The new authors expectantly open a large cardboard box full of books outside Firas Jumaah's apartment in Norra Fäladen in Lund. They had planned to celebrate the book launch, but that will have to wait until the pandemic has subsided. The book is in English and is entitled "Rescued from ISIS Terror: How a University Professor Organized a Commando Mission to Rescue Her Doctoral Student from ISIS-Controlled Iraq". It is one of two joint projects they have at the moment – the other is their contribution to an exhibition at the London Science Museum, where Jumaah's and Turner's research in the field of green chemistry is exhibited together with images and text about Jumaah's rescue.
"They came from the London Science Museum and reversed a little truck up to the Chemistry building to load an old laboratory device and a few other things", says Charlotta Turner.
Interesting but challenging to write a book
Writing a book about the Yazidis and their history had long been an ambition for Jumaah, and he already had a draft for another book in a desk drawer. Charlotta Turner was not as interested in literary writing, so when a publisher wanted to put their story into a book, Jumaah started writing it himself.
"But Lotta's voice was needed, her thoughts and reactions to what happened here in Lund", says Jumaah.
Turner engaged her 18-year-old son, who was in upper secondary school, as a test reader of her first chapter. The verdict was harsh.
"It was the worst thing he'd ever read. But after that I worked extremely hard to learn how to write a narrative and now I am proud of the book", says Turner.
She thinks it has been an interesting process through which she learnt both about Jumaah's story and her own writing. But she does not envisage any further memoir writing in her future.
A unique rescue
It was during the summer of 2014 that Jumaah's wife and children went back to northern Iraq on holiday, while he stayed in Lund. Jumaah was working in the laboratory in the Chemistry building, stressed by the fact that he had not yet published an article. But when he found out that his family, relatives and friends from his village had been forced to flee from an ISIS attack, he scrambled onto the first possible flight to be reunited with them in the war zone.
"My wife was in a panic, everyone was shocked by ISIS behaviour. What kind of life would I have had if something had happened to them and I wasn't there?" says Jumaah.
In a unique rescue operation, urged on by Turner and coordinated by the then chief security officer at the University, Jumaah, his wife Rawya and their two small children were rescued by an armed security force from the factory where they were hiding from ISIS. Not far from there, the genocide of the Yazidis was underway. In the book, Jumaah recounts what his own extended family has experienced as Yazidis in Iraq.
"When I was small, people sang sad songs about those who had died in previous massacres, but I never thought I would live through such a thing myself", he says.
Comparing life in Sweden and Iraq
The Yazidis are an ethnic group with their own religion. Throughout history, they have been persecuted by militant Muslims.
"I compare life in Sweden with life in Iraq. Here, I can be open about who I am and be listened to – I am a human being of equal worth. That is not how it is in Iraq – and not at the two Iraqi universities where I worked, either."
The book intertwines Turner's story of what happened in Lund with Jumaah's account of events.
"After he came back, the research really picked up speed. It was as though nothing was difficult for Firas anymore, he was like a new person", says Turner.
The story went global
It was not until 2018 that their story became known, when they spoke about the rescue in a radio documentary for Radio Sweden's P1 programme, and an article appeared in LUM. A new article based on the the LUM article was written of an online news site, The Local, and then the story went global.
"It was totally crazy. The story went viral and we were contacted by the international press."
They appeared on all the major channels – the BBC, NBC, the New York Times and in almost all languages. The story was made into an animated film and had a great impact in China, where Turner was nicknamed Professor Hardcore. She and Lund University also received many creative tributes for courage and compassion via social media.
But then the story reached social media in the Middle East, where no tributes were forthcoming but threats instead, mainly aimed at Jumaah's wife, Rawya.
"It was very unpleasant. This is always the case with any reference to Yazidis in the Middle East, they are followed by threats in the comments on social media."
