10 Years After the Invasion, One Iraqi Struggles With His Identity

The World

A decade ago, just after the start of the war, a young Iraqi named Nechirban Yousif decided to go home.

He’d been living in Britain after fleeing Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1998 but his family remained in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and he wanted to visit them.

Yousif has spent the past 10 years going back and forth between Britain and Iraq many times.

He says the war has changed many things including how he identifies himself.

“I’m Sunni, Kurdish,” Yousif says. “When I come in 1998 [to Britain] they asked me are you Sunni or Shiite. I didn’t know what means Sunni or Shiite. You didn’t hear in Iraq he was Sunni or Shiite or Arabic…Iraqi is Iraqi.”

Anchor Marco Werman spoke more with Yousif about his struggles with his Iraqi identity.

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