From an Islamic State Syrian prison to 'whispering' in Catalan

BarcelonaMethkal Khalawi (Homs, Syria, 1990) thinks he has to write an autobiography of his last fifteen years, and it would probably seem like a work of fiction. In 2011, with the Arab Spring, a civil war began in Syria between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and various armed groups among the civilian population. Khalawi was imprisoned by the Islamic State for two weeks, escaped, and managed to leave the country six months later. "I lived through very difficult situations, I spent days living on the street, without food; they shot at us; they told me they would cut my throat. Told like that it sounds like an adventure, but the memory is difficult," he confesses. Ten years later, he is now planning to return to Syria to visit his mother and all his family, with whom he has only spoken via WhatsApp since then. "I remember when I left, she didn't want to say goodbye to me, she covered her face with the sheet, I said 'goodbye' and left." He is now a different man. "I'll only go for a visit, now I'm Catalan!" he says, smiling with a hint of white teeth and in perfect Catalan. He is now the father of little Sama (Heaven, in Arabic), has a Catalan partner from Molins de Rei, and a project in hand: an exclusively Catalan social network, Xiuxiuejar.com. The son of a family with a nomadic tradition and thirteen siblings, Khalawi was a student of electronic engineering and English literature and worked in an oil extraction base when the war stopped his life. He managed to flee to Turkey, where he worked in a textile factory in Istanbul for 14 hours a day. From there he went to Greece, where he got stuck, working as a translator and for NGOs. His destiny was to resort to the mafias, with the aim of reaching Ireland, because he mastered English. But then he met a Catalan girl who was looking for testimonies from refugees. They were in contact for six months through Facebook. "We fell in love," he says, smiling again.

A second life

In July 2017, his second life began. "I learned Catalan because we lived the first few years at my partner's family's house, and they are Catalan. Molins de Rei, too. I took some courses, we watched movies in Catalan... In fact, it wasn't until a little later that I discovered Castilian, and I don't speak it much, because I work in English. In a Catalan class, they asked me what my favorite word was, and I said xiuxiuejar, which is very similar to washwashah, which in Arabic means much the same." This word is what gives its name to the platform he has just opened, Xiuxiuejar.com, which in two weeks already has 700 registered users and will soon have a mobile app.

Xiuxiuejar has a timeline similar to X, but all entries are in Catalan. It also allows you to post events, courses, concerts, and buy tickets. "I saw that Catalan on the internet was always in the background, because companies are global, and I think people like to have something of their own, where they can talk to each other, where Catalan has a specific place, a place for people who believe that Catalan is important and needs a space," he reflects. It can also be a meeting place for new speakers, points out this programmer who defines himself as a "Catalan of Syrian origin."

Family ties are what made it easy and obligatory for Khalawi to learn Catalan. "When you go to another country, people look for people who are like them, whether they are Moroccans or Chinese, and that's natural, but it doesn't help them learn the culture of others. People have to try to open their minds and have a cultural exchange, I don't like to say integrate", he explains. "Sometimes outsiders say that Catalans are unfriendly. Not with me, never – he continues –. But the way to reach people is through words, and if you don't know how to speak, you will always hit a wall. Learning the language is very important," he believes. He speaks Catalan with his surroundings, maintains English with his partner, Arabic with his child, and English in the programming jobs he has had. Now is the time to launch his personal project on social networks and resume writing, poetry, and perhaps write his story. "I have received a lot of help since I arrived. They have given me a new life, now I want to help Catalan.