Why Does it Matter?
Tarek Bouazizi. A name was not famous before December 17, 2010, but it will always be in history as a name for a man who changed the world’s map forever. It was a normal day in Tunisia. No one ever thought that what would happen on this day would be unforgettable. The young, Tunisian street vendor, Tarek Bouazizi, decided to set himself on fire in protest after a policewoman slapped him and confiscated his fruit and vegetable cart. Bouazizi died in January 2011 as a result of the burns, but he remained an icon of rejecting injustice and demanding freedom and the spark of revolutions that started in some Middle Eastern countries. These Revolutions will always be known as The Arab Spring.
After what Bouazizi did, the Tunisian revolution started with Tunisians going out to the streets protesting against the government, which in turn used violence against them. Eventually, the Tunisian revolution, also called the Jasmine Revolution, succeeded in overthrowing the late Tunisian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his government.
The success of the revolution and the removal of Ben Ali gave hope to the neighboring country Egypt. As an Egyptian, I remember these days as if they were just yesterday. I was a 19-year-old college student in my senior year. Back then, a Facebook page called for protesting on Jan. 25, 2011. Choosing this day was on purpose because it is a national holiday celebrating the police. The protest’s main purpose was to demand the late Egyptian president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak to carry out reforms in the Ministry of Interior.
Many Egyptians thought that this protest would last for maybe one or two days. They thought that the protesters would go to the famous El-Tahrir square, located in downtown Cairo, and they would leave after the police chased them. But this did not happen. The protesters decided to hold a sit-in. With each day that passed after Jan. 25, the number of protesters skyrocketed. Suddenly, the protesters declared not to leave the streets until Mubarak resigned. It did not take them more than 18 days, and at the sunset of Feb. 11, the government declared that Mubarak was leaving the office.
Then, it was Syria’s turn. It all started when some kids were arrested because of writing slogans against the Syrian regime on walls in the Daraa governorate. The Syrian people could not take it anymore, and they started their revolution against the Syrian government and President Bashar Al-Assad. The revolution became a civil war, with many internal and external parts and countries got involved. It has been ten years now since the first flame of the revolution and I believe that there is not any person who can know the whole truth or provide the correct information about what is happening inside Syria, a country whose people are one of the kindest people I ever met.
You may ask me: why the Syrian refugees? Why not any other refugees? The answer is so simple: After only 10 years of the conflict, Syria, which has not had many refugees in the past, is now the largest forcibly displaced population in the world, as there are 6.6 million Syrian refugees worldwide, of whom 5.6 million hosted in countries near Syria, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR. This number is more than the number of displaced people whose problems that forced them to leave countries happened years and years before the Syrian crisis.
Since the situation started to escalate in Syria with many videos, photos, and news reports about the Syrian refugees who made hard decisions such as fleeing their countries in boats through the Mediterranean Sea, I felt that I need to have a role in helping these vulnerable people.
I started with writing posts on social media supporting Syria, but this was not enough. While working as a translator in news websites, I translated from English into Arabic dozens of news articles and reports about the Syrian crisis. This broadened my knowledge about the situation of Syrian refugees and opened my mind about many aspects of this crisis.
Then, I decided to utilize my professional and academic experience and the chance to choose the topic for my master’s professional portfolio to highlight the Syrian refugees and asylum-seekers in the U.S. This step is my first professional and academic step to be the voice of the whole voiceless refugees around the world.
Before explaining what you will read, watch and hear on this website, I need to highlight quick facts about the miserable numbers of people in need in this world. According to UNHCR, there were 79.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2019. Out of this number, there are 26 million refugees, 45.7 million internally displaced people, and 4.2 million asylum-seekers. These numbers reflect a disturbing fact that 1% of the world’s population is displaced and 40% of the world’s displaced people are children.
Refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants are all different kinds of people who try to rescue themselves and start a fresh new life. For this, to talk about the Syrians in this project, you will know the different ways these people have tried to save their lives, maybe by registering with UNHCR and coming as refugees, by entering the U.S, and then applying for asylum or by entering the U.S. with a student visa and then working hard on themselves to build their lives.
I knew that is extremely hard to build the project on the refugees in general, so the Syrians here are only an example of a very wide problem that faces the world: the vulnerable refugees, internally displaced persons, asylum-seekers, and stateless persons. All of these people are searching for one thing: a home.
When I started planning for this project, I thought about the most important factors that I believe the audience should know about. As it is said, “Man is an enemy for anything he does not know.” For this, I believe people need to closely know the stories of these Syrian refugees in the U.S. They need to know the success these refugees reach and their positive impact on the community and the country that is considered home for them now. The country that may be their final destination and the only replacement for their actual homeland. For this, I video-interviewed a Syrian woman who fled her country, settled in the U.S., and started a new successful life there from scratch.
I also believe the audience needs to know the terrifying journeys the refugees and asylum-seekers go through to reach safety and how what they saw in their country and the cultural shock they face when they reach a new country may affect their mental health. For this, I am providing an audio story of a Syrian asylum seeker who lives in Texas now. This man tells us his horrifying escape journey from Syria to the U.S.
My main focus in this project is the Syrian refugees. However, when I interviewed an attorney to discuss the legal situation and problems that face refugees and asylum-seekers, he told me savage stories about vulnerable people from different countries who flee to save their lives. When I heard these stories, I thought it is extremely important to tell the audience real stories that explain why some people risk their lives to protect themselves and their families. The stories you will hear are about people, not Syrians, who tried to gain asylum in the U.S. but failed in getting it for different reasons.
Suffering from severe mental health problems because of the tragedies the refugees and asylum-seekers face before escaping is very common. In this portfolio, I am interviewing an expert about the mental health of refugees to tell us more about this topic. The unique thing about this expert is that she is a Syrian-American woman, and this makes her a person with knowledge about both cultures.
Out of my belief in the importance of everyone’s role in making the world a better place, I provide two stories about volunteering and donations. One of them is a print story about an American non-profit organization that supports refugees and low-income people. The second story is a photo story of a donation distribution event. In this story, you will see different photos of the volunteering and donation process.
In this portfolio, You will read, watch, and hear different topics that, through them, I am trying to tell the story of refugees from different aspects. These people once had a good life, however, because life is tough and politics is a nasty and dirty game, their lives collapsed, and they had to flee their countries just to find peace. You will never know, maybe you will be in their place one day, so just educate yourself about immigration, refugees, displaced people, asylum-seekers, and stateless people. Do not be ignorant. Open your heart and your home to these scared people. Spread the word and speak up for them. Be merciful and kind. Be a voice for the voiceless.
