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العربية
The student, Al-Yamama Mazen Al Jassim, from Deir Ezzor province, won the first place in her junior school in Jönköping province, Aneby city in Sweden, and now is allowed to join the secondary school of Medicine and engineering dedicated to the outstanding students in Sweden. D24 network met the student and she gave the following speech:
I am Al-Yamama Mazen Al Jassim. I was born in Muhassan city in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside in 2003, I studied from the first grade to the third grade in Syria, then my family and I moved to Turkey because of the shelling by the Assad forces, and our fate was in one of the camps there. There were no schools in the camp, I attended Qur’an and Arabic language lessons taught by volunteers in the camp, and after I arrived in Sweden with my family, I did a test in Arabic to determine my level and then entered the seventh grade according to my ability in the Arabic language.
She continued:
The biggest challenge I had when I went to school was the language, Swedish was something new I know nothing about, and was the only way to communicate, at the beginning I asked my father to take me back to the camp because I was like lost in a new society that is completely different and I did not know its language, but my father and mother stood by my side and helped me so much to overcome this obstacle, also the teachers and the school administration helped me, and in a short time with perseverance, I could learn a lot of words that helped me to communicate with my friends and teachers. I tried to adapt to the Swedish school community without compromising my principles, so my religion and my hijab was a red line that no one is allowed to interfere with, I was doing all my school activities while I was wearing my hijab and my Islamic dress. In the first year I faced a lot of racist attitudes in the school from some Swedish students because of my Islamic dress and hijab, and despite all the problems I encountered, I was able to make friendship with Swedish students and overcome the obstacles.
She added:
I managed to overcome all the difficulties that I faced in the school and the new community, with my family standing by my side and with the help of some Swedish friends, and I was able to keep up with the Swedish students in the curriculum, and in the last year of the junior school, I set my self a goal to excel and get high grades that qualify me to enter the high School of Medicine and engineering, where only the top students are allowed to enter this school, and with the serious and hard work I managed to get high grades that made me one of the top students in the school, so by the new coming school year, I can enter the school of Medicine and Engineering.
achieving this educational success, Al-Yamamah addressed the Syrian children in the areas of displacement and the diaspora, saying:
As a Syrian student who achieved success in Sweden, I want to say to every Syrian child deprived of education that what you are experiencing is the first reason behind my success, and you motivate me to achieve my goal because I experienced the circumstances you are experiencing now and before, where it was like a dream for me to have a pen or a book when I was in the camp, and that was a motive for me because I wanted to convey my message to the world that the children of Syria are creative and can reach higher places if they have the right conditions.
The criminal Assad regime has deprived us from justice and equality even at the school level. It killed the children’s talents and supported the children of the officials although they did not deserve it, while here in Sweden, I got all my rights, and the same laws that apply to me, apply to the children of the officials and even the king.
Al-Yamamah concluded her speech by saying:
I hope that I can achieve my dream and continue my learning until I graduate from the university with high grades, and return to Syria to my city, Deir Ezzor, in order to build it from the ground up, to rebuild it after the end of the Assad regime, and my wish is to establish a school that has the same rules as the schools of Sweden, based on justice, equality and constructive concepts that will build a liberated and stable generation free from the remnants of Assad’s ideas.
