{"id":44209,"date":"2020-11-03T02:25:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T02:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44209"},"modified":"2020-11-03T02:25:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T02:25:53","slug":"syrian-refugees-joy-at-georgetown-admission-goes-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44209","title":{"rendered":"Syrian refugee\u2019s joy at Georgetown admission goes viral"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nLONDON: A Syrian refugee tortured at the hands of the Assad regime is going viral after sharing a video of his elated reaction to being accepted into a prestigious US university.<\/p>\n

\nOmar Alshogre\u2019s 9-second video on Twitter has been viewed roughly 140,000 times. \u201cI made it into Georgetown!\u201d he exclaims in disbelief.<\/p>\n

\nThe 25-year-old refugee\u2019s acceptance is an uplifting end to a long and tragic journey that began in the early days of the Syrian uprising.<\/p>\n

\nWhen pro-democracy protests swept through the country in 2011, Alshogre was arrested multiple times for taking part in them, and when Syria descended into civil war, he spent three years in a regime prison.<\/p>\n

\nThere, he said, he was subjected to daily torture and starvation, which killed his two cousins arrested alongside him. While inside, he lost his father and brother to a regime massacre in his home village.<\/p>\n

\n

We deserve a moment of happiness. I\u2019m officially admitted to Georgetown University. @Georgetown<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/M1BVsaY8dS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Omar Alshogre (@omarAlshogre) November 1, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWhile imprisoned, Alshogre was forced to remove the bodies of dead prisoners and mark their foreheads.<\/p>\n

\nHe was among the roughly 128,000 Syrians who disappeared after their arrest by the regime, 14,000 of whom were tortured to death, according to\u00a0the Syrian Network for Human Rights.<\/p>\n

\nAlshogre was released after his mother saved up enough money to bribe officials for his release. He then fled to Sweden.<\/p>\n

\nHe quickly progressed through the school system after learning English and Swedish, and aimed to fulfil his father\u2019s dream of continuing his education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI grew up in a family where my father was really serious about education. He wanted me to go to the best school and have the top school in everything,\u201d Alshogre said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI had to choose between fulfilling my father\u2019s dream of finishing my education and going to the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe chose to travel to Washington, where he testified to German lawyers and European war crimes investigators building cases against the Assad regime.<\/p>\n

\nHe also became a public speaker, human rights activist, and director for detainee affairs at the Syrian Emergency Task Force. But he worried he was not fulfilling his late father\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cEvery time I went home and saw my father\u2019s picture it told me I had to study, and I felt guilty,\u201d Alshogre said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nWith his acceptance to Georgetown\u2019s Business Administration and Entrepreneurship course, he hopes to one day return to Syria and help rebuild his homeland.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI am one of few survivors who is really enjoying his life and benefiting from everything I went through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cNow I got into one of the best universities. At every step I am taking, I am showing the Syrian regime that they could not break me. And that\u2019s an honor for me and the (other) survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON: A Syrian refugee tortured at the hands of the Assad regime is going viral after sharing a video of his elated reaction to being accepted into a prestigious US university. Omar Alshogre\u2019s 9-second video on Twitter has been viewed roughly 140,000 times. \u201cI made it into Georgetown!\u201d he exclaims in disbelief. The 25-year-old refugee\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}