Razan and her husband escaped the war in Syria with nothing to lose, hoping that the country of the Carnaval would give them a new opportunity. Thanks to her cooking skills, her Arab food shop is still one of the most valued in São Paulo to this day.
There are many refugees running from the war in the Middle East, who arrive in different countries around the world to start a new life, away from terrorism and the insecurity of possibly becoming a victim at any moment. This is the story of Razan and her arrival in Brazil.
Since 2011, Syria has been going through a complicated situation, and although Razan lived there for several years until he fled the country, there were situations that made her escape. «A bomb fell right by my husband, Mohamed, and now he can only hear 30%,» she explained.
Instagram @razancomidaarabe
She also remembered the terror of war, and her trauma is triggered even time she hears loud noises: «When they light fireworks, I feel bad. I can’t stand it because it sounds like bombs to me.”
Faced with this scenario, they decided to flee to start a new life, but it was far from easy. Razan said they arrived at the airport and were sent home, and that’s when her husband came up with Brazil as a destination.
Instagram @razancomidaarabe
«He told me the next day: ‘let’s go to Brazil. There is no war there, people dance there, the carnaval is there’,» Razan said about Mohamed’s proposal. They didn’t think it over, and the first chance they got, they took their few belongings and moved to the Latin country.
The start of their restaurant
As they settled in the land of Tupiniquin, Razan and her husband began to make new friends and forge affectionate bonds. The first to help them were their neighbors. They lent them their Wi-Fi and they thanked them with dinner.
«They came as a family. I made a lot (of food) since I thought they were going to eat a lot. They ate two, three pieces, and there was a lot left,» Razan explained. «When she saw what was left, the neighbor told me, ‘Let’s sell it in the building,'».
Instagram @razancomidaarabe
That first day, she sold all the food she made, and people started asking her every day for it. That’s when Razan noticed she had an opportunity to set up a business, which first started from Facebook sales and soon turned into a restaurant.
Now her place, «Razan Comida Arabe», has been running for four years, characterized for selling typical Syrian food. As for whether she’d return to her native country, Razan flatly refuses to since she wouldn’t change the joy and affection of Brazilians for anything.
Instagram @razancomidaarabe
She finally found her safe place in the world.