{"id":4853,"date":"2017-11-06T09:57:04","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T07:57:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-01-29T12:41:11","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T10:41:11","slug":"reem","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/faces-stories\/reem\/","title":{"rendered":"Reem"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Reem\"
Reem (Syria)<\/em>, 2017,\u00a0Gicl\u00e9e fine art print, 120 x 185 cm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reem<\/strong>
\n26 years old<\/strong>
\nSyria<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The first time I saw\u00a0Vlassis\u00a0Caniaris\u2019\u00a0work,\u00a0Hopscotch<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0I realized that the figures were refugees, confined within the frame defined by the country they arrived at.\u00a0Their dreams and possibility of professional rehabilitation are all determined by the frame defined by the host country.\u00a0We see\u00a0only men around a game to be\u00a0played,\u00a0exactly as it initially happened in Syria: only men were leaving, followed by their wives after two or three years.\u00a0In my case, I was forced to play this game by myself.\u00a0I had to leave home and my family.\u00a0And,\u00a0of\u00a0course,\u00a0it was not an easy decision.\u00a0You know, in Syria we’ve all lost someone close either in war, in the middle of the sea, or because they are in another country and we’ve lost track of them.\u00a0Also, most of us who\u00a0have left and have reached safety here have left our parents behind, who are elderly and therefore unable\u00a0to make\u00a0this trip.\u00a0Now we do not even know if we’ll ever see them again.<\/p>\n

From the figures in the work, I could be the one at the back, on the right, the one without luggage.\u00a0I had a huge adventure until I got to Greece.\u00a0Crossing the Syrian mountains, I had\u00a0to go through a city occupied by ISIS, where I stayed for about two months.\u00a0These were the worst days of my life.\u00a0I had to pretend\u00a0to be a Muslim.\u00a0I took off the\u00a0cross my mother had given me before I left, I wore\u00a0a burqa\u00a0and I was hiding from house to house because if anybody realized that I was a Christian, they would kill me in public.\u00a0I was afraid, I could not sleep.\u00a0Within this\u00a0period,\u00a0the smuggler\u00a0stole my bag with all my belongings: clothes, mobile phone, identity card, everything.\u00a0Even the souvenirs my sisters had given me, even my mother’s cross.\u00a0I asked him to keep everything else\u00a0and give me back\u00a0the\u00a0cross,\u00a0but he did not because it was gold.<\/p>\n

Now I live in a building in the centre of Athens.\u00a0I asked to be alone in the room, without a roommate, to feel more comfortable.\u00a0So, I have my personal space, where I can relax and feel safe.\u00a0Even\u00a0if I don\u2019t feel this place is like home\u00a0–\u00a0for me home is only where my\u00a0mother\u00a0is –\u00a0there, despite the difficulties I endured, I still manage to dream.\u00a0My dream is to be able to finish my studies and have a little girl whom I will call\u00a0Meriem, the name of Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

Bia Davou\u2019s work1<\/sup> made me feel just the way I felt in the boat, travelling from Turkey to Greece.\u00a0There weren\u2019t any sails, of course, but the feeling was exactly the same.\u00a0This may surprise you, but it is something that we Syrians\u00a0feel and,\u00a0I\u00a0imagine,\u00a0anybody who has experienced similar situations: when we see an image of the sea, we remember our journey, [and]\u00a0when\u00a0we see a suitcase, we remember the things we brought with us from back home.\u00a0Psychologically, it\u2019s a difficult situation. We need time to get over it. That\u2019s why everything we see is connected with war and our adventures.\u00a0Even now, I wake up and feel like I’m in Syria.\u00a0I need some more time\u00a0to\u00a0get used to it and get over it.<\/p>\n

