‘A narrative approach recognizes that communities and individuals have stories that can have powerful effects on behaviour and psychology. Each new book or piece of artwork in some sense becomes a symbol of a collective grief, and as such, assists the healing of the collective whole. Each written account about trauma, childhood abuse, war, slavery and oppression, and its aftermath offers people a reduced sense of isolation and an increased chance of empowerment and healing’ (Tonya Alexandri)

Below are some short extracts from Zainab Salbi’s memoir Between Two Worlds, written by Zainab Salbi, & Laurie Becklund in 2006. Zainab Salbi is the founder and president of Women for Women International (www.womenforwomen.org), a nonprofit organization that provides women survivors of war with resources to move from crisis to stability and build peace one woman at a time.

“I feel like a bird in a cage,” she said. “Don’t ever let yourself be a bird in a cage, Zainab. Promise me, honey. Always be a free spirit.” “I promise, Mama,” I said.

‘……we would grow, but there would always be a scar at the joint. We would reach for the sky, mistaking our angle of vision for freedom. Then something would happen, and we would have only to look down to remember that it was an illusion, that we were not free at all, not for a minute’.

‘Thinking was dangerous, so I learned not to think or form an opinion. I learned to numb myself with novels and forced sleep and mental tricks. As for my emotions, they got checked into storage like so much baggage I would have to pay to claim later’

‘I had assumed that there would be some opportunity for discussion on a university campus, but I was wrong. I soon learned that there were at least two spies in each classroom; many university professors, including the one who lectured me that day, would wind up fleeing the country. Still, for the first time in years, I felt the world was opening up to me’

‘I wanted so badly just to tell them how I really felt, but I couldn’t, and I knew I never could. That was the way informers worked. They played Devil’s advocate and got you to say something you weren’t supposed to. I knew I wasn’t an informer, but as I looked around that day, I realized that one of my new friends might well be. So I buried my feelings and stayed silent, letting them think what they would’

‘I didn’t comprehend the basic dynamic of a world in active flux, with justice fighting injustice, actions and reactions, political and social changes, gender equality and gender-based discrimination, good and evil fighting each other’

‘Filled with rising anger and frustration over seeing the same patterns of oppression and violence repeat themselves around the world, I encouraged the women I met to speak out about the violence they had seen in their lives and in their societies. In private, on television, and at international conferences, I told women that if we didn’t take ownership of our voices, change would never come’

‘Courage wasn’t about facing other people’s injustice, but about revealing our own deepest secrets and risking hurting the ones we love. I didn’t want to be like my mother and my grandmother who died silent and took their stories with them to their deaths’