Meet the Syrian who defied the odds to become a pilot

STORY:

Meet the Syrian who reached her dream of becoming a pilot

Danielle Rezek always aspired to follow in the footsteps of her pilot father

but when she first shared her dream with him, he was against the idea

“I went to my father and told him I want to become a pilot. He was a pilot. I expected him to accept and say he would support me, but he did not for many reasons. First of all because he faced many difficulties and he did not want me to face the same. But also, it was a male-dominated industry at the time. As a father, he did not want this career for his daughter because he was worried."

“I told him I want to work in anything related to aviation. I joined a reservation and ticketing course and I worked for a major foreign company in Syria, then I worked in land operations. I never felt at home in any of these fields, I always wanted more. Then I went to work for aviation operations in this office, then I had the opportunity to become a pilot. When my father saw my persistence and passion, he supported me a lot and never stood in the way of my ambition. On the contrary, he supported me during every step on the way."

Rezek had her first flight as a pilot in 2021 to Muscat

and currently works at Cham Wings Airlines