- COURTESY OF BLAKE GILLIES
- Iraqi Culture Day in Kent: Flanking Mayor Suzette Cooke are Nadia Mahmood (in yellow), Nadia’s daughter, Umniyah, and members of the Iraqi refugee women’s group.
Mohammed Abdulraheem, 19, lost one year of his education after leaving Baghdad as an elementary-school kid. “It was really distracting in class when I heard an explosion or saw flames out of the window,” he says quietly. Ten years, five moves, and four countries later, Mohammed and his family are now eating a home-cooked feast before watching the Seahawks game. Taghreed Mahmood, Mohammed’s mom, lays out a big dish of fava-bean rice topped with rich, flavorful chicken so tender that it frays on the fork. She places it on a table already loaded with savory pastries, spicy pickled vegetables, bulgur-beef cake, and baba ghanoush made from scratch…
