Child refugee who made it her mission to save girls from arranged marriages… and inspire them to strive for a better life

Do you know an incredible woman – a charity activist, entrepreneur, teacher or healthcare worker who goes above and beyond – who deserves recognition? Then you can nominate her for the Inspiring Women Awards 2024.

Find out more at dailymail.co.uk/inspirational women2024. And we can today announce that the five winners will attend a WOW Foundation event at Buckingham Palace in March to celebrate International Women's Day.

She may only be 25, but Muzoon Almellehan has overcome more obstacles in her life than many women face in their entire lives.

What makes Muzoon so impressive, however, is not only that she has embraced every challenge with determination, but that she strives to inspire others every day.

From the moment she arrived in a refugee camp at the age of 14, Muzoon has fought long and hard for the rights of children – especially girls – to education.

Her fight was so successful that Unicef ​​appointed her a Goodwill Ambassador at the age of 19 in recognition of her fight. Her fellow ambassadors include actors Orlando Bloom and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

Muzoon's goal is that every child has the opportunity for education. It can be something we take for granted. But this Newcastle University graduate knows all too well that things are very different in many parts of the world.

“Education is not a privilege, it is a right,” says Muzoon, who lives in Newcastle with her teacher father and younger siblings.

“Every child deserves to be kept safe and deserves an education. I will never stop speaking out for all those children around the world who have no voice.”

Muzoon was only eleven when war broke out in Syria in March 2011 and her happy life disappeared in an instant.

“Up until then, life was completely normal,” she says. 'Dad was a teacher. Mother kept the house. I was just like any other kid: I went to school and hung out with my friends. I wanted to become a journalist.

'I didn't have to worry about anything. I didn't know how lucky I was.

'But when the war started, our lives were turned upside down. Suddenly it was no longer safe to leave the house to go to school because you could be killed. Even going to the shops was dangerous.

'And there were weeks when there was hardly any food. Basics like bread simply disappeared. Everything I had taken for granted was gone. The bombardment was so intense that you knew you could die at any moment.'

The family endured these daily horrors for three years before fleeing. Although her parents were convinced that this was their only hope of survival, leaving their home was deeply distressing.

“I couldn't bear the thought of leaving my beautiful home and my school,” says Muzoon. 'Life was terrible, but it was all I knew. This was going into the unknown.”

Following her father's instructions to pack only the essentials and determined to stick to her dream of an education, the then 14-year-old Muzoon loaded her schoolbooks into her backpack. There were more than ten of them, making the bag almost impossible to carry.

The family drove to the Jordanian border and joined 5.3 million other refugees. Ten kilometers across the border they found themselves in Zaatari, one of the largest refugee camps in the world. Their new home was a tent with no electricity or internet. Water came from a central tank.

'We were used to space and privacy. Now we all had to sleep together and share a kitchen with others,” says Muzoon.

'We were in the middle of the desert. It was scorching hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. But my father kept reminding us how lucky we were to be alive.”

Within a month, the first school was opened in the camp, supported by Unicef. Muzoon was ecstatic.

However, the camp school consisted of nine mobile homes, each with a different class, it was chaotic. “Refugees came and went all the time,” says Muzoon. 'One day there were thirty students in my class, the next day only twenty.'

But Muzoon surrendered, determined to keep her dream of going to college alive.

'Having a goal has really helped me cope. Instead of focusing on the present, I dreamed of the future when I could return to Syria.”

She was also keen to encourage other children at the camp to do the same. 'When I went to my first lesson, I saw that many of the children I had seen in the tents were not there. I soon learned that some girls, even girls as young as thirteen, married men in the camp instead of going to school.

'They talked about it as if it was normal. Their families thought marriage would protect them. I also discovered that there was a general attitude in the camp: “We have lost our homes and are refugees. It is not our right to get an education.”

'Why would you let the war take everything away? Nothing should take away your knowledge. And as refugees, we needed education more than ever to face the challenges and suffering in our lives.

'There was a friend of mine at school, a very good student. One day she stopped coming. It wasn't until I asked other girls that I found out she was married. She was 14, just like me. I felt so sad.'

Undeterred, Muzoon continued her campaign when the family was transferred eighteen months later to Azraq, a camp consisting of rows of tin huts.

Every day she toured the camp, talking to parents about sending their children to school and encouraging the girls to go to school.

“I told them there is no better protection than education,” she says. “I explained that one day we would need a generation of engineers, doctors and teachers to rebuild Syria.

“There was a girl who was going to marry a man old enough to be her father. It wasn't what she wanted. When I told her she had a choice, she was able to convince her parents to let her stay in school and not get married.”

But above all, Muzoon dreamed of escaping the camp. The opportunity came in 2015, when then-Prime Minister David Cameron offered to resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees. Ten weeks later, her family was on a plane to Newcastle with eight other families.

Given refugee status with a five-year visa, everything was arranged so that the family could settle easily and within a week of their arrival, Muzoon and her siblings started school.

The culture shock was enormous. But thanks to her own resilience and the support of the Kenton School staff, she thrived.

In 2018 she took up her place at the University of Newcastle. Now, with a master's degree in International Relations, Muzoon works full-time for her municipality helping asylum seekers and migrants, and travels the world in her UNICEF role, campaigning for children's rights.

She visits refugee camps where she hopes to instill the same passion for education in others.

“I tell them life will get better,” she says. 'I was in their place; I know how they feel, but I tell them there is life ahead.

“I hope that one day I will hear how they became engineers, doctors, lawyers and teachers and returned to their homes to build new lives.”

Muzoon recently returned to the camp she left as a teenager. Reuniting with her old teachers and discovering how they use her story to inspire students was a testament to how far she has come.

“I would like a career in politics or media,” she says. 'I hope I am living proof that one small person can make a difference.

'When I started I just had my voice, but I was determined to be heard. By talking to my friends and classmates, a movement gradually grew that cannot be silenced.”

Nominate your inspiring woman

To make a nomination, complete this form online, or use the form below and send it to us by email or post. Tell us in a maximum of 400 words – on a separate sheet – why your candidate should win.

To enter your nomination online, visit dailymail.co.uk/inspirationalwomen2024; email your entry to: inspirationalwomen@dailymail.co.uk, or send your nomination to: spiring Women Awards, c/o Femail, Daily Mail, 9 Derry St, London W8 5HY.

The closing date for entries is Wednesday February 14, 2024 at 11:59 PM. The editor's decision is final.

PRICES: Each winner will receive a crystal trophy and a £500 M&S gift voucher. There are no cash alternatives to the prizes. Full terms and conditions apply. Read this before heading to dailymail.co.uk/inspirationalwomen2024.

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