Shortages Force Aleppo Medical Centres to Close
Medical care becomes especially vital when a nation is enduring protracted conflict. In Aleppo in northwest Syria, health centres have operated under dire conditions...
Foreign Fighters Form Own Unit in Syrian Kurdish Forces
Foreign combatants have long been present in the ranks of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, but now their status is becoming...
Shattered Windows, Selfish Souls
In late 2013, Damascus’s Eastern Ghouta area was under threat of total siege by Syrian government forces. My fiancé had deserted from the army...
Tortured, Missing and Martyred – the Fate of Three Sons
I have always heard of al-Khansaa, the seventh-century female poet who lost her two brothers to war. She is famous for the heartrending elegies...
The Dressmaker’s Daughter
A few blocks away from my house in Aleppo’s northern suburbs, there lived a seamstress and her daughter Hasnaa. Hasnaa was a beautiful 21-year-old...
My Son’s Unknown Fate
For a mother, separation from her son is a bitter experience. Many Syrian women have suffered this since the beginning of the revolution, and...
A Promise
The day I enrolled at university was a dream come true. It was the beginning of a new phase of my life, and the...
Aiming For Paradise
One of the hardest things that can happen to a person is to lose a loved one, especially when that loved one is their...
Face Veils De Rigueur in Islamic State Areas
Hanuf and her children waited nervously for their bus at the station in Qamishli in northeast Syria. They were on their way to visit...
The Boy Who Died Feeding His Cat
In February 2014, while I was doing humanitarian relief work in Harasta, I decided to open a charity kitchen to serve food to those...
In War Zone, Hope Fades as Phone Line Dies
It was March 2015, and the word on the street in Idlib was that Jaish al-Fatah was about to launch a major offensive against...
Summoned to Vote for an Unwanted Leader
It was the eve of the 2014 presidential election in Syria, and sleep eluded me. As I tossed and turned in bed, I recalled...
Escape Through the Back Door
Abdel Qader Badran Street is one of the main streets in Douma, and it is a focal point for raids by government forces. My...
Bitter Birthday Memories
July 15 is my birthday, so the first thing I did when I woke up that day in 2012 was log on to my...
My Mother, The Accidental Activist
My mother is in her late forties, and she can’t read or write. She has been attending literacy classes for the past ten years,...
Surviving on Animal Fodder
Towards the beginning of the anti-government demonstrations in Syria, I had started gaining weight, and my mother and friends urged me to visit a...
