Alia sits in her wheelchair in Domiz refugee camp in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The 24-year-old was living with her family in Daraa, Syria when fighting forced them to flee their home. Confined to the wheelchair and blind in both eyes, Alia says she was terrified by what was happening around her. "Men in uniforms came and killed our cow. They fought outside our house and there were many dead soldiers. I cried and cried," she says. Alia says the only important thing that she brought with her "is my soul, nothing more -- nothing material." When asked about her wheelchair, she seems surprised, saying she considers it an extension of her body, not an object.
UNHCR/B. Sokol
