A Catholic nun sitting next to me on a plane from Istanbul this weekend was watching me read what’s going on in Mosul, Iraq. The news and the pictures were painful. Global media was predicting this weekend the fall of Iraq, yet again. The fault lines among the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish population was becoming clearer by the day through last week. An abrupt American withdrawal, or Al Maliki’s failure to rise above the sectarian considerations, Bashad Assad’s tacit support to ISIS, Iran reaching out to the Shias – there can be any number of political reasons for Iraq reaching a point of collapse. But what seem to intrigue Sr. Ahlam’s attention is me clicking a photograph of two Iraqi women fleeing from the city of Mosul. I was casually clicking it on my mobile phone from an inner page news report on the International Herald. A minute later Sister Ahlam turned to me and asked in her Swedish English, if I want to see some pictures of the ISIS occupation of Mosul. I was more than keen. She opened a collection of photos she clicked a week ago on her Apple iPhone. Painful images. Of families fleeing the city. Long queues to get water. Closed shops and deserted streets. She said the ISIS militia is not killing people randomly. But people are afraid. Afraid of what I asked? May be air raids, she said. Intense, painful depiction of a population living in fear. We live in a world that is so complex. At the same time, there still exists the human elements and globally. Irrespective of political boundaries and religious divides, human sensibilities continue to exist at deeper levels and share the same sentiments, i realized as i kept listening to this Dominican Sister, returning from Iraq to her base in Stockholm. Sister Ahlam is a born Iraqi. Born in a Catholic family, migrated many generations ago into Iraq from the northern region with Turkish ancestors. Her parents migrated to Holland and she lives and works in Sweden as a member of the Roman Catholic denomination of Dominican Sisters. She sounded and behaved more Swedish – gentle and polite. Sister Ahlam is on her way back from Mosul after spending a week at their mission center there. That’s when the ISIS military surge happened. She offered to send some photos and the chat ended when the airline crew started serving lunch..