The Local Activist Caring for Immigrant Survivors of Domestic Violence

Six days before 9/11, Dilkhwaz Ahmed arrived in the US from the Kurdistan region of Iraq to attend a conference. Ahmed, who had opened one of the first women’s domestic violence shelters in Iraq, applied for asylum after the attack, knowing she couldn’t go back. She already received threats at home for providing shelter for women and could sense that the situation would get worse.

Yet her efforts never stopped. In 2003, Ahmed cofounded License to Freedom in El Cajon, an organization that helps immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

“I grew up in a system where women did not have the privilege they were supposed to have,” Ahmed says. “What led me [to this work] is the lack of opportunity where I grew up.” Ahmed now returns to Iraq at least once a year to collaborate with organizations on the ground helping those who have experienced domestic violence.

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License to Freedom not only addresses the immediate concerns of women facing violence but tries to tackle systemic issues by providing other resources, like youth and economic development programs, mental health services, and treatment for offenders in multiple languages. Looking forward, Ahmed hopes License to Freedom can push for policy shifts in El Cajon to improve housing affordability and quality for immigrants in the city.

“We recognize that refugees come from the colonial system—that tells you how to talk, how to act,” she says. “Restoring of justice is always restoring of power.”