Syrian refugee family speaks of horrors of war, re-settlement in Scottdale
The Al-Attrach/El Sharity family has completed an odyssey from Syria to Saudi Arabia, Connellsville and now to Scottdale.
Grandmother Kouhaila Al-Attrach, her daughter Roudaina (Alya) El Sharity, and granddaughter Haya Amer all spoke of their experiences at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Westmoreland County Conservative Coalition in Penn Township.
The meeting was held in The Warehouse, the children and youth building of nearby Cornerstone Ministries.
When Alya El Sharity was a child attending the Armenian Catholic School in Suwaida, Syria, the Christians and members of the Druze and Alouette sects, two branches of Shia Islam, all got along, she said.
Her family is part of the Druze minority, whose members have Muslim and Jewish ancestors. She, her mother and daughter speak Arabic, French and English.
She spent a good part of her childhood playing in the dental practice of her Uncle Zeid, who was the dean of the dental school in Syria.
In 1981, members of the Muslim Brotherhood murdered her father, Naif El Sharity, an attorney, and her uncle at the same time, because they were not Muslims, El Sharity said.
The terrorists targeted and killed the highly educated people of all ethnic groups, she said.
Because she adored her uncle, El Sharity also chose to become a dentist, graduating from dental school in 1995. In 1998, she earned her specialty in creating bridges and other dental work.
After a horrible marriage, she spent 10 years working as a dentist in Saudia Arabia, where women are not permitted to drive, and where there are a lot of “restrictive and silly” rules for women, El Sharity said.
Five years ago, the war in Syria started.
“Now all the Syrian families are confronting the terrorists in one way or another,” she said.
Her mother, Al-Attrach, said many families in Syria had their houses and land confiscated. Sharity said members of the Al Nussra terrorist group seized her family’s home, and are now using it as a place to rape women.
The women described many horrors, including terrorists cutting open the stomachs of pregnant women or burning people alive.
“They are animals,” El Sharity said.
Right now, Syrians still in Syria are dying of hunger and cold, she said.
When a member of the audience asked if Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is good for the people of Syria, El Sharity would not answer, but said he is fighting the terrorists.
Sharity said she was able to get a visa to come to the United States because she is a dentist.
At first she, her mother and daughter, Haya, lived with an uncle, who had also agreed to fund the two extra years of dental school El Sharity must take to practice here. Her uncle had a stroke, and was unable to fulfill his promise of financial help.
For a while, the family lived in the basement of an older woman in Connellsville who is her mother’s friend, but El Sharity said she lived in fear because the woman’s daughter was a heroin addict.
Dave Garber, an elder in Scottdale Mennonite Church, said church members heard of the family’s plight because Al-Attrach, a skilled seamstress, attends the church’s Comfort Zone Sewing Circle, and also attends church there with Haya.
Members of the church owned an apartment building with an empty apartment, and the family was able to move in.
He said church members are trying to be the refugees’ new family, providing them with transportation to appointments and other help.
On Friday, El Sharity will go to the immigration office in Monroeville to try to get an extension on her visa, and to see whether she has permission to work yet.
She is anxious to work because the family’s small savings are running out. The church does have a fund that members will continue to use to help the family.
It is El Sharity’s dream to go to the University of Pittsburgh Dental School so that she can resume work as a dentist. She is also looking for financing to pay for the needed two years.
She has already passed her first dental board examination here and has one to go.
Garber said the church will need to help support the family for some time until El Sharity can resume the practice of dentistry. Anyone wishing to contribute to the family’s living expenses or her dental school costs can send money to: Syrian Family Fund c/o Scottdale Mennonite Church, 801 Market St., Scottdale, PA 15683.