Jasmin Sukaina is a model of Arab woman making a career. In Iraq, her home country, she was an Arabic language and mathematics teacher. In Romania she teaches Arabic language at the Cambridge School in Bucharest. She gets involved in immigrants' problems both through the Bud’s Flowers association, which she founded, and in her capacity of intercultural mediator for the Arabic community in Bucharest.

She came to Romania 15 years ago with her husband who was doing business here, and the Muslim tradition requires that a wife always follows her husband.

Rep: How did you find Romanians in the beginning?
Jasmin Sukaina (J.S.): I came to Romania in 1998. At first everything was strange for me and to be honest I was somehow afraid of Romanians. I didn't know them and I didn't know how to communicate with them. I did not even dare to, especially because of the barriers I faced until I started to learn Romanian. I came here with my 7 month old baby and after my second child was born, about two years after my arrival in Romania, I started working at an Arabic school as a teacher of Arabic language.

Rep: Was it easy for you to find a job?
J.S.: I found work through my relationships with immigrants, more exactly I found out from a friend that a new school was established and I submitted the application documents. Then I worked as assistant at the embassy of Palestine for about 3 years, then as executive manager for a foreign trade company and finally now I teach Arabic language at Cambridge School in Bucharest.

Rep: And you also have an association...
J.S.: I enjoy communicating and collaborating with people, so I founded an association, Bud's Flowers, through which I developed charity activities at the Centre for asylum seekers and refugees in Bucharest (on Vasile Stolnicu Street). We collected shoes, clothes and food from friends which we donated there. Subject to approval from the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI) I want to donate a TV set, a refrigerator. I would like to open an online radio channel for immigrants soon, on which to broadcast information to immigrants twice per day in Arabic and English languages. I have a friend whom I will ask to support me with French and Chinese as well. I would like to organise a centre with a kindergarten and after-school, particularly for children from mixed families who want to study Arabic language but whose parents have no time to teach them. My target is to create first a small centre for Arabic language courses for Romanians and Romanian language courses for Arab immigrants. The locations are however very expensive compared to my resources so I thought to take it slowly.

Rep: What is the current stage of your citizenship procedures?
J.S.: I was granted permanent residence and now I try to submit the application documents for Romanian citizenship. I know it is a very difficult process, I know we have to learn many difficult things such as the Romanian Constitution, but it is good that we get such information. However the procedure is long, besides I need to obtain a criminal record from Iraq, but the situation there is very hard and it is very difficult to obtain this document; it takes about 6 months.

Rep: Has your education been recognized in Romania?
J.S.: Yes, when I started my employment at the school I obtained a work permit from IGI and my diploma was recognized. I have higher education for Arabic language and I had no problems in this line.

Rep: What should be improved in Romania in relation with immigrants?
J.S.: More work places should be made available to immigrants. There are few work permits, there should be more, all the more as the current legislation does not allow immigrants to work in public institutions. So they should be given more chances. The required residence period for submitting the application dossier for citizenship is very long, 8 years, this is a long time. There is another aspect related to the birth of a child in Romania, as it was the case with my second child, it does not obtain Romanian citizenship unless one of the two parents is a Romanian citizen. There are European countries where citizenship is granted to children born there, regardless whether the parents are citizens of that country or not. My child has a birth certificate issued by the Romanian authorities but it has no Romanian citizenship.

Rep: How do Romanians regard Iraqi people?
J.S.: Let's talk about Arab migrants in general, who are not very well regarded because of the news with Arabs who commit offences, tax evasion, terrorism acts, which generate a negative image. While Arabs are perceived as terrorists, Arab women are perceived as "crock", subdued to their husbands, obliged by them to do all sort of things, and this is not correct. She is not obliged neither by the family, nor by the husband. If I don't want to wear a head scarf, nobody obliges me to wear it. Arab women have higher education, work in medicine, ministers, courts of justice.

Rep: Have you been confronted with such prejudices?
J.S.: I went once to a shop to buy clothes and there was an Arab woman with a head scarf inside, and people in the shop started to laugh at her. They were commenting and I could hear that: Arabs go after Romanian women because these are taut and trim, whereas one can see nothing at Arab women. Then I intervened and I said: I am also Arab and I don't wear a head scarf, I am trim, the Arab woman is not as you think. This is our tradition. Respect us as we are, because we also respect local people.

Rep: What should Romanians know about the condition of the Arab woman today?
J.S.: The Arab woman is very intelligent and is able to get farther, but she needs chances and someone to give her a helping hand. At first I was also not given this chance in Romania. But I am daring, I wanted to show who I am, I had to fight for this chance, and this is why I tell all Arab women who come here to be courageous and to show who they are.

Rep: Which were the first words you learned in Romanian?
J.S.: After hello, good afternoon, I learned the word "bread" ("paine"). In our language letter p is pronounced b. I went to buy bread from the bakery and then I ventured for the first time to speak to someone in Romanian and I said "baine", but the shop assistant did not understand anything, and I tried again. It was really difficult, but the third time she understood. It was easier for my two children, they learned the first words playing in the park with Romanian children: hi, how are you, let's play. They attend a Romanian school, they speak Romanian very well, if you hear them you would not even guess they are Arab, they get on very well. They have more Romanian friends than Arab ones, the children are fully integrated.

Rep: What about you, the adults, have you integrated?
J.S.: We are integrated in Romania but we still feel strangers by the behaviour of people in institutions, when they hear we are not Romanian.
To be honest, my mother and my brothers are far from me and it is very difficult to bring them here. I would like to have my family around me!