Written by Chris Ray, this article was first published by Monthly Review Online, 10 January 2020
Sanctioning Syria
By Chris Ray
The United Nations was willing to pay for doors, windows and electrical wiring in Alaa Dahood’s apartment but not for repairs to her living room wall torn open by a mortar strike. That was deemed to be ‘reconstruction’—an aid category forbidden...
Video, September 2019. Susan Dirgham. On the way to Beit Jabri.
In the introduction to her book 'Damascus: Hidden Treasures of the Old City' (Thames & Hudson, 2001), Brigid Keenan begins,
My husband, a diplomat, was posted to Syria in 1993, and I went with him. Very soon, like Isabel, wife of the famous British Consul Richard Burton a hundred and...
Written by Alex Ray and first published in Middle East Eye, 26 May 2019
The capital's green spaces symbolise how many are trying to revitalise the environment amid the blood of war.
By Alex Ray in Damascus
26 May 2019
Fareed Notafji sips the sweet, strong labourer’s tea as we sit in front of the guard shed at the SEA Environmental Garden in Damascus.
When...
by Leslie Hemphill
“You are welcome”, or “You are family” were words we heard so often in Syria when we travelled with daughter-in-law Ghada on three visits to stay with her parents and family in Damascus.
Ghada was one of six children raised in a little house - really a two-storey apartment. It was possible to climb out a window onto...
Syria extends from desert landscapes to fertile plains. There are undulating hills with olive groves that stretch to the Mediterranean Sea. Under the night skies, the lights of villages twinkle. Snow-capped mountains look down on modern suburbs, but also on ancient columns, khans, castles and places of worship.
There is evidence of earthquakes and invasions stretching back millennia, but for...
Beit Jabri is one of many remarkable family homes in the lanes of old Damascus that have opened their doors to the public: they may have become boutique hotels or more humble abodes for international students or backpackers. Others, like Beit Jabri, have become cafe-restaurants that offer the delights of the Damascene cuisine.
Sitting at one of the tables in...
Posted by S. Dirgham, who accepts all responsibility for the technical glitches with the subtitles.
Translation of video interview by Rasha Milhem and Sarah Nachar.
This page is being posted on 17 April 2020 to celebrate Syria's 'Evacuation Day'. It is an especially significant day because April 2020 marks 100 years since the San Remo conference, a meeting of the prime...
This video interview with Professor Maamoun Abdulkarim took place in a Damascus cafe on 22 September 2019. It wasn't the best environment to discuss a serious subject, and I had no external microphone for my mobile phone, but we made do.
Susan Dirgham
(For a transcript of the interview, please go to the bottom of this page.*)
During the worst years of...
Born and raised in Australia, Leo (Soltan) Alhalabi identifies both as a proud Aussie and a proud Syrian. On visits to Syria, he has noted the love and support people show each other in moments of celebration and crisis. Most of Leo’s extended family still lives in Syria.
Leo is CEO of LGT Tutoring and is a former Victorian, Australian...
Our new series features Syrian cafés and restaurants in Melbourne and the Syrian Australians who have established them.
We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Safi Ayoush, the Syrian Australian owner of Raqwa Café and Beer Garden. Safi was born in Australia, but he spent his formative years in Syria, hence his close connection to Syria.
Safi hopes to attract members of the Syrian...
