Refugees: Unistra calls for solidarity

This young Syrian opera singer came to Strasbourg in October 2015 to perform at Sacré Journées, a local festival of interreligious music. He still hasn’t gone back to Syria. While waiting to obtain his refugee status, he tells us about his torn feelings regarding French and Syria and his unbreakable love of music.

In late March, Kinan Alzouhir sang a traditional Syrian song at the welcome event for refugees organised by the University of Strasbourg. A few months earlier, he performed at the cathedral for the opening of the Sacrées Journées festival. “I actually sang in all the churches of Strasbourg”, he adds with a touch of pride and a shy smile. Kinan was invited to sing in Strasbourg by his brother Karam who lives here and organised the festival. He arrived in Alsace in October along with his 20 colleagues of the St Ignatius choir. It wasn’t a trouble-free trip, as the choir members’ visas were refused by the French embassy in Lebanon; the French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve had to unblock the situation.

At the time, Kinan was studying at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus and planned to go home after the festival. 8 month later, he still is in Strasbourg, where he follows classes at the International Institute of French Studies (IIEF) and is well integrated in the local Protestant community. He lives in a university residence, where he met his girlfriend Charlotte who studies medicine. His uncle, a professor who has been living here for a long time, took him around Alsace in his camper van.

Although Kinan said he did not want to become a refugee when he arrived in France, he is currently waiting to obtain his refugee status. The hardships of war added to the fear of being enlisted in the army made him change his mind. The situation in Syria also made it difficult of him to practice music: on some days, it could take him between one and two hours to go to his rehearsals, getting past checkpoints and trying to avoid shells, car or bike bombs. All his professors progressively left Syria. Kinan remembers the good times before the war: he first learned to play the Oud, then played basketball and went to law school before finding his vocation when one of his teachers told him he had the voice to become an opera singer.

"If I could, I would sing all the time"

When he talks about his country, Kinan’s expression darkens. The tattoo on his arm is incomplete: the tattoo artist died before he could finish it. His friends and acquaintances either fled the country or died. On his phone, out of 500 contacts, only 140 are still alive. “At first, when you learn that a friend has died, you cry. Then, as more and more people die, you don’t cry anymore". He painfully remembers children playing war in the streets of Damascus, dreaming to become jihadists. “As soon as the war ends, I’m going back home”, he asserts, well-decided to be a role model in his country where he was well-known as a children choir director before the conflict.

He also bitterly points out the difference between the way he is welcomed in France as a protestant opera singer – a discipline part of European culture – and the way Muslim Syrian refugees are treated. He still hopes to make a career out of music. He launched the idea of singing to raise funds for fellow refugee students at the IIEF: “If I could, I would sing all the time”. His brother had to prevent him from doing so…at the prefecture!

Kinan and Karam’s parents are still in Syria. Their father, an Edith Piaf and Pavarotti fan – and bicycle repairer- passed his love of music on to them. Karam, who plays the viola, left the country in 2011 and completed a Master’s in musicology at the University of Strasbourg in June 2015. Today, Kinan keeps working on his repertoire (Arabic, Byzantine, Syrian, Orthodox or German songs, opera…) while waiting for the decision of the French Office for Immigration and Integration. Meanwhile, Charlotte takes care of his French: “If he doesn’t make progress, he will have to follow my vegetarian diet”, she jokes. His project for the summer is to go to the sea, which he hasn’t seen for five years.

Since early November, over 20 refugee students are attending a French as a foreign language course at the International Institute for French Studies (IIEF) within the framework of an intensive language programme (17 hours a week). According to their teacher Elodie Duval, the group is very motivated. Upon completion of the course, they will be awarded a university diploma which will allow them to pursue their higher education. 

Make a donation!

Along with Paris I, Strasbourg is one of the only French universities to offer intensive language programme to refugees. Refugee students are coming from Montpellier, Le Mans, Toulouse or Paris to attend these courses. Thirty-five students are already on a waiting list and requests keep coming from all across the country. Another dedicated course might open in the second semester, depending on the funds the University will be able to gather for it. To help with this process, the University Foundation launched a call for donation earlier this week. 

To donate, please fill out the following online form: http://campagne.unistra.fr/etudiants-syriens