Islam Alhashel Extended Biography
Islam AlhashelExtended BiographyYou may wish to share this biography with students, or just to read it for your own information.In 2011, fifteen young people in Daraa, Syria were arrested for writing graffiti against the government of President Bashar al-Asaad. Their friends and family members protested, and Syrian military opened fire on the protests. But then, similar protests broke out all across the country, sending the government into a panicked response that included both some concessions and a lot of violence. Within months, the country was in full-scale uprising.What were the origins of the Uprising in Syria? To some degree, events in Daraa and elsewhere were one example of the Arab Spring, a series of protests and uprisings against corrupt, oppressive regimes and poor economic prospects across much of the Arab and Islamic world, including North Africa and the Middle East. Certainly, the Asaad government of Syria was both quite corrupt and had been unable to provide jobs and economic opportunities to many Syrians for years. It was also an extremely authoritarian state that gave little opportunity for political participation. The uprising also had ‘sectarian’ elements. The Asaad regime had given many jobs and a lot of power to members of a minority sect, the Alawites, and both Sunni Muslims and ethnic groups like the Kurds had suffered disproportionately. There was also an element of global politics involved. Different regional actors and powers—Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Russia, and the United States all saw opportunities and threats in the conflict, and rushed to support different sides. Finally, there was an environmental angle to the conflict. Syria had experienced years of drought, largely due to global climate change, and this had affected the economy and basic food production, increasing dissatisfaction.Syria soon descended into a storm of conflict with many different groups fighting each other – the government, supported first by Iran and Hizbullah and later by Russia, was in conflict with Kurdish forces in the north, with the opposition group known as the Syrian Free Army, and with the fundamentalist Islamic State forces. But these groups also often fought each other. The result was enormous suffering, for every day. One million people have died in this conflict since 2011, most of them civilians. Many more have fled. As many as 13.5 million people have lost their homes and had to flee in order to avoid being persecuted or killed. Many of the refugees have ended up in countries neighboring Syria, such as Jordan and Lebanon. Turkey alone houses millions of these refugees. Smaller groups have been resettled elsewhere, including a small group of about 17,000 in the United States. Among these refugees is the family of Islam Alhashel.Islam Alhashel grew up in Daraa, the third of seven children. She has one older sister, Israa, and an older brother, Mohammed, as well as three younger siblings – Ahmad, Asmaa, and Elaf. As the fighting intensified in and around Daraa, they began to experience many of the repercussions of this war. One of Islam’s friends was killed. Her sister survived a bombing at their school, but only after being stuck under rubble for 24 hours. Eventually, they fled Syria to escape the fighting. Like many other refugees, they ended up at Al Azraq, or ‘Camp Blue’, in Jordan, a refugee camp run by the United Nations.Once refugees reach a new country—in this case Jordan—they have to apply for refugee status. UN caseworkers on the ground then interview them. They are usually admitted into a temporary shelter and provided with emergency relief rations. These camps are not fancy. Al Azraq is located in a desolate region that the local population found uninhabitable. Its buildings are all temporary, because the Jordanian government doesn’t want them to become permanent. There are few services. Few people would want to stay there very long, and indeed families usually apply to be resettled in a third country – often Canada, Australia, Norway, Sweden, or Germany.
2Islam Alhashel - Extended BiographyIn the case of Islam’s family, they were randomly selected to resettle in the United States, as refugees are not given choice in the place of their settlement. Very few refugees are admitted to the US, and only after a lot of investigation. Islam’s family then went through a long process of fingerprinting, paperwork, and biometrics that took three years. Finally, in 2016, they were approved to be resettled in the United States. They were assisted by an agency that helped them to resettle. These agencies get funding from the US government to provide basic necessities for three months – help with healthcare and housing and assistance with searching for a job. After 3 months, refugees lose federal support, although they can still get some support from cities or local agencies.Next came the tough process of integrating into a new society. Things were not always easy, and there were new challenges every day. “The most difficult thing is was learning a new language”, Islam says. “It’s was one of the most difficult challenges I have ever faced”. She had to get ready to go to high school as well, and voluntarily took summer courses to expand her English language education, and sometimes there were difficult interactions. “One time I was coming back from school and there was a woman with her son then when she saw me she hugged her son as someone going to shoot or booms them. So I feel a bit bad about that”. But generally, she says, people have been good to them. And some of the simplest differences were the most important. After suffering through a war zone, she found safety in Cleveland, where they resettled. “I felt that I’m really safe because there is no sound of bombs or guns”.Islam feels like her family got quite a lot of support from organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Refugee Response, as well as individuals who helped them. “I think most of the people... treated my family and I really well”, the high school junior says. And some neighbors also assisted them. Islam and her family are just 9 of the almost 80 million displaced people1 in the world today, forced to leave their homes by persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations. These refugees are just a few of the millions of people moving between countries – looking for a safe refuge, new opportunities or better living situations, for jobs, or just to be with family. If world history teaches us anything, it is that humans move – from the first humans who spread out from Africa to the 300 million of us living outside the country of our birth today. In this way, Islam and her family have a great deal of company.1 According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2020 Global Trends Report, nearly 79.5 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes at the end of 2019. Of this number, 26 million people are recognized by the UNHCR as refugees.