Excerpt:
The first four years after Sara Tahir moved to Germany, she barely left her home because she could not speak the language.
"I didn't want to take a single step without my husband, even to the gynecologist. He had to go with me and translate," said the 27 year-old mother, turning red with shame at the memory.
Women like Tahir, an immigrant from Morocco, are one focus of the integration battle in Germany and in the rest of Europe over the Continent's immigrants, particularly those from Muslim countries. Unable to speak the language, they find it all but impossible to interact in society. Worse still, their German-born children are more inclined to inherit their isolation, building the walls of what critics call a parallel society.
But now, Tahir speaks German well enough to go shopping alone and takes buses and the subway in Frankfurt by herself. She deals with the government authorities and banks. And she meets with her daughter's teachers at least once a month.
That is because twice a week Tahir packs her German-Arabic dictionary, an exercise book and a notebook in her light brown school bag and goes with her daughter Kawtal to the Albert Schweitzer primary school in the Frankfurter Berg neighborhood, once home to families of American soldiers and still home to large numbers of immigrants.