, especially biographies of people who fought for what they believe in and were persecuted for those beliefs. I saw that my community didn’t know a lot about what I was reading, so I started sharing my knowledge with my classmates and teachers.

However, my village was full of superstition and people weren’t really open to new ideas. It was really terrible being labelled an infidel and being bullied by my own community. Reading about science made me happy, but I had to give it up; it is only human nature to want to be accepted.

I heard about an engineering and science event in another city. I

students and faculty. The organizers prepared the interested books by holding training sessions, while raising awareness about the event school-wide. The arts department developed a class art project creating posters based on the Human Library theme. The HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Library was the most obvious place to host the event, and its librarians were excited to be involved in an initiative that so nicely complemented their own work. On the day of the event, King’s opened the Human Library conference with six books eager — and a little nervous — to share their stories with the school community.

went, and it changed my life.

I found a community that accepted me, I started building relationships with people who were similar to me. Soon, I started organizing events and then — my biggest achievement — I started to give lectures at the university. But I still couldn’t talk to the people in my own community.

In this world, there are a lot of people who have ideas that would really be beneficial to others. They might get discouraged just because they are different from the community around them. For me, things turned out better than I ever would have expected. Never give up on your dreams, there are people in this world who have the same story, the same interests, and one day you will find them.

Initially anonymous, except for their titles — Survivor, Victim, Coexistence, Atheist, Exposed and Migrant — each book waited in one of the library’s many breakout rooms for readers to choose who they wanted to talk to, one-on-one.

Each book could be checked out for 10 minutes, before the next readers took their turns. The organizers were pleasantly surprised to see the signup sheet quickly fill up, with many students, faculty and staff lining up outside the books’ doors.

“The books weren’t sure what to expect from this conference,” says Wakileh. “But they really enjoyed

Several readers had stopped by looking to pass the time at what seemed like a quirky event, but left feeling inspired by the courage shown by the books in sharing their personal stories, and heartened by the open and respectful dialogue between books and readers.

One such reader, faculty member Maram Haddad, who checked out Co-existence by Nadim Billeh ’19, was impressed. “He had written an essay about how religion can be divisive, then he found out that religion can be something that unites the Arab world. I’m happy to see that kind of thinking,” she says.

The event also gave students the opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper level, not always an easy task with busy schedules full of classes, assignments and cocurricular activities.

One of the books that Balqees Al Shorman ’18 checked out was Exposed by Alicja Borzyszkowska ’18 — who happens to reside in her dorm. “Alicja and I live on the same hallway and have talked a bit about her community service in Africa, but I wouldn’t necessarily have knocked on her door to ask her to tell me her story,” says Al Shorman.

Talking in person made the readers feel like they were walking in the books’ shoes — the stories became more relatable and they were better able to empathize with them.

“What’s different about talking to a person rather than reading a book is that with a book you read the story SPRING 2018

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Exposed

by Alicja Borzyszkowska ’18 As a little girl, I grew up with Gambian tribes and dancers in Nairobi. I dined in Masaii villages, and studied the ivory routes through Dakar. One day, when I was 10, we went to this little village in Nairobi. There was no school, the children were running barefoot. They would take classes under a tree.

What hit me was that every child and teacher was smiling, I couldn’t understand it. After that, I began my journey to find the purpose behind education and how important it is, to break stereotypes and really just be inspired by those people. My journey began with that idea, that regardless where you are

from, what race and religion, as a child and a human you have an equal right to education even if you don’t have the opportunity.

As an international student, journalist and photographer, I have travelled across continents to document the lives of my peers and their families. I have seen violations of gender equality, of religious freedom, of political stability and peace.

The stories I have documented, the scenes I have seen and the people I have met have changed me forever: I decided to be the change myself. I want to share these stories, because through my experiences I can increase the self-awareness of my peers that they are capable of doing great things.

but you don’t feel as connected to the person who’s actually telling it,” says Dina Dawood ’20 who checked out Survivor by Yousef AlBunniah ’19.

“Yousef’s story makes you appreciate life and focus on the bigger picture,” she says.

Faculty member Philip Carr-Harris made it a point to check out all of the books.

“Personal stories, more than anything else, bind people together,” he says.

“What distinguishes humans from others is that we think about ourselves and the world metaphorically. That’s what stories are, metaphors. When we share that, we enrich each other’s humanity.”

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Co-existence

by Nadim Billeh ’19 My grandfather Elia Al-Billeh was friends with Abu Hassan, a Muslim shepherd. In 1999, they were the first to inhabit the Tabarbour neighborhood in Amman. Their friendship

was the glue that held the community together. On Abu Hassan’s land grew a huge berry tree, which drew everyone in the village.

People stopped to pluck a juicy breakfast on their way to work or school, children climbed its branches, and elders reclined under its shade. Our neighborhood was a welcoming place, there was no differentiation between us. My memories of that time delight me.

After my grandfather and Abu Hassan died, the community grew apart. The berry tree was cut down. The villagers lost their sense of connection.

Friends started to regard me as different because I did not follow the same faith as them, I became an outsider.

In my grandfather’s time, his friendship with Abu Hassan was an example to the villagers of how people of different faiths could live in harmony and co-existence.

To me, Abu Hassan’s berry tree symbolized that unity.

When it was cut down, it was as though the community ceased to exist as well.

As I witnessed this shift, I began to think of religion as a divisive force that was driving the neighborhood apart. This division is transforming our society into something unrecognizable.

Religion should bring people together, not drive them apart. The discord and terrorism in the world today is a result of ignorance and lack of acceptance which has blinded our humanity.

We need to remember that whatever faith we follow, whatever our differences, in the end we are all the same, we are all humans.