Doaa Al Zamel

{{Short description|Syrian refugee and shipwreck survivor}}{{Infobox person | name = Doaa Al Zamel | birth_date = {{bda|1995|7|df=y|9}} | birth_place = Daraa, Syria | known_for = Surviving the 2014 Malta migrant shipwreck }}

'''Doaa Al Zamel''' (born 9 July 1995 in Daraa, Syria) is a Syrian refugee and one of 11 survivors of the 2014 Malta migrant shipwreck that killed approximately 500 people.

In 2012, fleeing the Syria civil war, Al Zamel's family moved to Egypt, where she got engaged. After Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took over Egypt, her fiancé Bassem and Al Zamel paid people smugglers to flee to Europe in 2014. They boarded a crowded boat with 500 other migrants and refugees. The boat capsized after being rammed by the smugglers. All but eleven of the 500 people drowned, including Bassem. Al Zamel survived four days at sea, holding two infants and was rescued, taken to Greece and then resettled in Sweden.

== Early life == Al j amel was born in Daraa, Syria, two hours away from Damascus and grew up with her five sisters and one brother.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=31 March 2017 |title='I had a feeling of death before me': A refugee's survival story of 4 days floating at sea |work=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-march-31-2017-1.4047940/i-had-a-feeling-of-death-before-me-a-refugee-s-survival-story-of-4-days-floating-at-sea-1.4047975 |access-date=15 June 2023}}</ref> Her father was a barber. She was six years old, when demonstrations against president Bashar al-Assad started, and 16 when the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Stewart |first=Debbie |date=12 July 2017 |title=The Syrian refugee crisis through Doaa Zamel's experiences |work=Great Falls Tribune |url=https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/2017/07/12/syrian-refugee-crisis-through-doaa-zamels-experiences/473504001/ |access-date=15 June 2023}}</ref> After her father's shop was destroyed, the family fled to Egypt, in November 2012.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Fürstenau |first=Marcel |date=3 March 2017 |title=Doaa's dangerous journey to Europe |url=https://www.dw.com/en/doaas-dangerous-journey-to-europe/a-37797088 |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=DW |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ribeiro |first=João Reis |date=2021-12-02 |title=500 palavras: Doaa Al Zamel e a esperança que venceu o mar |url=https://osetubalense.com/opiniao/2021/12/02/500-palavras-doaa-al-zamel-e-a-esperanca-que-venceu-o-mar/ |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=O Setubalense |language=pt-PT}}</ref>

== Egypt == In Egypt, Al Zamel got engaged to a man called Bassem. After the change of Egyptian leadership from Mohamed Morsi to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, circumstances deteriorated for refugees like Bassem and Al Zamel and they decided to flee to Sweden for a better quality of life. To start that journey, Bassem paid people smugglers his life savings of US$2,500<ref name=":2" /> to take them both by boat via the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

== Journey to Europe == On September 6 2014, Al Zamel and Bassem boarded an overcrowded Egyptian fishing trawler<ref>{{Cite web |last=Psaropoulos |first=John |title=Greece sea disaster |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/9/21/mass-murder-on-the-mediterranean-high-seas |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref> with approximately 500 other refugees and migrants.<ref name=":0" /> Al Zamel was 19 years old at the time of the journey and could not swim.<ref name=":1" />

During the journey, the people smugglers forced the passengers to change boats several times.<ref name=":1" /> As they still were 16 hours away from Italy, the smugglers told the passengers to change boats one final time, but the passengers refused.<ref name=":1" /> The smugglers then rammed the passengers' boat, knocking everyone into the sea, and shouting "Let the fish eat your flesh".<ref name=":2" /> All but about fifty people drowned in the first few minutes; Al Zamel survived by clinging to a children's lifebuoy that Bassem found. Some fifty initial survivors started to drown over the next two days, and a man from Gaza gave Al Zamel his nine-month old granddaughter, Malak, pleading for Al Zamel to take hold of her. Both the grandfather and Bassem drowned shortly after. Then another family swam to Al Zamel and asked her to hold their 18-month old daughter Masa, which she did.<ref name=":1" />

After four days at sea, a merchant vessel found the survivors and took them on board. Al Zamel, Malak and Masa were three of only eleven people who survived the shipwreck. Malak died five hours after the rescue.<ref name=":1" />

== Arrival in Europe ==

After her rescue, Al Zamel was taken to Greece and later resettled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Sweden. Masa was reconnected with an uncle and also lives in Sweden.<ref name=":1" />

== In popular culture == Al Zamel's story is featured in the Book ''A Hope More Powerful than the Sea'' by Melissa Fleming of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Sawyer |first=Jenny |date=2017-02-06 |title='A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea' is the stunning tale of a Syrian refugee |work=Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2017/0206/A-Hope-More-Powerful-Than-the-Sea-is-the-stunning-tale-of-a-Syrian-refugee |access-date=2022-08-21 |issn=0882-7729}}</ref> Steven Spielberg bought the rights to make a film about the story.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Chisholm |first=Kate |title=Acts of settlement {{!}} The Spectator |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/acts-of-settlement |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=www.spectator.co.uk |date=30 May 2019 |language=en}}</ref> In 2018, the producers received criticism for commissioning white American writer Lena Dunham to adapt the novel for the screen, being accused of whitewashing.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pulver |first=Andrew |date=2018-10-30 |title=Backlash over Lena Dunham script for Syrian refugee film |url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/30/lena-dunham-syrian-refugee-film-backlash |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

Al Zamel was featured in the 2019 documentary ''Beyond Borders,'' produced by Craig Templeton Smith, along with fellow Syrian refugees Ayesha, Fewaz, and Hani Al Moulia.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Beyond Borders [The Documentary] |url=http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/b/be/beyond_borders__the_documentary___world_service_.html |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=www.radiolistings.co.uk |archive-date=2023-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116193314/http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/b/be/beyond_borders__the_documentary___world_service_.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * Peter Walker and John Hooper, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/16/migrants-children-drowned-boat-mediterranean ''100 children among migrants 'deliberately drowned' in Mediterranean''], The Guardian, 16 September 2017

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zamel, Doaa}} Category:1990s births Category:Syrian refugees Category:Syrian emigrants to Sweden Category:People from Daraa Category:Shipwreck survivors Category:Living people