Around that time, a menacing-looking man on a moped pulled up in the square outside the hotel where Doaa’s family was staying and began shouting. Doaa and her family rushed to their balcony to see what he was yelling about. At the top of his lungs, he shouted, “If any of you parents send your children to our schools, they will be returned back to you cut into pieces.” He shouted this threat over and over for all to hear. The Syrian men of the neighborhood who witnessed the scene tried to chase him down, but he sped away before they could get his license plate number to report him. The feeling of fear that Doaa’s family thought they had left behind in Syria started to creep back in. Many of their neighbors decided to keep their kids at home from then on, and Shokri and Hanaa took their children out of school as well. Hamudi was devastated and spent his days sulking at home.
Meanwhile, Shokri was struggling to make ends meet with only a few loyal customers, and Bassem could see how badly he was doing, so he offered to partner with him in his salon, and Shokri gratefully accepted. By then Bassem had quite a number of young patrons, and this helped to revive Shokri’s business. While the extra income helped the family out some, Bassem knew that he wanted more for himself and his future bride. Even with both of them working long hours, they had no hope of a life of anything other than grinding poverty. They couldn’t start a family under these conditions, and Bassem was losing more hope every day that they would ever return to Syria. It felt as if they were wasting their lives in Egypt among a population who didn’t seem to want them there. He couldn’t be with Doaa as much as he wanted since he worked so much, and he worried that one day he would not be there to protect her when she needed him. Bassem knew that something had to change.
SEVEN
Deal with the Devil
On a balmy June afternoon in 2014, nine months after Doaa and Bassem’s engagement, the Al Zamel family was finishing up lunch. Doaa was still living at home with her family since she and Bassem could only move in together after they had a formal wedding.
After helping to clear the plates, Bassem suggested that they all go for a walk before he and Shokri returned to work at the barbershop. The young couple walked ahead of the rest of the family, holding hands and chatting. When they reached the Corniche, Bassem turned to Doaa, his voice lower than usual. He spoke deliberately, as if he had rehearsed what he was going to say. “I have something important to discuss with you. I want us to go to Europe. We have no future here. We’re stuck, and we can’t go back to Syria.” He looked down into her astonished face and began speaking more quickly. “Everyone is going. A friend of mine went to Germany and has applied to bring his family there. It’s much better there, Doaa. You could go to school and I can open a barbershop. We can have a home together and start a family.” He watched her face hopefully, searching for some sign of agreement. “What do you think? We just need to get the money to go.”
All Doaa could think of was the vast sea that stood between Egypt and Europe, and of water closing in over her head and filling her lungs. She still hadn’t learned to swim, and just the thought of crossing that expanse of water made her panic. She knew that refugees had no legal way to get to Europe. They wouldn’t be able to get the documents they needed to sail on another big ferry, like the one they had taken to Egypt. If they applied for a visa, it would be rejected, and to ask for asylum in Europe, you had to arrive there physically, and Doaa knew that the only way to get there was considered illegal by Egyptian authorities and unsafe by everyone. “Do you mean by a smuggler’s boat?” she asked. “Don’t even think about it. I won’t do it.” She knew those boats were small, decrepit, and overcrowded and had heard stories of boats sinking and refugees drowning. She couldn’t believe that Bassem would want to risk it. How could she cross the sea in one of those when she couldn’t even set foot in water?
“But,” Bassem stammered, “you will only be in the water up to your knees, then you’ll be safe on the boat. We’ll be rescued once we get close to Italy, then we can make our way to Sweden!” Bassem explained how distress signals are sent out as soon as refugee boats reach Italian waters, and that the Italian coast guard sends ships out to bring everyone safely ashore.
“Absolutely not.” Doaa shivered. “My answer is no, Bassem.”