Thursday, March 28, 2024
Interview with Lubna, recorded by Susan Dirgham in 2010 Extract: In regard to women’s issues and the equality of the sexes, what are some of the differences of opinion in Syria? You have a whole range of opinions. For example, men are demanding their rights, like to be equal to the women! They are saying, like, women have more rights than...
 - By Greta Medawar and Carissa Gilham In May 2017, Shaam Group presented the inaugural Shaam Syrian Film Festival in Melbourne and Sydney with the objective of providing a platform for Syrian cinema to be screened in Australia. Sponsors of the festival included Melbourne travel agency, CedarJet Travel, and popular Sydney based Knafeh Bakery that specialises in Jerusalem street food....
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...

My Country

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My Country - by Nizar Qabbani, - translated by Norma Medawar From the lisp of the blackbird… From the saddening huskiness of the flute… From the flickering sounds of the folk songs From the sighs of the minaret… From a cloud at sunset woven by a chimney and by the wound of the bricks of the decorated and widespread villages… From the whispers of a star settled in our east From a story between a rose and a...
… any attempt to force cultures and peoples into separate and distinct breeds or essences exposes not only the misrepresentations and falsifications that ensue, but also the way in which understanding is complicit with the power to produce such things as the “Orient” or the “West”.’ - Edward W. Said (Orientalism, p. 348, 1995 Penguin edition) The following article appeared in...
Not to be Ignored Below is a transcript of an interview conducted at the end of 2010, when there was no thought of conflict in Syria, and the issues of the day for educated young women related to their ‘liberation’. The questions chosen were a response to the times since Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali had recently visited Australia, where she...

Syrian School Episode

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Five-part series following a year in the life of four schools in Damascus, a high pressure crossroads in the Middle East. It concentrates on some remarkable characters finding their way in a country that has never before opened ordinary life up to the cameras in this way, challenges the usual cliches of Arab life and charts the highs and lows...
- from TravelTalesVideos "Lose yourself in the labyrinth of bustling passageways. Chat with the merchants and locals ~ memories you won't soon forget." Old Aleppo, Syria is walkable, facinating and for many a most memorable experience. Through videos and images Travel Tales gives you a tatalizing peek at Old Aleppo.