Category: News
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‘I dream of canoeing on the Dnieper River’. One year has passed since Russia invaded Ukraine
It’s been a year already. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is also the anniversary of establishing the ‘Radziwiłłowska 3’ or ‘R3’ Help Point (named after a street name) run by the Salam Lab. During these 365 days, thousands of Ukrainians and refugees of other nationalities passed through this place, all fleeing the brutality of war, suffering, and death
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With a kickflip into Jordanian society
Back in 1996 a boy of Palestinian descent living in Amman was gifted a skateboard and he started skating around the city, getting into troubles with the police and pedestrians evoking the dream of a skatepark in him. His name was Mohammed Zakaria. In 2009 he founded his own skateboard brand called ‘Philadelphia’
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God, should I tell them that I’m a Muslim?
‘I wish that people didn’t have to be scared anymore. I want them to ask questions, even the inappropriate ones . I prefer that Poles ask me from which part of Iraq I am, so that I can answer back and tell them that I’m from Iran and not Iraq. This helps us start a dialogue and get to know each other better. Those who don’t know are scared’. An interview with Farid, an Iranian living in Poland for 11 years
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Self-made. A story of a Jewish woman
‘Blessed are You, Eternal our God, who has not made me a woman.’ With these words Orthodox Jews welcome every morning. Our guest from the Hasidic community shows, that a Jewish woman can make herself.
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A society without immigration is not a living society
‘We never know who the other is, just as we never really know who we are ourselves.’ – says the author of The Guest, Ariane Koch.
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‘The Monday that changed everything.’ We talked to a Turk coming from the epicentre of the earthquake
‘When I was finally able to reconnect with my family, I saw my mother’s hands shaking.’ Huseyin Celik, a journalist from Turkey living in Warsaw, tells Salam Lab about the earthquake
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Does it make sense to celebrate Black History Month in Poland?
“Once, a strange woman at a bus stop put her hand in my hair, I instinctively grabbed her nose. She stopped and asked, surprised, why I had done it. I answered by asking her the same question”. A conversation with Noemi Ndoloka Mbezi.
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Fairuz. The lebanese voice of hope
“Lebanese men and women may differ from one another in every way but when it comes to Her, they are always in agreement.” Fairuz – the most famous Lebanese artist and voice of hope.
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Poles were also refugees. They were hosted by an Indian Maharaja
We are used to the fact that it is white people who save those fleeing war or persecution. It wasn’t always this way.
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Salam Lab reinvented. We wouldn’t have succeeded without you
2022 changed everything. For many, it was a year full of hardships, forced migration and fear. However, it was also a time of exceptional solidarity, hospitality and kindness after 1989. Let’s not forget it. Let’s let our open hearts and minds accompany us into the next year. This is what we are wishing everyone for the New Year.
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Cut his hair off in solidarity with Iranian women. A story of an Iranian living in Poland
“I knew I had to leave Iran. I’ve known it since I turned fourteen” – says Michał Rezazadeh, who creates Irańczyk w Polsce [Iranian in Poland] channel and fanpage living in Warsaw.
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Who was the real Santa Claus?
An old man with a beard, a witch, or a troll? Who was the Santa Claus underneath? What shape does it assume today?
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Who founded a Polish village near Istanbul?
Ludwika Śniadecka – a Polish woman, the leading spokeswoman for the Polish independence movement, the unrequited love of Juliusz Słowacki.
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“These were the orders”. A soldier learns the truth about refugees
A couple days ago I picked up two boys seeking to hitchhike. Okay, two young men. They are both nineteen. One of them was from the Territorial Defence Forces. He has never seen a refugee. He never participated in deportation or pushbacks. When asked “what will you do when you see a refugee family in the forest?”, he replied, “I’ll call the Border Guard”.
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Impossible marriage. Meet Ola and Dawood
I know Ola from the choir. We unexpectedly ran into each other at an event at the Embassy of India in Warsaw where she was dancing the traditional Indian Kathak dance. We haven’t seen each other for years so I didn’t know Ola had been married to Dawood, a man from India. Today they form a marriage at the crossroads of three cultures.
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Sisterhood in climbing. Meet Asma from Afghanistan
“We can’t go to school, university, work, nor can we play our favourite sports. We had no choice but to leave our country”. Interview with a climber from Afghanistan.
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“Welcome to Guantánamo”, that is, to Poland
“I had heard that through Belarus I could reach the European Union. I was supposed to find there the end of suffering and the possibility of stabilisation. The decision was taken in haste and I decided to take this step, which I now regret. At present, I’m in the EU, where instead of freedom and peaceful life, there are prisons, soldiers and violence” – says Farid from Iraq. “Welcome to Guantánamo” – the refugees kept repeating. However, we are not talking about the infamous prison for people suspected of terrorist offences. We are talking about the Guarded Centers for Foreigners in Poland.
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Sunburnt. A flee from Kabul told by Lemar Elyassi
In our society when a girl is underage, she stays under the custody of her father, when she is married, she is under the custody of her husband. It means that a girl is never independent. Read a story of a young doctor from Afghanistan living in Poland.
