Women

My memories of Bab Tuma, a predominately Christian quarter in old Damascus, go back to my first Christmas in Syria. Like locals, I was rugged up for the winter cold. There were street lights and decorations, and a towering Christmas tree! Father Christmas’s were handing out sweets and one was stopped on a corner, playing the saxophone.  If you search on...

SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW: In what ways do sanctions impact on women and their families?  Dr Bouthaina explains that the sanctions against Syria are unilateral measures taken by the United States without UN approval or Security Council resolutions. “They were measures which were forced by the United States on Syria and forced on other countries to abide by….against any international law, any...

Faia and Rihan Younan were born in the village of Al-Malikiyah, Syria, and grew up in the city of Aleppo. They moved to Sweden with their parents when Faia was 11 years old. Faia studied at Glasgow University and she moved to Beirut when she decided to become a professional singer.  'To Our Countries' has had nearly 7 million views. In August 2015,...

14 October 2019 Last month, I was in Damascus for just 8 full days. I had a journalist's visa which ensured I had the chance to interview some distinguished Syrians as well as some 'ordinary' Syrians, all of them impressive people, and most of them women.   Most evident was the fact that the war has led to women in Syria finding...

Shaheedi Ajeeb's only ambition in life was to become a journalist despite the obstacles it meant she faced in what was a deeply patriarchal society.  Petite and softly spoken Ajeeb didn't just overcome difficulties to achieve her dream career. She put up her hand to be a war correspondent. But the young Ajeeb could never have imagined how dangerous and...

 'Syrian School' (Part 3)  'Being Inspired' Syrian School Episode 3 of 5 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...

‘Beloved Syria’ is honoured to present this beautiful documentary featuring the Gardenia Choir, a women’s choir based in Syria which has performed both in Syria and abroad. At the start of the film, the choir sings 'Barcarolle' from Jacques Offenbach's ‘The Tales of Hoffman’, a song that must be familiar to tens of thousands of choir members and opera lovers...

The article below was first published by Pearls and Irritations, 11 August 2023 Returning to Syria in 2019, I visited a private girls high school in Damascus, close to where I used to work. Open to students from all faith backgrounds, Dar Al Salam School had once been a church and a home for nuns. In the years that I...

This gallery of images brings together photographs already presented on other pages of Beloved Syria. When I took these pictures, I was given permission to present them online -to a world that knows so little about life in Syria, so little about the remarkable warmth and spirit of Syrians.   (Note: It is very possible some of the images were taken...