Friday was a new beginning for Manar Shleweet.
Shleweet, who hails from Syria, was one of 102 new U.S. citizens who took the oath of naturalization Friday as the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mississippi district held a naturalization ceremony at The Mill at Mississippi State University.
For Shleweet, the ceremony marked the end of a five-year process that began in 2011, when she arrived in the U.S. with plans to marry her now-husband, Joseph. Joseph is from Sweida, Syria.
It was not hard for Manar to summarize her feelings after the ceremony, even as she and Joseph were eager to pick up her citizenship certificate and take pictures near the U.S. flag at the front of the ballroom.
“I’m happy,” she said. “I’m so happy.”
Not forgotten
Manar still has connections to Syria — her aunt and brother still live in the war-torn country. She and Joseph moved to the U.S. before the worst of Syria’s ongoing bloody civil war broke out. She said the city of Hama — where she is from — is relatively safe, though there has been fighting in the suburbs.
Even so, Manar tries to keep in touch with her family as often as she can, using services like Skype to communicate.
“I have to talk to them every day to make sure they are safe,” she told The Dispatch. “I always pray that they are safe, especially because we are Christians. And ISIS — they don’t like that.”
New beginnings
Manar has settled in Southaven, where she works as an office manager.
She said the American way of life is notably different than back in Syria, and it took some getting adjusted to.
“The way we live (in Syria) is so much different than here,” Manar said. “Especially transportation — everybody has their own cars here.”
The differences in culture, for all of the new citizens, were perhaps highlighted throughout the ceremony as MSU President Mark Keenum, U.S. District Court for the North District Chief Justice Sharion Aycock, and District Judge Debra Brown encouraged them to be involved and have a say in government — even if doing so means being critical.
Joseph was already naturalized before Friday’s ceremony.
He said he is happy for them to both be through the process, which involved a lot of paperwork and studying for the citizenship test.
“It feels great. It is wonderful,” Joseph said. “I mean you seek something and when you achieve it, it just feels wonderful.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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