very lucky person I come from a Syrian
immigrant family who moved here about
thirty years ago to pursue a life in the
country of dreams my uncle was studying
in the medical school of the University
of Kentucky when my mom came here for a
back check-up and then was surprised the
best news yet my birth so about 40 days
later my mom my dad and baby me we’re on
a plane headed back towards Damascus
Syria and ever since that day I remember
spending every summer in Easley South
Carolina and every winter in Damascus
Syria about eleven years later my
parents get the green card and soon
after the citizenship was theirs in
order to do so though they have to go
through a very long process of spending
about two and a half years in America so
that I got to spend sixth grade as well
as my junior and senior year of high
school in here I got to learn all about
the teenage life of American girls my
objective in this talk is to not protect
one political side over the other it is
solely to open your eyes to the struggle
of those inside of Syria what happened
in Aleppo has been happening in every
Syrian city for the past six years I was
in ninth grade eating dinner with my
family in Damascus when we were watching
the news and we saw the very first signs
and revolution in that out which is
where everything started I remember
being shocked confused mostly in denial
because there was no way Syria was in
danger there was no way I could be in
danger right but unfortunately we all
were and for about two and a half years
prior at the time I have witnessed the
fall and rise of many Arab countries the
one that struck me the most was a scene
from Egypt where a white van hit tens of
protesters for simply being in its way I
remember things didn’t really seem real
and I was always wondering why we
weren’t protecting the civilians what do
they have to do with it
I would ask my mom and my dad but the
response was always that the bigger and
more powerful sources and forces are the
only ones that matter in Wars
being 14 I don’t really know what that
meant and now at 20 I am still confused
as to why we do not pay attention to
those who are struggling in Wars for
example the UN posed many sanctions on
the Syrian people
see your regime in order but little did
they know the Syrian people are the only
ones who are being tortured and punished
some of these sanctions include no trade
is to happen between multiple countries
in Syria and no airplanes may go in or
out of Syria from multiple countries
also if you truly think about these
sanctions you’d realize that the only
ones who are being punished are the
Syrian people they’re the only ones who
are trying to have the luxury of living
outside of Syria or the luxury of even
trying to go somewhere else and have the
good life when everything started in
Syria there the Revolution started as a
renovation revolution and not as a way
to get the Syrian regime out of power
but unfortunately that also did not last
long
shake people unlike what the media may
tell you Syrian people do not actually
hate the regime as much as you may think
um when everything started in 2011
everyone was a rebel
everyone wanted changes the system and
changes were being made up until a
couple months later someone fired that
first shot the ciara regime says it was
the Free Syrian Army followers who were
the main rebel base at the time and
those people say it was a Syrian regime
but there’s literally no way of finding
out and within 24 hours of that shot
being fired everything changed
checkpoints were placed on each road by
either side and whoever has to cross
those roads have to go through the
checkpoints no matter who they are last
summer when my mom and I went back to
Syria we encountered a split road and at
the end of each road there was obviously
a checkpoint one road was completely
plain and the other was filled with
Syrian flags for some reason we were
like let’s go through the plain one so
as we were walking we realized it was
the ISIS checkpoint and the terror we
felt was unreal we ran back and went
through the government one because
believe it or not they are the ones who
have protect been protecting us for the
past six years what makes the Syrian
conflict so unique is the little groups
that are fighting against each other to
see who’s gonna take power after their
regime has fallen not one rebel base
that is trying to get that point across
and to do what they want and what they
believe in because that rebel base
was gone right after their that killing
started no one was supposed to die it
was never supposed to end this way
fast forward to March 17th 2012 the
second suicidal bomber decided to choose
my neighborhood as his next target
thankfully my family and I moved about a
mile away a couple months earlier to a
new house but the shock wasn’t in any
wasn’t any less easier um with the help
of two hundred kilograms of explosions
powder explosions many chemicals and a
tank of gasoline
he was successfully able to burn down an
apartment building and completely ruined
the ones on that block including my
house I remember that day as if it was
yesterday it was Saturday morning at
7:30 in the morning when we heard when
we felt a really huge shake accompanied
with a very loud noise my mom
immediately opened the kitchen window
and she saw birds flying away out of
terror in the sky starting to fill with
white smoke soon after we hear gunshot
and the white and this white smoke is
turning black we don’t know what’s
happening we tried to turn on the TV but
the power was off we didn’t know what
happened or where it had happened about
30 minutes later my dad calls and tells
us that the house that we lived in and
the house we grew up in is gone it’s
entity the terror we felt was unreal I
had never seen my dad should it’s here
before but seeing 30 years of his life
where go to waste was not something he
had prepared for bombing store our
country apart it was the one thing we
the people had wished that would never
happen bombs when bombs happen you are
never truly safe not even in the
boundaries of your own home they can hit
anyone anywhere at any time now a couple
months after my house got blown up we
decide my it was my parents time to come
move permanently to the United States so
they can get the citizenship so my
junior of high school we packed
everything we thought we may need and we
headed out to America the country of
dreams it was very hard to be excited
when the only thing we felt was terror
and fear how are we gonna be looked at
are we the terrorists now
and of course with my appearance of my
slight accent I was indeed the face of
terrorism and my fellow classmates eyes
