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Interview with Rasha

Posted by on November 19, 2022

Interview by Ishita Vaid ’26

Rasha is in her twenties and is originally from Homs, Syria. She is married and has two children, Mohammed and Jamal, who made frequent appearances during our conversations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Al-Baath University. Due to the conflict in Syria, Rasha and her family
had to leave their home behind and now live in Lebanon. She has been working as an English teacher in different schools there and teaching Arabic as a Conversation Partner with NaTakallam. In this edit from our two conversations, Rasha talks about her life in Syria, the challenges her husband is
facing while seeking asylum in England, their reasons for wanting to relocate to England, her father’s depression, and her future goals.

Listen to her story, below:

 

Transcript:

I was born in Saudi Arabia. Then we went to Syria to live in our country, but we don’t want to be, to emigrate more. We want to stay in our country for better life, to settle down. In Syria we lived in a village called Al-Husn castle. It’s beautiful, and it has a large and big history. I’m so sad because I cannot back.

I studied English Literature at university. Before I graduate — I still have one subject to graduate — I came to Lebanon, because the situation was very bad. Then I back to Syria when I felt that it’s a little bit better. I should back: I want to graduate. I did the test. Then I graduated and I didn’t back to Syria since 2015, I think.

My husband is in England to seek for asylum. He is still waiting, since 11 months, to do the interview. But nothing new happen with him, he is still waiting. He’s sent to the people who is responsible about this, and they send back to him that 2021 is the year where many, many refugees come to England, and there are other people like him, and he needs to wait, and they don’t know the limits. Maybe he needs to wait another year? No one knows.

He knows that it’s a very good country, for living, for work, for our sons’ education, and it’s better than other countries. And we can manage ourselves with the language. We don’t know Germany; we don’t know Dutch. We can manage ourselves with English.

In the weekend, we have three days off in Lebanon. I came to visit, to check on my father. He is sick. My dad suffers from depression, because of what happened with us in Syria, the war, our house, destroyed. He lost many things, so this affect him, and he is completely different person. He doesn’t connect with others. He doesn’t speak. He is not a happy person.

I miss my home in Syria, but I’m not thinking these days to back to Syria, because we don’t have a safe place to stay in. Also my family not in Syria. Also, no future. No good work. No school, good schools. So I don’t want to go back. I want to go forward. So, this is why we think of traveling abroad to England for better life for our children and for us. Maybe I will back to Syria, of course because it’s my home. But in the future, after I establish for my life, for myself, and my children, work, life. Not now, in this, when I don’t have anything. I need to have maybe work, money to back to Syria to build.

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