[Image: A dark-haired man in a blue and red checked shirt looking at the camera]
Part 2 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
Mohammed Alhajali, from the 14th floor of Grenfell Tower
Mohammed Alhajali, 23, was a Syrian refugee and civil engineering student who lived at Grenfell with his brother Omar. Omar made it out alive, but Mohammed sadly did not. He jumped from the tower and died, reports said. He was the first Grenfell Tower victim to be named by the media.
Abdulaziz Almashi, Mohammed’s friend and a co-founder of the
Syria Solidarity Campaign, spoke of his anger at his loss. “He survived Assad, he survived the war, only to be killed in a tower block in London,” he said, describing Mohammed as “kind, charitable and full of passion for his family.” Reportedly, Mohammed tried to contact his family in Syria while trapped by the fire, but couldn’t get through.
A petition was circulated demanding that Mohammad’s family be allowed into the UK for his funeral. It gained 90,000 signatures, and thankfully his funeral was able to take place with his family present. There, a family friend read out a statement:
“He was a loving and caring person, always showing support and solidarity for friends and family stuck back in Syria. His very last words to us were how much he missed us. Ever since he moved away from us, we tried to be united with him and his brothers, and now, instead, we have been united by his body.”
The Syria Solidarity Campaign, which Mohammad worked for, condemned
the conditions which led to his death:
“Mohammed undertook a dangerous journey to flee war and death in Syria, only to meet it here in the UK, in his own home. Mohammed came to this country for safety and the UK failed to protect him. We absolutely agree that a thorough investigation into building regulations should take place immediately.”
[Image 1: A woman in a pink hijab (Faouzia) smiling with her teenage daughter (Nur Huda). Image 2: A young boy in a classroom (Medhi) wearing a yellow spotted tunic. Image 3: A smiling man (Abdulaziz) with dark hair. Image 4: A smiling man (Yasin) sitting in a cafe, wearing a brown jacket.]
Part 1 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
The el-Wahabi family, from the 21st floor of
Grenfell Tower
Five members of the el-Wahabi family – two parents and three children – died in Grenfell Tower.
Nur Huda el-Wahabi, described by her family as “lovable, smart and kind” was 16 when she died. After her death, her teacher James Clements pledged £1,500 to have a character in a Philip Pullman book named after her. Bids to support his pledge soon rose to £17,000.
Clements and her other teachers spoke about her personality to the Evening Standard:
“She didn’t shy away from the limelight. She sat at the back of my room, in the middle; she was a focal point. She liked to joke but worked hard as well. In that sense she was a positive role model. I saw her mature into an impressive young lady.”
Nur Huda was planning to study PE and English at A-Level.
She enjoyed Shakespeare’s Macbeth, her teachers said.
“Lady Macbeth is a powerful female figure. Nur Huda was a powerful figure in the class, others looked up to her. I used her work as a model because it was impeccable. Beautifully presented in black pen, thoughtfully written. She included the most challenging vocabulary so she could impress.”
The campaign to have a character in The Book of Dust named after her was a success. Philip Pullman talked to the Guardian about it:
“I know how I’d have felt if a pupil of mine had been in some similar disaster … The absolute injustice of it struck home with me, and must have done with so many others. So I’m very pleased to see the success of James Clements’s initiative. I wish I’d met Nur Huda, and I’m desperately sorry she died. I hope the character I give her name to will be someone she’d have liked to know.”
Her brother, Yasin el-Wahabi was 20 years old when he died. He was the 47th victim of the Grenfell fire to be identified. His surviving family said that “his contagious smile will always be etched on our minds and hearts,” and that he was “a lovable, bubbly and caring young man. He would lend his hand to anyone who asked for help.”
He worked in a Subway sandwich shop and studied accountancy
at Greenwich University, but loved football as well. He was great with the
young children whom he mentored. His football coach Kamal Romain paid tribute
to him:
“I saw something in him that I thought to myself ‘That is the kind of young people that we need’… He would have been something big in this area. Easily, he would have been something big.”
