Editor’s Note: This article has been updated due to errors. Jean-Pierre Taoutel was born in Syria, but is not a Syrian refugee. He left France for New York in 1998. The Iowa State Daily regrets these errors. 

At the Unpacked: Refugee Baggage lecture at the Christian Petersen Art Museum on Thursday, Jean-Pierre Taoutel spoke about the struggles refugees face leaving their home countries. Originally born in Syria, the senior lecturer of French and Arabic moved with his family to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon,  when he was a child. 

When the Lebanese Civil War broke out in 1975, Taoutel’s family would sometime take refuge in Syria where he lived with his grandparents. 

After the end of the civil war, Taoutel left Lebanon to study literature and culture in France before moving to the United States to teach French in New York in 1998. Taoutel is now a senior lecturer of French and Arabic here at Iowa State University.

While Tauotel himself is not a Syrian refugee, Adrienne Gennett, the curator for University Museums, brought the lecturer in to speak at the exhibition because of his history in Syria.

“Taoutel had a closer understanding and could make [the presentation] more personal,” Gennett said.  

The exhibition presentation was an interactive session where the attendees could talk about what they thought life would be like. Questions like, “Would you leave your home?” “What would you take with you?” and “Where would you go?” were brought up by the attendees.

Responses included materialistic items like a car and pets, but no one could provide an answer of where they would go and what they would do.

“It’s not just packing a suitcase and going,” Taoutel said. He explained that sometimes leaving was more than a physical action. “You leave and drive, not knowing where you are going or where you will stay.”

Although not all personally experienced by Taoutel, he said there are many challenges that a refugee might face. Language barriers, living situations and food shortage are just a few to be named.

“When you see these things as a kid, it opens your eyes,” Taoutel said. “You don’t ask your parents for things because you know that they don’t have any money.”

The Unpacked: Refugee Baggage is a traveling exhibition created by Syrian-born artist Mohamad Hafez and Iraqi-born student Ahmed Badr. Their exhibition focuses on educating people of the diverse world of refugees in America and their history of fleeing their home to survive.

In addition to the “unpacked” suitcases, the exhibition included a sound clip that attendees could listen to while they walked through. The clip was supposed to mimic a typical street in Syria. One could hear children playing, car noises and even the call to prayer.

The exhibit will be open in the Christian Peterson Art Museum through Oct. 19, 2018.