Basim Jamal, 62 years old, was a cultural personality in the Iraqi city of Mosul. He worked as a music teacher, played the clarinet, and ran a bookstore where the city’s intellectuals gathered.
Everything changed when the Islamic State occupied Mosul in 2014. Basim was beaten and imprisoned just because of his profession. He was also forbidden to work as a music teacher.
”I wanted to continue living, so I fled,” he says.
Hopes to work as a music teacher in Luleå
For two years, he was a sanctuary musician in Umeå and performed numerous concerts. Now he is Luleå’s new sanctuary musician.
In addition to playing concerts, he hopes to be able to stay in Norrbotten and resume his profession as a music teacher.
”My job as a music teacher is about helping children and young people. They are the future,” he says.
In the clip, Basim talks about the sorrow of not being able to work as a music teacher and how he sees the future.
