Sectarian differences have long created problems for some marriages among Shia, Sunni and others. But with the death and hatred of war, romantic tragedies abound.
Source: SYRIA DEEPLY
Syria Deeply is an independent digital media project led by journalists and technologists, exploring a new model of storytelling around a global crisis that relies on both user-generated content and the highest standards of the professional press.
As Islamic terrorists press forward in Syria, female fighters and commanders now make up a third of Kurdish forces. “Women can fight better than men,” one says.
DAMASCUS — As part of a collaboration between Syria Deeply and Rookie, we’re publishing the memoirs of a teenage girl living in the midst of Syria’s war. Marah, a teenage girl from one of Syria’s besieged cities, shares her stories of life in the war. She recently moved to Damascus to continue her education, in the face of the ongoing war that has destroyed her local schools. Her father was killed in the violence and she now lives with distant relatives in the capital. Earlier installments can be read here and here. He is a handsome man in his 50s, […]
Four years into Syria’s conflict, cannabis has become an unlikely key source of financing for a number of groups in the opposition-held north. It’s used mostly to buy weapons. Jabal al-Zawiya in the province of Idlib is a mountainous area close to the Turkish border. Once famous for growing olives, it is now used to grow pot. Farmers here say the plant grows quickly, and yields higher revenues than olives. Most villages in Idlib province are living off the spoils of goods smuggled between Syria and Turkey, and many basic commodities available for purchase here now come from Turkey, too. […]
Radicalized Islamic men aren’t the only ones punishing non-compliant civilians in Syria. Now women zero in on other women for not following the group’s strict brand of Sharia law.
Children as young as four are the main breadwinners for some families in the Syrian capital.
In rural Idlib, marriage offices are fixing people up, but some say they’re exploiting the lonely during wartime by selling desperate women to overseas men.
Rebel fighters are no match for Bashar al-Assad’s superior military might. But underground, they use tunnels to travel safely and plant bombs close to the president’s seats of power.
The trafficking of young men as soldiers is on the rise in Syria. One mother thought her 16-year-old was being taken to find medical treatment, until she saw a photo of him in uniform.
The Islamist radical group’s conquests in Iraq could help it take control of parts of eastern and northern Syria it had been forced to abandon.
DOUMA — Thousands of Syrians have lost limbs during the country’s three-year war. Here in the Damascus suburbs, two men have opened a workshop where functioning prosthetics are fashioned out of found materials. When Omar al-Ahmad celebrated his 13th birthday this year, he didn’t mark the milestone by shopping for new clothes with his father in downtown Damascus, coveting — as he would have done before the war — the uniform of his favorite soccer team on a mannequin in a shop window. Instead, his gift was the right arm of a mannequin, fished out of rubble by his father […]
DAMASCUS — Across the country, an increasing number of would-be soldiers are ducking Syria’s mandatory 18-month military service requirement. In most cases, the young men are either hiding out — or taking up arms for the opposition. Hossam, a 26-year-old from Hama, has been summoned by the Syrian army to fulfill the compulsory 18-month service required of all young men here. But three years into a conflict that has killed more than 62,800 fighters from all sides, he is refusing to comply. “The Syrian army is no longer the nation’s army, and nothing motivates me to join it,” he says. […]
Many Syrian children are forced to leave school and work as child laborers for employers who ofter mistreat them. New statistics shows a 30% drop in school attendance since the war began.
DAMASCUS — Despite relative calm after months of heavy fighting, Syrians returning home to the Damascus suburb of Barzeh are finding their homes in need of repairs that are often too pricey to take on alone. At the beginning of the year, in besieged suburbs of Damascus and in rural villages within the province, local opposition officials signed temporary cease-fire agreements with the Syrian government. Rebel fighters put down their weapons and, slowly, civilians were allowed to return to the long-embattled neighborhoods. Barzeh, a northwest suburb of the Syrian capital, was one of the first communities to recognize a cease-fire […]
An Aleppo ear-nose-and-throat specialist had to suddenly face the treating of war’s horrific injuries, especially after a government barrel-bomb offensive began there in December.
A teenage girl living in one of Syria’s besieged cities shares her stories of life in a time of war. She dreams of getting an education, but the ongoing violence has destroyed local schools.
As war upends the economy in Damascus, a few brave souls are launching small business projects that provide jobs for those desperate to work.
