Noura Al-Jizawi first became a political activist while at university. But her motivation for fighting against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad¡¯s regime relates back to when she was just six years old.

She recalls her military-style school uniform, which was khaki, ¡°the same colour as the clothes of fighters¡±, and that all children had to use the same style of notebook ¨C a small pad whose cover had a picture of Hafez al-Assad, who was then president.

She also remembers that many of her school friends ¡°didn¡¯t have a father¡±.

¡°After a while I recognised that their fathers were prisoners ¨C they were detained in the 1980s, and no one knows any information about them,¡± Ms Al-Jizawi told Times Higher Education.

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Between 1980 and 2000, the government of Hafez al-Assad ¡°forcibly disappeared¡± about 17,000 individuals, according to Amnesty International, a practice that lives on under the current president.

¡°I remember being censored ¨C ¡®keep silent, otherwise your father will disappear as your friend¡¯s fathers have¡¯,¡± she added. ¡°We grew up in a country of fear all the time.¡±

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Ms Al-Jizawi, now a master¡¯s student in global affairs at the University of Toronto, was one of the young activists who kick-started the revolution against the government six years ago.

During the early years of the revolt, Ms Al-Jizawi organised pro-democracy protests, ran a blog, posted photos of those killed by the regime and travelled around Syria, mobilising others.

She was detained several times in some of Syria¡¯s most notorious prisons, where she was tortured with electric shocks and interrogated for 12 hours a day.

¡°They were trying to force me to give them more information about other activists on the ground. I wanted to keep silent and protect my friends outside,¡± she said.?¡°The only thing I was focusing on was how to protect this revolution.¡±

Authorities also confiscated her laptop, which contained her degree certificate, and her name has now been removed from all records at her former university, she said.

Ms Al-Jizawi was released in late 2012, which she credits to an international human rights campaign, and fled to Turkey, where she launched a non-governmental organisation helping victims of torture and female survivors, and advocating for those forcibly displaced.

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In 2014 she was elected vice-president of the opposition movement, one of the few female leaders in the national coalition against the regime.

¡°Much of my time was [spent] focusing on the negotiation to end this war and to see some justice for our people,¡± she said.

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But she resigned from her position last year ¨C ¡°I felt like it was useless to continue, that a negotiation would not achieve anything" ¨C and moved to Canada after receiving a scholarship through the University of Toronto¡¯s Scholars at Risk programme.

She first heard about the institution when her email account came under attack two years ago. Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group at the university¡¯s Munk School of Global Affairs, came to her aid and published a report about a sophisticated cyberespionage campaign against the Syrian opposition.

Overall, more than 40,000 Syrian refugees have resettled in Canada since November 2015, when the government launched its #WelcomeRefugees initiative, and many universities in the country have ramped up their efforts to recruit more displaced Syrians.

Ms Al-Jizawi said that she is ¡°trying to learn as much as I can about other countries¡± and the ¡°global community¡± while at the Munk School.

¡°If I want to serve Syria well in the future, I have to know the world well,¡± she said.?¡°For me and all Syrians out of Syria, we are waiting for the moment of cultural and political transition [when we will] be able to come back to Syria.¡±

Ms Al-Jizawi said that enrolling at Toronto has given her ¡°new hope¡± and a ¡°new life¡±. Although she has not yet made plans for her future, she is expecting her first child this month and?wants to work on human rights issues and help make Syria a democracy once she graduates.

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¡°When I got the admission, I felt like it was a new goal for me as a person. But also it¡¯s a new chance for the new Syria that I¡¯m dreaming of,¡± she said.?¡°Many of us were just waiting for a chance to restart our life, to have this newborn moment.¡±

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com