She became accustomed to bombs going off nearby, day and night.
“After four years you adjust to it. You think, today the bomb didn’t get me, so let’s enjoy another day that I am still alive.”
Rahaf Zwayne, a 28-year-old former student of fashion design from Damascus, Syria, lives in Nelson now, studying hotel and resort management at Selkirk College.
During her last few years in Syria, in the midst of civil war, she worked with an organization connected with the United Nations, teaching non-violent communication skills and trying to bring fractured communities and neighbourhoods together.
At the same time she was working for an architecture and interior design company in downtown Damascus.
“It really was a hard job because we had many bombings and many terrorist attacks, fighting between both sides.”
In those days, Zwayne and her family and friends had a lot of hope. They thought their city would return to normal soon. Since then, some of her friends have been killed in the war, and the whereabouts of others are unknown.
Rahaf Zwayne (left) with her roommates Aly Pierik, who was raised in Nelson, and Manuela Costantino, a traveler from Italy spending a few months here.
Pre-war Damascus
She speaks sadly about her city.
“Damascus is a 12,000-year-old city, multicultural, many different ethnic backgrounds that makes it really rich and diverse. We have Kurds, people from Armenia, Iraq, Albania, Serbia, people who decided to move to Syria and make it their country.
“And they used to be so happy and comfortable and safe. It was a safe country. I used to go out at three in the morning and nobody would hurt me or touch me or do anything.”
Eventually the war got unbearable and too dangerous. In late 2014, Zwayne’s father moved her and her brother to Istanbul, Turkey. Her mother had died before the war started.
“There is a certain time when you can not adjust anymore. You have to leave. It is not just about bombing, it is about electricity, water, expenses of life, everything.”
Arriving in Fruitvale
In Istanbul, Zwayne met Ian and Melva Scott, tourists from Fruitvale, B.C. They became friends, and eventually the Scotts offered to sponsor her so she could get asylum in Canada.
She arrived in Fruitvale, population 3,600, seven months ago. Before that, she had always lived in a big city.
Her first social occasion was a welcoming gathering at the Castlegar airport.
“People said they knew all about me and said they have been praying for me.”
Zwayne says being known to everyone was new for her, and at first disconcerting.
“There was a lovely article from the Trail paper, so they saw my picture, and people said hello to me in the street. They said they know all about me.
“I discovered there is another vision of life that I never experienced before. That is, people know each other, all of them, and they know all the news about each other. It was hard to get used to, yes, but later I understood this is normal. In the beginning you take it a bit personally, but when you think about it deeply, they only mean to be friendly. And they care about me and about each other, which is an amazing.”
The Scotts took Zwayne on a trip to Winnipeg, where she visited the Museum of Human Rights. She was very impressed, and she gave the museum some feedback on their exhibit about Syria: focus more on what is going on inside Syria, not just the problems of refugees in the Mediterranean.
Another highlight of her trip was seeing penguins for the first time in the Calgary zoo.
“That was a very happy moment in my life.”
An artistic family
In Zwayne’s new world of Nelson and Selkirk College, some people are surprised by her. Many ask her why she doesn’t wear a hijab.
“I tell them I am a Muslim, and that I don’t wear
a hijab but some of my friends do. I accept them and they accept me. Wearing a hijab is not the main point. But many people don’t know this.
“That is how we used to live in Syria. We accepted each other and those details were not important. We are Muslims, Christians and Jewish, also we are Armenians and Kurdish and Turkmen. These are the values that I grow up with in my family.”
And they want to know why she is always dressed up in heels and a nice dress, even when there is no special occasion.
“They tell me you should be more practical. But for me, no, I dress like this. They say, but shouldn’t I become more Canadian? But actually I prefer to stay like who I am.
“In Damascus we care about how we look, and there are many people here who don’t know about this. We like to go the opera house, we have a good social life focused on music, arts, going to galleries.”
She admits that even before the war not everyone in Syria lived like that, and that there was inequality. But she says people in Canada are not aware of the high standard of living there before the war.
“I am from an artistic family. My mother and grandmother were professional fashion designers. My father is an architect and my brother is a painter. I grew up with art around me everywhere. I love clothing, photography, fashion, colour and fabrics.”
Moving to Nelson
Zwayne looked around at educational opportunities and decided on Selkirk’s hotel and resort management program in Nelson, so she moved here and now lives with Judith Fearing and George Chandler at their house in Uphill.
“Judith and George hosting me with a big amount of generosity and care and love.”
At the moment Chandler and Fearing are abroad, so Zwayne has two roommates her own age sharing the house.
She has high praise for the helpfulness and generosity of the faculty at Selkirk College.
She knows that there is a Syrian community of thousands of people in Istanbul and is sometimes nostalgic for it, especially because her father, brother, and boyfriend are there. But her approach is practical.
“Yes, it is challenging, but at the same time I see the opportunity that I have now. At the moment you sacrifice certain things, but you look at these things here that you didn’t have the chance to have four years ago. Now I have safety and a peaceful atmosphere, and the opportunity.”
But it’s not always that simple.
“I will not tell you I don’t have my down days. Sometimes I feel so down, and I think I made a huge decision and even bigger than me. But at the same time I say, oh Rahaf you will be fine, look at the bright side.”
Her main priority is to get her brother, Amr Zwayne, and her father, Saad Zwayne, to Canada, and the paperwork for that is well underway with the assistance of the West Kootenay Friends of Refugees in Rossland.
"I appreciate so much the support I get from Ian and Melva Scott, and the refugee group in Rossland, for working on my father and brother's application," she says.
The Quebec shooting and the Muslim ban
Asked about her reaction to the recent shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Zwayne seems both shocked and unsurprised by it. She says she sees it as related to events in the U.S. but also as an international phenomenon.
“People are shooting everywhere, in the U.S., in Mexico, in France, in Holland, not just in a certain area of the world. It is unacceptable everywhere and terrorism has no justification at all.”
Her reaction to President Trump’s ban on Muslims?
“It is illogical behaviour. Because the U.S. is based on immigrants, based on people like us. If you know exactly what is the Muslim religion and go through it deeply, it is the same as Christianity, it is not different. We look for peace, for love, accepting each other, without looking at ethnic background.”
Zwayne says the U.S. president does not realize the contributions people from the Middle East have made to his country. She points out that Steve Jobs’ father was from Homs, in Syria.
She thinks the decision to ban Muslims was made by “people who don’t have deep thinking and don’t have enough education or culture.”
To the people of Fruitvale and Nelson, Zwayne says, “Thank you for every one who was welcoming me and being generous with me, even the bus driver and people I don’t know on the street, they are so friendly and generous.
“I would like to say I hope peace will come to my country and that Syria will come back like it used to be six years ago and even better. Every Syrian hopes the same thing. I hope peace will be in my country and the all the world, and we will learn only the language of love and respect.”