According to The Times (behind a paywall, sorry) he wasn’t in his family’s flat at the time the fire started. He raced to the 21st floor to try and save them.
The youngest child, Mehdi el-Wahabi, was eight years old. His nine-year-old cousin and friend, Sara Chebiouni, was the youngest person to speak at the Grenfell inquiry. He liked Minecraft and Lego, she said, and “it is difficult knowing that Mehdi will never be able to play with us ever again.” His favourite foods were ice cream, curry and couscous, and his cousin thought he might have grown up to be a comedian. His school teacher paid a tribute to him too:
“Mehdi’s smile lit up any room, his kindness and generosity
to his peers and staff made him an extremely popular boy.”
Their father, Abdulaziz el-Wahabi was a NHS hospital porter known for his friendly nature. At the Grenfell inquiry his brother Hamed spoke about him.
“He was kind, a loyal family member, he had an infectious and caring personality, he left a mark on many people’s hearts and it’s evident by the endless love and support given to us by his friends and colleagues.
We, his family, intend to continue by his example.”
Nur Huda’s teacher James Clements remembered meeting Abdulaziz at his daughter’s parent’s evening:
“I gave a glowing report of her work. She was watching her father closely. As a smile crept across his face she started to smile too. She looked proud…They were similar, she inherited her cheekiness from him. They were both outgoing and liked to joke.”
His wife Faouzia, born in Larache in Morocco, was described as the “anchor” of her family. Her mother, Menana Jabari, spoke of the devastation she felt at her loss. “I will be forever waiting for my daughter and beautiful grandchildren to walk through the door,” she said.
Faouzia loved to bake and knit. She created handmade scarves and baby clothes which she sold to raise funds for the Westway Trust Community Center, where she also volunteered as a knitting and crochet teacher.
She was devoted to her children, her sister-in-law said:
“You would always see her laughing and joking with her
children – whenever you saw her out they would be with her.”
[Image 1: A wide shot of a high-rise building in London with almost all of it blackened by fire. Image 2: The same building with the damage hidden by scaffolding and a large banner reading “Grenfell, forever in our hearts” opposite a green heart symbol.]
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Today (June 14) is the first anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster. 72 people died, the vast majority of them working class, black, migrants, disabled, or Muslims. (Or a combination of more than one of those descriptors.) Many were young children, as well. The whole terrible, avoidable incident remains a massive stain on modern-day Britain. The survivors and the families of the victims still haven’t got justice for what happened.
I think about Grenfell a lot and I really want to do something, but there’s so little useful stuff I can do, especially since I can’t get to London easily from where I am in the UK. So today I’m gonna do the one thing I actually can do, which is post detailed tributes to all the 72 people who died, quoting the family members they left behind and explaining who they were and what they did.
Obviously, this comes with huge trigger warnings. Any details about victims’ deaths, rather than their lives, will be described as clinically and distantly as possible. However many family members have made it clear that they want the world to know the exact way their loved ones died, and I’ll be posting quotes from those people as well. It’s incredibly difficult stuff to read so all posts will be tagged “grenfell” “grenfell tower” and “trigger warning.” I hope that’s sufficient.
For more about Grenfell, the Guardian has covered it very extensively. You may also want to look at the hashtags #justiceforgrenfell and #justice4grenfell on twitter, where many survivors’ groups have made their voices heard.
Once I’ve finished posting about the victims I’m going to make another post talking about all the people who came out to help that night when they didn’t have to, and all the people who are still fighting for justice.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said she regrets her reaction to the tragedy, and she should. Many of the people she promised to rehouse still don’t have houses.
Again please be sure to blacklist the trigger warnings if you need to! This post is tagged with them too.
#Justice4Grenfell
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Edit: Here are all the tribute posts, in alphabetical order by last name:
