They look at each other as they leave the airport. The sisters give each other a reassuring smile as they grab their luggage and follow their parents. The family looks out at the bright colors all around the streets of Florida, and are astonished by its beauty. They enter the taxi, excited for the new life ahead of them.
Tasneem, sophomore, and Fatema, junior, Smadi are from Syria. They moved to Texas from Florida because of job opportunities.
“My favorite thing about Texas was that the people are very nice,” Fatema said. “I did not struggle to make friends here, which is something I love.”
Photo provided by Fatema Smadi
Fatema and Tasneem lived in Syria for about three years. They lived in Saudi Arabia for about 11 years and then moved to Florida in 2021 so they could be closer to their family members. They moved to Texas in 2022.
“In Syria there is a very strong sense of friendship there and people are very generous,” Tasneem said. “They treat you as a member of a family. It's like a very big family and everybody is included and nobody is left out.”
The sisters were very young when they lived in Syria so they don’t remember much. Most of their memories of Syria come from their parents' stories and pictures. They moved to Saudi Arabia due to war dangers.
“My favorite thing about Saudi Arabia was that people were kind and generous, but the thing that stood out to me the most was the school,” Fatema said. “We had several activities that were weeks, we had orientation week, foundation week, scouting week, and sports week,” Smadi continued. “These activities everyone got to interact with each other so nobody felt left out which is something I love.”
The sisters attended Shorouq Al Mamlakah International School. The school consisted of nursery students through 12th grade. During their activity weeks, the entire school got to play together and compete with each other for prizes. While in Saudi Arabia, they went on family and religious trips.
“There are two types of trips you can go to religiously,” Fatema said. “One of them is called Hajj where you go to Mecca,and it's like a pilgrimage where you stay there for 2 weeks where you perform religious activities and do prayers,” Fatema continued. “The other type where you also go to Mecca is called Umrah, where you just go inside the Mecca and you do other religious activities that are similar to Hajj but it's a shorter version,” Fatema continued. “We go to Madena to perform prayers in the holy mosque that Mahamid went to.”
Photo provided by Fatima Smadi
Hajj takes place in the middle of June and ends July first. It is trip every muslim has to go on in their lifetime. Umrah takes place anytime in the year and they can go anytime they want. Hajj is the fifth pillar in the Five Pillars of Islam in the Islamic religion.
“To me Florida was the most beautiful place I lived in,” Fatema said. “I absolutely loved the beach and the scenery was just so good.”
In Florida, the sisters made friends easily and participated in school activities. They joined a club called Medical Honors Society where people interested in health related fields would discuss jobs and play anatomy and physiology related games.
to make friends there” Tasneem said. “They saw me and they were like ‘Where are you from?’ ‘You look different than all of us’ and I got to go with them on activities, like we used to study together, talk, and eat together.”
Photo provided by Fatima Smadi
Tasneem plans on joining the Key club and on creating the Medical Honors Society. Fatema is in Chick-fil-a leadership academy. They plan on going to college and attending med school. Fatema wants to become a neurosurgeon and Tasneem plans on becoming an obgyn.
“I find this undying passion for medicine,” Tasneem said. “When I was a child what I would do for fun was search up diseases and I would discuss them with my sister, that's just how much I love medicine.”