Across wars, exile and a lifetime of displacement, Nour Owiss says one feeling always remained out of reach: belonging.
Now calling New Brunswick home since last fall, Owiss says Canada is the first place where she has truly felt treated as an equal human being.
“In Canada, I achieved my first dream — that I am equal to everyone,” she said. “I start feeling that I belong.”
At 40 years old, the lawyer, journalist and activist has already lived through experiences many people could scarcely imagine: refugee camps, war zones, statelessness, discrimination and rebuilding life from scratch, time and again, across borders and upheaval. She says the decades of resilience finally paid off, adding that Canada feels like “Disneyland” compared with the instability she left behind.
“In the beginning, I was hopeless,” she said. “I have no future, nothing. But here in Canada … I am so satisfied in my Disneyland.”
“I always thought that I am alone … but in Canada, I am not alone,” Owiss says. “Even I am here alone, I don’t have any one of my family members, but I am not alone.”
A life shaped by displacement
Owiss traces her family’s displacement back generations, to the Nakba of 1948, when Palestinians were forced from their homes during the creation of Israel.
Born to a Palestinian family in Saudi Arabia, Owiss says her family later moved to Syria, where she grew up in the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus. Displaced by war and forced to flee across multiple countries, she says survival defined her life for decades.
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“I don’t want to be a refugee … but it wasn’t allowed for me to not be a refugee.”
Owiss says she has never held citizenship in any country.
“As Palestinian people, we are always refugees,” she said. “No human wants that forever.”
But war would uproot her life again.
In 2012, fighting between the Syrian regime and ISIS engulfed the Yarmouk camp. Owiss says she and her younger sister were prevented from returning home from a shopping trip after learning the area had fallen into conflict.
Her family was displaced once more. At one point, seven family members were living together in a single room while relying on aid and whatever income Owiss could bring in.
She says she became the sole financial provider for much of her family during that period.
Human rights work — and becoming a target
Despite the instability around her, Owiss pursued higher education and advocacy work.
She earned a law degree and worked with humanitarian and development agencies. She also worked as a journalist, writing about human rights, secularism, women’s equality, LGBTQ2 rights and civil freedoms in the Middle East.
Her work eventually made her a target. Owiss says her outspoken views and activism led to threats and placed her at risk under Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria, where she says she was declared wanted by the authorities.
“It was the worst time in my life,” she said. “There was no place for me in Syria.”
“At that time, I became totally stateless, homeless. There was no place for me. I should find a house, a country, a work, money.”
What followed were years of movement across Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq — each country bringing new barriers.
In Lebanon, she says discriminatory laws prevented her from pursuing graduate studies in law and human rights as a Palestinian refugee. In Iraq, she struggled to find safety and stability as a woman living independently.
Still, she continued working in journalism and advocacy, producing podcasts, short films and human rights content. She also founded a human rights-focused platform called Morieh.
“In some other countries, there is no choices for the women,” Owiss says. “Here, there are a lot of choices — no place is closed.”
‘Enjoy life. We live just once.’
Everything changed, she says, the moment she arrived in Canada. For the first time, she says, she was able to think beyond survival.
“Enjoy life,” she said. “We live just once.”
Owiss now plans to study political science and continue her work in human rights advocacy.
“There is no one here judging me or give me any things to control me,” Owiss says. “That’s given me a space to be myself, to continue my dreams to study and be working and to have good relations with the people and community around me.”
She hopes her story helps Canadians see refugees beyond headlines and political debates.
Behind every refugee story, she says, is a person carrying grief, resilience, sacrifice — and hope for a normal life.
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