I fought injustice against refugees like me through activism and charity work. Then I found comedy

‘Comedy can trace the faultlines of political systems but it also confronts the fears and confusions of our own minds and hearts.’ Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

I’ve always been enraged by the injustice in this world. My life has been defined by wars, violent sanctions, and a US/UK occupation that caused insurmountable tragedy to my life and to the lives of millions of others. Coming to the UK from Iraq was easy for me; staying almost cost me my health and sanity.

And so, in a desperate attempt to make sense of the world I grew up in and the great forces that orchestrate violence and death at will, I went to university and studied political science, international relations and anthropology. As the quest for justice is a serious matter, I believed the only way to go about it was to do so very seriously.