As part of a collaboration between Syria Deeply and Rookie, we’re publishing the memoirs of a teenage girl living in the midst of Syria’s war. Marah, as she’s chosen to be known, lives in a city under siege. She was 15 years old when the uprising began. This is the first in her series of articles. My city was once magnificent. In spring, it bloomed. We used to wake up to the sound of birds chirping and to the fragrant scent of flowers. Today, spring is here again. But what kind of spring is this? We now wake up to […]
With power outages and deep shortages, some civilians are finding new ways to heat homes and cook meals, by using the natural resources around them — and even bomb craters.
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Treating Cancer In War-Torn Syria
DAMASCUS — Syria’s medical infrastructure has crumbled, making traditional treatments hard to come by for patients still living in the country. That has left raditional herbal and medicinal druggists, known as Attareen, as the only real alternative to cancer patients and other long-term care patients trapped in Syria. Jawad, who has lung cancer, often visits Damascus’ Shaalan Market in search of tropical fruits. Readily available and costing between $8 and $14, Jawad and many of his friends who are also cancer patients have included these fruits in their daily diet. “During my online research for alternative cancer treatments, I found […]
A visit to an abandoned corner of Istanbul, where 40 families who fled Syria live in squalor.
ALEPPO – It’s been three months since the Syrian government launched its offensive on this city’s opposition neighborhoods, using barrels packed with explosives. After a two-week lull during harsh winter weather, President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have reportedly resumed – and even increased the intensity – of the raids. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that more than 400 people have been killed in the country’s largest city by these makeshift “barrel bombs” since the beginning of February, even as Geneva II peace talks were under way. Most rebel-held areas in Aleppo have turned into a no-man’s land as residents […]
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Inside The Mind Of A Syrian Jihadist
KILIS — Mohammad, a jihadi rebel from northern Syria, is describing his wedding night. His family had insisted on a non-religious ceremony. At the reception, just as his relatives began to dance and celebrate, he went home. “The music made me uncomfortable,” he says. Believing in the same religious tenets that have led extremists to outlaw music and singing in jihad-held areas of Syria, Mohammad chose to spend the night at home with his sister. On this day, in Kilis, across the border in Turkey, the 35-year-old former salesman is running late, but makes a courtesy call to say he’s […]
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Tough Labor For Syria’s Refugee Students
GAZIANTEP — Syrian university students unable to complete their degrees due to the country’s ongoing conflict and displaced to Turkey are now jobless, or scraping by as day laborers. Fares, a 29-year-old from Kfar Nabal in the Idlib province, was studying for his final university exams when the security situation in the country made traveling to campus impossible. After years in medical school, he had just completed his training at the Ibn Rashed Hospital in Aleppo. He planned to specialize in the cardiovascular system, but was forced to drop those plans when it became impossible to travel to Aleppo for […]
When the Syrian regime drops bombs on the country’s largest city the other target is the negotiating table in Geneva.
ALEPPO — The toll in what was once Syria’s thriving capital of commerce is also being measured by low temperatures and record snowfall. Activists say the people of Aleppo risk dying every day in unheated homes. The Syrian Network for Human Rights said that no fewer than 22 people died in Syria last week, including nine children, from sub-zero temperatures as lengthy power shortages were recorded. In Aleppo, once the country’s economic capital, electricity has been scarce since continued shelling took out power lines. The exorbitant prices of oil and diesel fuel, and even wood, prevented many from being able […]
Life is about to get even bleaker in Homs, as the third winter arrives since the city fell into the center of the Syrian civil war.
DEIR EZ-ZOR — On a pitch-black night, we wait in our taxi on the embankment. A fighter informs us there are wounded on the bridge, and that his comrades are trying to reach them. The official name of this deadly crossing — Siyasiyeh Bridge — has been discarded in favor of something much more apt: the bridge of death. Syria’s eastern city of Deir ez-Zor is effectively divided, split between government-run and opposition-held areas. The rebels briefly gained an upper hand when they captured the Siyasiyeh Bridge in late January, effectively cutting off regime supplies to the adjoining province of […]
HAMA — Most young women in Syria probably grew up dreaming of someday having a beautiful, magical wedding. But in wartime, many women, assuming they are able to wed at all, are settling for ceremonies that are a far cry from what they imagined. “My biggest fear was that we would book a restaurant and no one would show up,” says Sarah, a newlywed from Hama. She had planned to get married at the end of the summer. But plans are hard to make in Syria these days. Roads are so dangerous that chances are slim a mailed invitation will […]
There are many victims in the civil war in Syria. One woman in the capital, whose husband and children have managed to flee to Egpyt, suffers a particular kind of fear and solitude.
