Interview by Leyla Rasheed ’26
Mona Al-Merstany currently lives in Montreal, Quebec with her partner, Nazir, while working as an Arabic tutor for NaTakallam and singing in the Assaaleek Band. Mona grew up in Damascus, Syria; the youngest of three daughters, Mona felt like she got many of the qualities that her parents (a photographer and a nurse) passed down but also was able to grow in her own individuality as she got older.
After graduating in 2016 with a major in painting from the School of Fine Arts, Mona and her partner decided it was time to leave their homes and families in Damascus. They were able to secure documentations for an artist fellowship visa in Beirut, Lebanon that they had to renew monthly until the Artists’ Protection Fund was able to use the sponsorship to relocate them to Canada or Europe. After spending around two years in Beirut just waiting for the visas to be approved, they were able to go to Vancouver with the University of Victoria in British Colombia. They stayed there for a year waiting to claim asylum, and once they did, they moved to Montreal where they are still currently living.
Mona shares her physical journey as well as her mental and spiritual journey and encourages people to take advantage of their education and spread generosity. She talked a lot about the importance of developing self confidence to understand better the world around you.
Listen to her story, below:
Transcript:
My name is Mona. I’m 27. I’m from Syria, originally. I was born and I grew up in Damascus. And I went to the School of Fine Arts. I majored in painting.
He used to study music in the upper floor, the first floor, so it was the higher institute of theatre and the higher institute of music. Like first floor, second floor.
For me as well I wasn’t ready for a serious commitment. I never thought of marriage, never ever thought of marriage. We were planning to escape together to Lebanon. We thought and my main concern regarding my parents is that they’re going to say no to him because he’s from a different religious sect. Luckily, and I’m so proud of them for that, they didn’t mention it.
We were planning this escaping to go to Lebanon. He had gotten injured in his elbow with a piece of missile like a shrapnel. So, he wanted to leave to Lebanon. It was the only option available. It was two hours away from Syria. They still wanted — like the borders were also very difficult but still easier. Like for Jordan, it was like no way that you get in. Turkey, no way that you get in. But Lebanon, you needed certain like proofs, or documents, or like reasons why you were getting in, and they would let you in. Still hard, but doable.
After I graduated, I got to have artist union card kind of like a union-ship or something. So that granted me entrance for one month in Lebanon. Every month I had to renew it; I had to check out and in of course. As a spouse he got to go to get in with me. We had to renew that every month going back and forth to Syria, so it was 2016 and I still haven’t left completely. I wasn’t gone. I had to go back and forth still. I went to Syria. I went because our documents were still processing and just at this point, I was like yeah, maybe it’s better if I just like go, like go with him and start my life outside. Maybe I could do something to what I care about, to the people and the land I care about and build a future and everything. So we left to Lebanon; we lived there for 2 years. Started working and joined this band, and so many things happened. We’re doing a lot of things just to make money. We were doing a lot of things and meanwhile we’re waiting for Canada. It wasn’t Canada for sure yet; we just, we knew that we have a fellowship from an American organization called APF, Artist Protection Fund. We knew that that the United States wasn’t going to happen for us — it was definite. So, this organization started to look for another host for the fellowship. Until eventually it worked for the University of Victoria in the west coast. And after two years of waiting, we get refused, actually, in April. The first time we applied for the visa. And we got accepted the next time. It was, I believe, July — we got approved and the rest of the crew got approved. We were six people going on this fellowship. Two of us, like me and the other girl, were spouses. But the four guys were a guitar quartet, so all of them got the fellowship. So we were waiting until everyone got the approval. And then we finally were going on November 7th.
We got there and we stayed there for the first year, they were touring, they had concerts. And then after this one year was over, I, we seek asylum. We claimed asylum and we got it and we got where we are right now.
[Music from Assaaleek Band – “A’amda ma sallam A’amda]