I like seeing works created by female artists.\u00a0I believe that every woman, wherever she lives, wants to be creative and to contribute to changing things about her place and role in society.\u00a0Even in Arab countries,\u00a0where\u00a0women get married early and have to stay at home\u00a0–\u00a0often at the age of eleven –\u00a0make dreams and try to change some things, first inside them and then outside, in\u00a0society.\u00a0Of\u00a0course,\u00a0this is not easy.\u00a0Every girl learns from her mother how to take care of the house and the rest of the family and this passes from generation to generation.\u00a0But\u00a0any newly married girl you ask, what her dream is, her answer would be to finish school, go to university and continue to dream of the future.\u00a0It is only\u00a0that, after\u00a0marriage, these dreams have to end.\u00a0I\u2019d really like to know what the men in our group think about the role of women in today’s society.<\/p>\n

Still,\u00a0I believe that women,\u00a0even if they leave home and work, will never have the same rights as men do.\u00a0In the\u00a0end,\u00a0they will have to be at home, to cook, to wash, to raise the children, meaning that all the responsibility for the home will still be hers.\u00a0Even religion treats men and women differently.\u00a0I am a Christian.\u00a0My religion\u00a0tells me that\u00a0when a woman gets sick, her husband has the right to get married again.\u00a0But the opposite is not the case.\u00a0I know many women in Syria who have lost\u00a0their\u00a0husband\u00a0and continue their lives, raising their children without any support, without getting married again.<\/p>\n

Speaking of religion, the work about\u00a0Parthenon\u00a0by Alexandros\u00a0Georgiou2<\/sup> made me think that even in our days,\u00a0in times of crisis\u00a0or\u00a0war,\u00a0people still\u00a0resort to their temples\u00a0–\u00a0be it a\u00a0mosque\u00a0or a church\u00a0–\u00a0and\u00a0pray.\u00a0And while we all have this common feeling of faith in God, very bad things happen.\u00a0I’ll tell you an example of\u00a0what is happening in Syria:\u00a0my family and I\u00a0used to\u00a0go to church every Sunday.\u00a0We were advised not to go\u00a0all together to the same\u00a0church,\u00a0but each to a different one, as\u00a0attacks are frequent.\u00a0Any moment an explosion can happen in a church, especially on feast days, so an entire family could be lost.\u00a0We then started going to different\u00a0churches,\u00a0knowing that there was the possibility that a\u00a0member\u00a0of the family\u00a0may not return home.\u00a0It was terrible!\u00a0Especially\u00a0lately,\u00a0we were going\u00a0to\u00a0church feeling tremendously afraid.<\/p>\n

This is the situation in my country.\u00a0Here, in Athens, I see other unpleasant things happening too.\u00a0For\u00a0example, I see young people doing drugs on the pavements.\u00a0 This is something I have never seen before and it scares me.\u00a0But I want to say\u00a0that,\u00a0as in Georgiou\u2019s grey work, the Parthenon stands out in its shiny yellow colour,\u00a0and each of us, whatever our religion, must strive for\u00a0a positive\u00a0change within.\u00a0And dark as the way here has been, at the end of\u00a0the tunnel there will always be light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1\u00a0<\/sup>Refers to Sails<\/em>, 1981-1982.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>Refers to Athens, Parthenon, 2007-2008.<\/p>\n

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Audio Files<\/strong><\/h5>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]\u0395\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03ac<\/p>\n

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English<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/mp3\/Reem-E.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/mp3\/Reem-A.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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\u0641\u0627\u0631\u0633\u06cc<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/mp3\/Reem-F.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

[vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″]Slovensk\u00fd<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/mp3\/Reem_26_Syria.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1511022388651{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Reem 26 years old Syria The first time I saw\u00a0Vlassis\u00a0Caniaris\u2019\u00a0work,\u00a0Hopscotch,\u00a0I realized that the figures were refugees, confined within the frame defined by the country they arrived at.\u00a0Their dreams and possibility of professional rehabilitation are all determined by the frame defined by the host country.\u00a0We see\u00a0only men around a game to be\u00a0played,\u00a0exactly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":18,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4853","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7977,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4853\/revisions\/7977"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceforward.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}