I am glad to share my experience through a newspaper that builds bridges between different cultures and shares ideas, opinions and experiences of people from warring countries with citizens of Slovenia.<\/p>\n
I am a young guy from Syria currently living in Ljubljana. I came here to search for a peaceful life as my country is at war.
\nI am happy and thankful to be granted the permission to stay here.<\/p>\n
Most of the time I find my life in Slovenia is bearable, but there are some events where I can feel that I am ‘the Other’.<\/p>\n
I want to talk about a recent event where I personally encountered security guards and police seeing me as a threat.<\/p>\n
After school I went to Zara to buy perfumes with my friend.
\nWe paid and we wanted to leave but the security guard intercepted us and said ‘I want to inspect your bag’.<\/p>\n
I was surprised but still willing to cooperate, but then he said ‘not here, go to the basement and don’t talk!’<\/p>\n
I was uncomfortable with the situation but still obeyed his orders. I asked him ‘what is the matter?’ but he swore at me. I said ‘why are you swearing?’ My question made him even more angry and he swore at me again, so I swore back because he made me upset.<\/p>\n
He called the police and when the police came, they searched me and later gave me a 200eur fine. I objected and asked \u2018what is this fine for?\u2019 The police man said ‘it is forbidden to swear the security guard’ I told them that he started swearing me first, but he said \u2018even if he hits you, you can not swear him!\u2019<\/p>\n
Later on I paid the fine, but as I felt that an injustice happened to me, I wanted to appeal against the police man and the security guard, to sue them for their prosecution. But people said to me \u2018you don’t understand – the law doesn’t work equally for everybody\u2019.<\/p>\n
It is the truth that there are good and bad people all over the world and I am aware that not all people who come are contributing to the society because of different reasons. But by sharing my story I want to emphasize that you should not generalize your assumptions that all refugees are bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"