Moth stories have the power to bring you into a world that is often not your own and leave you wishing that you could live in that world

Just a little bit longer since 1997 the moth has shared more than 50,000 stories with audiences around the world through shows

Workshops and on the moth podcast and the moth radio hour once the curtains have closed the rooms emptied and the voice is quieted

It's the stories still ringing in our ears that whisper over and over we are all of us more alike than we are different

Help us write the next 25 years of the moth story by making your year-end gift today

Text moth22 no spaces to 41444 to make your gift and help provide the space

Tools and resources needed for more people to embrace the art and craft of personal storytelling in their own lives. Thank you.

From PRX this is the moth radio hour. I'm Meg Bulls

It's been said that being loved by someone gives you strength and the act of loving someone gives you courage

In this hour we bring you four stories that explored the power the joy the obstacles and sometimes even the dangers of love

Our first storyteller Susie of Freeti was raised in Jericho in the West Bank until the age of 14 when her parents immigrated to America

She shared her story at a Detroit main stage event we produced in partnership with Michigan Radio

Here Susie of Freeti live at the moth

So I was raised Greek Orthodox Christian in the small town of Jericho

The youngest of six kids that was a welder mom was a farmer

While growing up in the West Bank, we were constantly fed Islamophobic horror stories

Remember how in the 80s you were told this is your brain on drugs with the egg cracking commercial

We were told this is your life on Islam

And that's why they give us white names. I mean people often ask me if my real name is Fatima or Khadija, but it's actually Susie

My sister who looks way more Arab than me her name is Jane

But her eyebrows alone speak Arabic

So they give us these white or Christian names sort of as a message for the Muslim boys to stay away. It's kind of like name hijab

...