HOMS — I still remember April 18, 2011, when it seemed all of Homs turned out for the funeral of 12 people. Tens of thousands of men and youths exited the grand mosque of Homs, the coffins held aloft amid the multitudes. The procession headed to al-Kateeb cemetery, one of the most revered burial grounds for Muslims in the city. Twenty years ago, Homs residents were forbidden from burying their dead in al-Kateeb cemetery; it was running out of space and the final few places were reserved for only the most prominent sheikhs. They would be the lucky few accorded […]
HOMS — Five hundred and ten days have passed since the siege began in Homs, taking a toll on civilians and fighters alike. Homs, dubbed “the capital of the revolution” by activists for its early role in the revolt, has since been two-thirds destroyed by air raids and shelling. The mass protests that broke out in March 2011 were met with deadly military force, prompting the formation of local units of the rebel Free Syrian Army. Regime forces have worked since to quell the local rebellion; for the past year and a half, 14 neighborhoods have lived under a grinding […]
A young Syrian widow who lost her husband and four children to the civil war describes a miserable life in a Jordanian refugee camp – and a heartwrenching decision.
IDLIB – On my trip to northern Syria a week ago, I asked my hosts lots of questions. Will the Syrian regime be able to recapture the liberated areas inside Syria? Are you better off with the regime returning to your area, or with the rule of the others, including those run by civilians, the Free Syrian Army or the al-Qaida-backed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)? After all, many changes had taken place since my last visit in early July. The elected president of Egypt, a patron of Syrian refugees in that country, was removed from power by […]
In the northern city of Raqqa, the condemned — some civilians, some soldiers, shabiha or alleged Assad collaborators — are brought blindfolded and handcuffed to the city square to be shot in the head in public. Once celebrated as one of Syria’s first fully liberated cities, Raqqa, now under the control of the al-Qaida backed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has become infamous for brutal public executions and other fear tactics carried out by extremists. The executions are carried out swiftly and without legal counsel. Asyad al-Mousa, a 34-year-old lawyer, is dedicated to documenting the mounting number […]
The popular TV dramas were once considered a reflection of the Syrian President’s will for reform. Things have changed since the uprising in 2011, even if the shows must go on.
HOMS – This city in western Syria is nearing 500 days under siege, with no supply route in or out. Medical equipment and supplies are nearly impossible to find. There are no alternatives for the medicine, be it for chronic illness or for wounds sustained during daily shellings of the city. There are few medical personnel on the scene. In Old Homs, a critical wound becomes more terrifying than death itself. A doctor might need to amputate a limb to save a patient’s life. In more critical cases, the lack of medical facilities means the only option for patients is […]
DAMASCUS — Nada, a teacher, starts her classes by asking her third-grade students to express their feelings. She is trained to deal with children who exhibit signs of trauma after living in a war zone for over two years. The school where Nada works is located in the relatively safe neighborhood of Sahnaya, in southern Damascus, but as in the rest of Syria, war is never out of mind. On the first day of the school year, Nada distributes “face cards” to her class of mostly nine-year-olds, all showing different emotions. She asks them to pick the face that best […]
JOBAR — Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter Abu Ali stood grinning and waving at me with his right hand. Two of his middle fingers were missing. “Look at me, I’m like a Ninja Turtle now,” he said, dry humor intact. It had been three months since I last saw Abu Ali, who used to fight on the front lines of Jobar, a rebel-held district in the eastern city limits of Damascus. “My rifle exploded,” he said, beginning the story of his last few months, of how he lost his fingers, preparing his extra-sweet tea. “This was back in June, while […]
The mainstream Syrian political opposition failed for nearly two years to draw in the Kurdish National Council (KNC), a muddled coalition of 16 Syrian Kurdish political parties. In what was hailed as a breakthrough, the KNC finally decided to join the Syrian National Coalition (NC) last month. Yet the decision will have little practical impact on Arab-Kurdish relations in Syria. Its impact will primarily play out abroad, giving both the KNC and the NC a boost in international credibility, rather than inside Syria. The NC was eager for the Kurdish bloc to join its ranks in order to address a […]