After detention, torture, and flight from war-torn Syria, Noura Al-Jizawi was invited to speak at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland last month. Presenting a final hurdle, her passport was then called a fake by border officials. It wasn’t the first time, but Al-Jizawi didn’t let it stop her — producing a receipt for the legal document from the Syrian embassy.

Al-Jizawi is a Syrian revolutionary-turned-University of Toronto student, pursuing a masters’ degree in global affairs through their scholars-at-risk program — which supports graduate students who’ve fled war or persecution. And, as of three months ago, she’s a new mother. Juggling parenting and academia, she’s still advocating for her home country internationally.

Speaking to the Star this week upon her return from Geneva, her infant daughter by her side, she recounted her perspectives on forcible displacement, refugees and siege in Syria, topics she’d spoken on to the high ranking officials and foreign Ministers present at the UN. And the panel discussion, which was a year and a half in the making, came at an apt time.

It aligned with an ongoing seige of eastern Ghouta — described as “desperate” by Pawel Krzysiek, head of communications at the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday. Hundreds have died and some children hadn’t seen daylight for 15 days, with schools shuttered by shelling and people going hungry, the Associated Press reported. Around 400,000 people are believed to be trapped there.

The UN Security Council demanded a 30-day ceasefire of populated areas, including eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Foua and Kefraya, on Feb. 24. The order was made so humanitarian aid could be delivered, and the critically sick and wounded could be evacuated. Security council met behind closed doors on Tuesday to discuss the “failure” of that cease-fire, according to the Associated Press.

“Sadly, there’s no implementation, and it depends on the international players’ will,” Al-Jizawi said. “This attack against Eastern Ghouta, the besieged areas, must stop immediately.” She said the foreign ministers in Geneva had made “good, powerful statements” on the matter, noting that “strong diplomacy” — not war — was needed to stabilize the situation in Syria.

Al-Jizawi’s convictions were forged from childhood in Syria, she told the Star. In grade school, she started to notice the number of her schoolmates who had missing fathers. As she moved through her school years, Al-Jizawi said she heard stories in particular about the women and mothers impacted by those missing people. A group of them would covertly share information about the issue, collected from newly-released prisoners, Al-Jizawi said. She wasn’t part of that movement, but began to advocate around that time for the rights of missing people and against political detention. She and other advocates would meet secretly, discussing the authority situation in Syria. They concluded that revolution was the only answer.

“But no one could predict when revolution would come, because revolution is the act of the majority of people, it’s not the act of a small group,” she said. So they waited and advocated for change. In 2012, she was detained for six months. She’s spoken to several media outlets about being tortured at the time. Multiple members of her family were detained as well, so the family was displaced upon their release. She and her sister fled to Turkey in 2013, staying there until she was able to come to Canada. This is her first year at U of T.

“This is what I need. I feel like it’s a real place to learn,” she said.

When plans for the recent UN panel began, she said there were more areas under seige in Syria, but they’ve since been displaced. Leaving was the only way for people to survive, she said, especially with their children. While she spoke, she tended to her daughter Naya.

“If I could not have Naya in Canada, Naya would be stateless,” she told the Star, cooing over the three-month-old in the lobby of Innis College. “Many Syrian infants — born in refugee camps, in liberated areas, born from parents of the revolution side — they are stateless. That’s why so many people are seeking refugee asylum, just to protect the future of those kids.”

With a two year degree ahead, she spoke about the possibility of going back to Syria only if there was a ‘political transition.’ That, to her, meant ending the seige on her home country. “This is the only way to protect civilians and to achieve political transition, and also to achieve justice and accountability to protect the future,” she said.

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“That’s the only condition I could return.”

With files from the Associated Press

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