Mawlouda Mohamad, 42 year old woman, Aleppo, Syria
I was employed in the government in Syria. I came to Denmark in 2016, with my two little girls because of family reunification. My husband came to Denmark in 2010.
I was the favorite of among all my siblings. We were seven children, and my father loved me very much. My parents are from Afrin but I was born in Aleppo. I studied at the institute of trade and commerce. Before I finished my education I found a job, working for the government. I was very happy with that job. I was at a very good level en society because of my education and job. Everybody respected me.
After 5 years of working I fell in love, got married and had two daughters. We had our own very beautiful house, in a very famous street in Aleppo. In 2012 terrorism started. Bombs and rockets started to fall on our town, hitting the houses and killing people. I escaped with my two children to Afrin. This is a Kurdish town of 1.5 million people. It was a safer place. Because I was living in Afrin, I could not go to my job. At that time ISIS was controlling the north of Aleppo all the way to Afrin. Afrin is on the border between Turkey and Syria. My employer helped me and paid my salary and told me to stay in the safe place until the danger was over. My family in Afrin helped me a lot during the war. Especially by brothers supported me a lot. My husband already in Denmark, but he was living at an asylum center and did not have money to support us.
In 2010 my husband got rejected in Denmark and then he went back to Greece and from there to Turkey. When the war started in Syria, he went back to Denmark, where they gave him asylum. Because there was a reason; he could not be in Syria. Then he was given family reunification and was able to bring me and my girls. We had not seen each other for 6 years. I had to stop my job because I had to travel. I came to Denmark in 2016. When we came to Denmark we stayed in a shared house, with my husband. I became very sick because the shared house was in very bad condition. It was very damp and had mold on the walls. “Venligboerne” (the friendly people) tried to help us to ask the municipality to give us a better place to live, but they refused.
There is still something I do not understand about the Danish government. Why do they want educated people like me, to clean houses and work in bad jobs? Why do they want to punish us? I had a good job in Aleppo, I am educated so why do the municipality want me to clean houses while doing my internship? My case worker she does not care about us, our feelings, our situation, our education and our life. The only thing they do is control us. If we are not obedient to what they say, they punish us and do not give us pocket money.
I have a headache every time I go to work. How can I do my job in a good way, if I am not happy? I have a bad back, I fell bad psychologically and cry a lot, but they still ask me to clean. I want to have a job accordingly to my qualifications. That is all I ask.
If I had one wish it would be that the war in Syria ended, so I could go back to my home. I miss Syria. Syria was a paradise before the war. Denmark is also nice, but Syria is my home. I miss my family, my job, my house, my homeland, and the sun. I miss the sun.