Newcastle, Dec.5.─ She’s thousands of kilometres away from her homeland, but Muzoon Almellehan is still fighting for Syria.
The rainy grey streets of this English port city could hardly feel further from the olive grove-covered hills of her home province of Daraa, but the 17-year-old Ms. Almellehan sees everything she does here – from her high-school studies to her relentless campaigning to ensure other refugee children get access to education – as a front in the war for her homeland’s future.
“If everybody thinks ‘I can’t do anything,’ then nothing will change. I told myself that if I keep silent, nothing will change,” she said, sitting in her favourite building in her new home town, Newcastle’s main public library, her hair tucked under a tight grey head scarf.
Ms. Almellehan’s rousing voice echoes through the quiet building, her natural charisma overriding the rules of the room. The library staff repeatedly look over during our hour-long conversation, but no one tries to shush her.
She has been called her country’s Malala Yousafzai ...
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