Marcelle Shehwaro
February 10, 2023 “The Search for Survivors of Earthquakes”, a Facebook Group. A photo of a young, handsome man believed to be in his twenties and a post reading: "His name is Nael Masri. He has been trapped under rubble for four days. If you have any information about his whereabouts, please call this number:... Continue Reading →
“I moved to the US to write a book about…” and the topic of my book changes depending on so many factors, my mood, the identity of the person who asked and the language that I will use to respond, Arabic or English. I would answer “about Syria’’, if I have enough energy to discuss... Continue Reading →
I wasn’t sure if I could write about Ukraine as a Syrian who survived barrel bomb attacks on my hometown Aleppo. I don’t know how to write about the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a woman whose city could be destroyed, besieged, and whose people could be exiled as a result of the Russian intervention... Continue Reading →
We know the water between the fear and the dream We wish we didn’t though We know the parenthood that forces you to choose between bad and worse, We wish we didn’t We know the heartless borders We were forced to know the smugglers We never trusted them, but we didn't have the luxury to... Continue Reading →
Throughout my childhood, and until I came of age, there was no diversity among my group of friends: not a single Muslim in a city whose Muslim population runs into the millions, no Kurds, no Armenian Christians. So I grew up in the box, with few opportunities to meet anyone outside its confines. This was... Continue Reading →
Let’s discuss “peacefully” that “elephant in the room”, as you say, what if we accept that Assad remains in power? We are asked the question sometimes obliquely, and sometimes filtered through the closed circles that decide on Syrian affairs without the attendance of any Syrians. Sometimes it is brought up in ways that infantalize as... Continue Reading →
To all those who will inhabit the places we left…. We once had a revolution there. I never resided in those neighborhoods, but was a visitor, a stranger, with all my little rituals, such as greeting the neighbor on the staircase in the morning, my frantic searches for products that were not customarily sold there,... Continue Reading →
[Editor’s note: This article is a response to an earlier Al-Jumhuriya article, ‘Siege versus prison in Assad’s Syria: a comparison,’ written by the former political prisoner Osama Nassar, currently living in besieged East Ghouta, outside Damascus. It was originally published in Arabic on 5 December, 2017. The artworks used in this article were created by Dima Nashawi.] I... Continue Reading →
In a Syrian Facebook Group, where many of us as activists filled with guilt because we are not besieged while nearly 400.000 people are. Many of those in the group are media activists. We constantly try to avoid answering the sad and honest question of “how the hell that 400.000 are being starved to death nowadays... Continue Reading →
Immediately after we’d finished discussing the challenges facing Aleppo in front of a large audience I was asked by a friend of mine, a leading figure in the Syrian civil society movement, how I was able to appear so unmoved, without anger or emotion, even when talking about the most painful experiences of my life... Continue Reading →
On The Edge of Syria 