Muzna Dureid

Last updated
Muzna Dureid
Born1991
Damascus, Syria
Alma mater Damascus University
Known forHuman rights activism
Awards IDRC Canada’s women, peace, and security award

Muzna Dureid (born 1991) is a Syrian human rights activist and former refugee, based in Montreal, Canada.

Contents

Shortly after her uncle was assassinated at the start of the Syria Civil War, Dureid and her family fled the country. She relocated to Canada after seeking asylum while attending an Ottawa conference.

Dureid founded the Women Refugees, not Captives campaign and the Indigenous – Refugees movement.

She was a 2022 recipient of the first International Development Research Centre's Canada's women, peace, and security award.

Early life

Dureid was born in 1991 in Damascus. [1]

She has both an older and a two-years-younger brother named Monzer. [1]

Adult life

In Syria

She was studying the work of Molière at Damascus University when the Syrian Civil War started. [1] Her uncles and cousins were arrested while attending street protests against the government. [1] Several months later, another uncle was assassinated during a street demonstration. [1]

As a refugee

Her family fled Syria to Saudi Arabia, France and then Turkey. [1] While in France, she was provided with human rights training by the Council of Europe. [1]

While attending a 2016 [2] Sister to Sister Mentorship event in Ottawa, Canada, Dureid applied for political asylum [3] and relocated to Montreal and enrolled at Concordia University where she studied politics. [1] [4] Her application for refugee status was accepted in January 2017. [5]

In Canada

She has worked at the Centre Social D’aide Aux Immigrants [6] and as the Canadian liaison officer for the Syrian civil defense organization the White Helmets. [7] She helped found and sits on the board of the Paris-based Syrian Women’s Political Movement, [3] and also founded the Women Refugees, not Captives campaign against forced child marriages in Syrian refugee camps. [8] [9] In Canada, Dureid founded the Indigenous – Refugees movement organization to improve solidarity between refugees and Indigenous peoples in Canada. [2] [8]

In 2018, Dureid called for tougher action against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad [10] and in 2019 she won the CanWaCH Young Leader Award. [8]

In 2022, the Canadian federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly presented Dureid with the International Development Research Centre's first ever Canada’s women, peace, and security award. [11]

She is a member of Network for Refuge Voices and serves on the advisory committee of the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network. [12]

She featured in Khadija Baker's 2022 exhibit Birds Crossing Borders [13] and her account is featured in Ozlem Ezer's 2018 book Syrian Women Refugees Personal Accounts of Transition. [14]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Gervais, Lisa-Marie (2021-03-15). "De la Syrie au Canada, l'exil infini de la famille Dureid". Le Devoir (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  2. 1 2 Perkins, Julianna (6 Feb 2021). "Newcomers to Quebec need more opportunities to learn about Indigenous history, activists say". CBC.
  3. 1 2 "Muzna Dureid's Journey to Advancing Women's Rights". carleton.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  4. ↑ "Syrie | La normalisation des relations avec Damas suscite l'inquiétude". La Presse (in French). 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  5. ↑ Life Writing Outside the Lines: Gender and Genre in the Americas. (2020). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
  6. ↑ "Muzna Dureid". Women Deliver. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  7. ↑ Brewster, Murray (28 Oct 2018). "Former Syrian White Helmet rescuers, reluctantly resettled, embrace their new lives in Canada". CBC.
  8. 1 2 3 "2019 CanWaCH Awards". CanWaCH. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  9. ↑ "Meet Muzna Dureid, Syria/Canada". Nobel Women's Initiative. 2019-11-28. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  10. ↑ Morgan Lowrie (2018-04-15). "Réactions mitigées au pays aux frappes en Syrie". Journal Métro (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  11. ↑ "Canada's women, peace, and security awards | IDRC - International Development Research Centre". idrc.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  12. ↑ "Muzna Dureid". Centre for International Governance Innovation. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  13. ↑ "The Salle de diffusion de Parc-Extension presents 'Birds Crossing Borders' | Fringe Arts". thelinknewspaper.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  14. ↑ By Ozlem Ezer (2018) Drawing a Narrative Landscape with Women Refugees, a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 33:3, 612-619, DOI: 10.1080/08989575.2018.1499493
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