the transition wasn’t anyway easy but we
made it work we smell through our days
and we just went along and tried to make
it work up until one day one of my
fellow classmates said to me that
they’re gonna push me off the stairs for
not being an American citizen which was
kind of funny because I was American
born citizen I could literally be the
president one day
I’m not even Syrian I carried the
Lebanese citizenship after my dad and
I’m American for being born here I am
Syrian by heart Syria is my home in the
same way that America is now what right
did that person have to speak to me like
that but I put a smile on I acted like I
didn’t hear them and I just moved along
with my day my reaction to a lot of what
happened was shocked I didn’t really
understand or comprehend or even wrap my
head around the fact that we are being
tormented for something we have never
even commented on now refugees are a big
topic of the Syrian crisis right now and
I’m not gonna go in detail about what I
think or the politics of it I’m just
gonna tell you a couple of stories and
leave it open to you for you to decide
what you think you should do and how you
think you should view them from now on
um refugees are obviously people who are
displaced from their own homes usually
due to war um there are two kinds of
refugees though there are the people who
stay inside and the people that leave um
my dad took in a refugee and inside a
refugee his personal secretary Jo Jo was
displaced from her home after Isis went
in and took over her neighborhood out of
nowhere she was she was she became
homeless immediately with her family for
not having the same values as Isis for
not dressing the way they wanted her to
which is to cover the one’s body from
head to toe she did not approve of that
and she had to deny herself and she had
to disguise and hide her identity just
to go back home and say
pick up some stuff that she needed to
survive Jill now lives in my dad’s
Factory in the office because she has no
other place to go
you see Jill’s problem is that she she
she shares the same religious beliefs
with Bashar al-assad which is the Syrian
president for that she pays every day
she pays with her dignity with her life
with her family with everything that she
owns and she’s the perfect example of
the Forgotten Syrian refugee she has
nothing to do with politics she’s never
even commented on politics she doesn’t
care what happens in politics she was
trying to live her life and keep her
privacy when she was violated in every
single way she was she she lost who she
really was
because of politics there are thousands
like Jo who are now just trying to get
somewhere trying to find a home but they
can because of their even because either
of their religious beliefs or political
beliefs but no matter what those may be
there is no reason for us to treat a
human being in such a manner
we can’t just they’re just a human soul
just like you and me who just happen to
unfortunately Jill is not the only one
and war is a lot more complicated what
the movies may show you war is fighting
through every day even though you know
you may die at the end of the day war is
seeing in school and hearing a bomb go
off outside but still seeing in school
and learning the lesson students are
actually encouraged not to go to school
in many areas so they don’t die because
unfortunately schools tend to be a
fragile bomb target for those who want
to destroy everything to understand
actually what happens we have to realize
that war is sitting through and fighting
and that even when you hear something
from an Arab or from the news please
don’t take it seriously unless they were
in war and they had lived it as their
home for a while because it’s different
to go to Syria as a tourist and to go
back
home to go as a tourist you’re going
you’re going the safest areas the most
protected areas also if something
happens you can just leave but if you’re
going home
like I’m going home I’m going back home
to my loving family and my cozy bed and
if something was to happen I am gonna
stay I’m gonna fight through it I’m
gonna send the bath up for hours because
that’s the safest place for me at the
time I’m gonna sit there for hours
waiting until the fighting dies down
because if I leave I’m denying Who I am
I am refusing to accept my identity and
my Syrian background and there are
thousands of people who feel the exact
same way right now at this moment in
Syria my dad also helped another inside
refugee his name was Jim um he was just
like Jill he stays in our factory right
now as a night watchman except his
story’s very different and I’m very
sorry but this is a very graphic story
um Jim lived lives with his family about
two and a half hours away from Damascus
in the suburbs I mean he commutes
between Damascus and his town because he
works as a night watchman in her in with
my dad during one of those nights though
Isis when it’s his town and took over he
was not allowed to see his family for
quite a for quite a few months it was a
very long complicated process to get
them out and the only way that they can
talk to each other was through was
through the phone during one of those
phone calls his wife told him apologize
again his wife told him that they are
taking the parents of the people that do
not agree with Isis um and they are
stripping them naked putting them in a
big bowl filled with water and they’re
also stripping the kids naked their kids
um and lighting them on fire the parents
are literally boiled in their kids
flames that’s the true Syrian crisis
it’s not the politics it’s not the sides
that are fighting in it it’s the people
who are trying just to survive every day
and that’s what we need to realize and
this problem is not only in Syria this
problem has been happening forever since
humans were alive on this earth
human catastrophes are always overlooked
we have formed this idea that civilians
and veterans don’t matter as much as
they should because even in the old
times when you have two armies fighting
as long as the leader is still alive
that army wins even though they’re all
dead but the leader is alive oppression
and murder have been disguised in
different names so they can be
brainwashed into our mind to think that
they’re okay when we are trying to fight
our human instinct to say no we need to
get out of the bubble of politics and
start to realize the beauty in which we
live in so we can start learning how to
love each other again and how to live
again because just like my cousin said
in Syria we’re not well we’re alive
despite the war that doesn’t end but we
never know when we may end thank you [Applause]