“We are humans” is a freelance project, with which Lundagård journalist Eleonora Kleibel and photographer Hauke Steffen aim to point out the great cultural variety the entire body of Lund University has to offer. This week we present a student of the university: Ibrahim Kareem.
Where do you come from?
– I come from the United States. That’s where I was born at least.
– I am the first of my family to be born there. My mom is from the Netherlands, but she and her family come from Suriname, which was a Dutch colony. And my father is from Iraq.
Where do you feel at home?
– After these last few years, probably most at home in the US, but Sweden is close second. I was living in Asia before and didn’t feel completely at home. Comfortable but not at home.
How did you come to Lund?
– I wanted to do a Masters in another country. After a lot of research of what I wanted to study and what I wanted to do, Sweden was my first choice and Lund was most aligned to my academic ambitions.
Can you tell us the story of your name?
– My name, Ibrahim, was always going to be an Arabic name. My mom converted to Islam when she married my father and my father’s heritage was the more apparent one in my childhood. When I was going to be born they wanted an Arabic name. For them it was going to be between Omar and Ibrahim.
– Ibrahim is also a very religious name in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. At the end they decided to go with that name. It also has a nicer sound to it.
Do you have a word you particularly like in your first language?
– I think my favorite words are not even English words, even though they are in English. Probably regime is my favorite word. I just like political words and regime sounds so scary and ominous. I feel it is all about the context, too. It can make you instantly feel like a bad thing, or it can be just a description. So I like its ambiguousness.
Previous portraits of “We are humans”:
https://old.lundagard.se/2016/03/03/we-are-humans-alexa-glo/
