“We wanted it for the sake of our children,” a Syrian Mother in Reno
Yulia Rajeh reports, with multimedia elements by Chris Darche, about Rana Marai and the hardships she faced with her family, leaving war in Syria and making it in the Biggest Little City.
Becoming a citizen
Rana Marai is one of a handful of Syrian refugees who were resettled in Reno in 2016. Recently, she became a United States citizen along with the members of her family now calling the high desert country home.
Being extremely motivated, Rana started her studies at Truckee Meadows Community College and obtained certificates to become a Clinical Laboratory Specialist and a Clinical Medical Assistant. In 2021, she passed the state exam and got a full-time position at Renown Health. Telling her story, Rana became very emotional, reflecting on the difficulties she surmounted throughout her life.
We sat on the floor in her bedroom where we hid from all the children. She held a small glass of tea in her hand and she calmly said: “We never imagined that we would come to the USA and live here. We just wanted to live in safety and have equal rights with the citizens of the country in which we live. We wanted it for the sake of our children.”
Escaping their homeland
Rana and her husband Mazen have four children: three daughters and one son. Up until 2015, the family lived in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus. Mazen owned a small tailor shop. The family lived comfortably. One day, they decided to go visit Rana’s brother. Upon returning to their home, they found their neighborhood blocked off. Their home along with their personal belongings were destroyed. Rana said that all their money and documents were gone.
“We tried for three weeks to return home, but they didn’t let us in,” she remembers.
Their neighborhood was closed to civilians. Only Syrian military forces were allowed inside the neighborhood as battles were raging between the official Syrian Army and a rebel group. Fortunately, the family had a place to stay. They lived with her brother for several weeks. Eventually they started to rent a house in Jobar — another suburb of Damascus. After three months in Jobar, fierce battles broke out between government troops and the rebel faction in other areas, with devastating consequences.
The civil war which began in 2011 has dragged on for over a decade now, even if it has been scaled down. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s long-standing dynastic regime remains in power.
“We realized that this is the end, we need to leave. It’s not safe for our children to live in this country.”
For four years, Rana and Mazen hoped the situation in Syria would get better, but unfortunately it got worse.
For the people of Damascus, the daily sound of gun fire became a new reality. Rana and her family continued to receive bad news.
First, Rana’s brother was killed by a sniper while walking on the street. Then, Rana’s father was arrested arbitrarily. Random arrest operations of men were practiced by the official Syrian military as a means of intimidation. Rana’s father never got out of prison, where he apparently died from being tortured. His body and death certificate were never returned to the family. To this day, Rana does not know where her father is buried.
Another awful day, there was an explosion on the way to the school where Rana was taking one of her daughters. At the same time, Rana’s other daughter was at school while her two younger children were waiting for her in their rented apartment. It was at this point that Rana and Mazen decided to leave Syria permanently.
“We realized that this is the end, we need to leave. It’s not safe for our children to live in this country,” she said.
Luckily, Rana and her family were able to obtain new legal documents and passports. After procuring their paperwork, they left Syria. The first country they went to was Lebanon. They stayed in Lebanon for a little while and then took a boat to Turkey. When the family arrived in Turkey, they found life to be very difficult there. Rana and her family did not fit well into Turkish society, so she decided to apply for refugee resettlement. She concluded that there were no prospects for a good life in Turkey.
“In Turkey, you will always be an immigrant,” she said. “We had to get permission if we wanted to travel from one city to another. Also, the permission of the Turkish authorities was needed in order to travel abroad.”
A Ticket to the USA for a New Life
After countless hours filling out paperwork for relocation, their resettlement petition was approved. Rana and her family were going to America, and more precisely Reno. They became the sixth Syrian family to be accepted by the Northern Nevada International Center, coordinating the resettlements here.
Initially, the family was denied from leaving Turkey because of government restrictions for Syrian refugees. After a while they finally received permission to leave thanks to Rana’s relentless efforts.
“We lived in constant expectation. We were kind of lost, not knowing if we were going or not,” she remembers.
The most emotional moment happened at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport where they were met by staff from the NNIC as well as other volunteers.
“We were tired and exhausted,” she said. “We were late to go out, because we did not know where to go. When we went out to the arrivals hall, we saw a lot of people who waved their hands and greeted someone. We did not believe that all these people were meeting us. I turned around several times to see who was behind us, but no one was there. We were the only ones who hadn’t left yet. All these people welcomed us. One woman even brought dates and milk. I felt great relief and joy.”
New Health Challenges for Her Daughter
When Rana arrived in America, she believed that her hardships were over. Sadly, adversity continued to affect the Marai family.
Four months after coming to Reno, her daughter, Bisan, was taken to intensive care where she almost died. Rana said that Bisan has been anemic since birth and continuously needs blood transfusions. Once in Reno, the parents brought Bisan to a local medical practitioner where she started an experimental treatment to cure her anemia. The medication acted adversely and Bisan was rushed to the hospital in Reno and then transported to Oakland, California, where she received treatment. Rana was by Bisan’s side praying she would be healed.
“Because of what happened, Bisan today has type two diabetes and heart disease,” she says.
Language was the most difficult barrier for Rana during this time. The inability to properly understand and talk with doctors as well as not being able to express her point of view and position encouraged Rana to study English assiduously.
She also realized that she needed to learn about the American healthcare system in order to help her daughter in case of an emergency. Rana started to study English at Truckee Meadows Community College. Eventually, she graduated with honors and received a scholarship to study medicine.
Later, she went on to earn her two medical certificates. She was so diligent that her teacher advised her to look for a job before graduation. Rana followed her teacher’s advice and within a week after receiving her diploma, she started working full-time at Renown Health.
In Syria, Rana did not have a chance to complete higher education. After graduating from school, she married. She wanted to continue her education, but her father and husband were against it. They believed that education was not important for a woman in an Arabic society.
“In Arab society, a woman always follows her husband,” Rana said during our interview. “The husband is the one who speaks, the one who acts. Therefore, there are restrictions and boundaries for women and not everyone manages to fulfill their dreams and achieve something in life”.
Rana said that at the beginning it was difficult for her husband to initially accept a different way of life in America, but she says he’s come around.
Rana says Reno gave her the opportunity to be her true self and to find a calm and happy life. According to the Refugee Processing Center there have been 39 refugees from Syria resettled in Reno, Nevada since 2002.
