Brooklyn —

Nour Abbas (not her real name) was a translator for the U.S. military in Iraq when she and her father were shot by insurgents as he walked her to work in 2005. Her father was killed. She still carries the scars, physical and otherwise.

Abbas fled the country and eventually was reunited with her family in Bay Ridge. But there’s no happily-ever-after-ending to her story: Abbas’ college-educated brothers can’t find jobs, her mother is terribly homesick and considering a return Iraq.

New changes in Abbas’ life, though, could separate her again from her mother and siblings.