Interview by Sherman Criner ’26
Haidara is a translator from Ras al-Ayn, Syria, currently residing in Lebanon. His family is part of a religious minority in Syria; they still reside in various rural areas of the country. Haidara studied biology in Syria and is currently applying for laboratory positions in Lebanon. Growing up, Haidara enjoyed gardening and interacting with the various cultural, ethnic, and religious groups in his hometown, where he also serves as a translator for some of his friends. As a child, he and his grandfather would travel around Syria, visiting the various castles and landmarks of previous empires. After the war began in 2012, however, he slowly witnessed the division of the diverse community that he grew up in which ultimately increased tensions. Thus, his family moved back to his parents’ rural hometown to escape the conflict. Ultimately, however, Haidara left the country for Lebanon, although many of his family members remained in Syria. Upon entering Lebanon, Haidara searched for numerous positions related to his biological background, although rampant discrimination prevented him from securing a job. To this day, Haidara continues to express his love of language and multiculturalism as a translator for NaTakallam.
Listen to his story, below:
Transcript:
I was born and raised in the eastern northern parts of Syria, which is very close to Iraq and Turkey. It was a diverse community, mostly. There were Arabs there, Kurdish, and people from Chechnya, and people from Turkey. And as far for religions, there was Christianity, there was Islam, and there was, we call them in Arabic, Yazidi, and that was very, very normal. Like I said, we had very different cultural and religious background and everybody we used to celebrate their culture or their traditions or their religious holidays. They used to celebrate them with others and like nobody cared or nobody thought about it too much. This is why, like when the war started, everybody knew who everybody was. Like this one from this minority, and this family is from this minority.
But they do share a lot of the same the same aspects, the same religious holidays, the same religious festivals, beliefs in general, all the same. But these small things that that actually get very, very big when any kind of conflict arises, these very small differences nobody used to talk about before the war, but after it started, it’s the only thing that people can see. They can only see the differences.
So yeah, this is why a lot of the minorities were targeted very, very quickly because everybody knew who they are. I’m not saying only the minorities were targeted. The Sunni majority were also targeted by the extremist groups because the extremist groups don’t differentiate between anyone. They just want to get rid of everyone who disagrees with them and doesn’t matter who they are really. So yeah. People did celebrate each other and their differences together for, for a long time, always.
So, for example, there’s a holiday that’s called Nowruz, which is celebrating the new season or the new year, which is a Kurdish holiday. It was celebrated by everyone in where I was from, where I’m from. So, Arabs used to go there. Kurdish people used to go there. Some Turkish people other than the Kurdish used to come, and everybody used to celebrate because it was just a nice, you know, thing. It happens in the outdoors for three days or so, but after the war there was like only Kurdish people can get into this place. No Arabs, no other people who can go actually there. They were targeted a lot in that holiday because it’s blasphemy, according to some extremist group. So, they, they were afraid and they just this is the easiest thing for people to do is just to close in on themselves and feel safe from everything else. Fear was stronger, actually. People didn’t trust each other anymore, and like it was like a wow for me.
It’s so different from what I know. It’s so different from what I experienced. And because there was a civil war, people are still stuck in that mentality that “I can’t deal with this person. This person is going to hurt me, and this other person doesn’t go along with me.” And hopefully when people who were forced to leave their country, their country or their homes, eventually come back, they bring with them the same feelings and the same culture they left with, plus whatever something positive they learned wherever they were during these ten years. So, yeah, I think it’s going to take quite a long time to, to go back to where it was. It’s definitely a very key tool for anyone to grow and to learn. Hopefully, with time, people will get back to being sentimental about Syria. I know that not everyone is like that. Sometimes, I even, when I speak to my parents, they tell me about specific things or problems, I stop being sentimental. I say, “This is unacceptable. This is not a country to live in.” But, I still go back to being sentimental after a while.
