Darayya’s Women Step Forward

Posted on | Juli 20, 2012 | No Comments

Razan Zaitouneh

Whatever goes on in Darayya, it is always full of colour. That is something we have come to expect from this inimitable city, in the governorate of Reef Dimashq, the countryside surrounding Damascus.

It happened in 2003, when local activists were arrested for staging unauthorised protests against the American invasion of Iraq, and at the start of Syria’s revolution last year.

It comes down to the influence of figures like Yahya ash-Shurbaji, Nabil al-Shurbaji, Islam Dabbas, Usama Nassar and dozens of others from Darayya. They were among the activists who took up the struggle to overthrow the regime and to build a future that differs from our past history of hatred, fear, exclusion and inequality. They pursued a revolution against the deformities of this society, as well as against the regime responsible for most of them. Read more

Farah’s Name No Longer Means Joy

Posted on | Juli 17, 2012 | No Comments

Hanadi Zahlout

It was no accident that Farah was wearing black. She stood at the entrance to one of the security services headquarters where her brother was being held.

His friends had told her he resisted arrest, and only gave up when his head and hands were bleeding.

She looked at the guards at the information desk and said, “I’ve come to see you wearing black. Give me my brother’s body to bury it. Or, if he’s still alive, let me see him.” Read more

My Salafi Friend and the Revolution

Posted on | Juli 7, 2012 | No Comments

There’s been no news of Fida for days now – nothing written up on the walls, no one has seen him at a demonstration, and there hasn’t been any news of him being arrested, either.

Fida is a Salafi, a follower of the Muslim school of thought that seeks to emulate the “predecessors”, the companions and followers of the Prophet Muhammad. Read more

Cold Mountain: Where a swift death is a privilege

Posted on | Juni 21, 2012 | No Comments

By Razan Zeitouneh

We worked together for several months. We got angry with one another, and then made up and laughed together. We swapped news, invited each other to share our favorite meals, and promised to celebrate together in freedom squares. I knew neither his name nor his face.

I imagined him to be in his early twenties, friendly, short-tempered but with a ready smile. He was so inquisitive that he constantly forced me to tell him, “That’s enough pestering.”

None of this seems to square with the name we received yesterday, of a young man who died under torture. I don’t know Hassan al-Azhari. The name is just one of the dozens that I type in every day to document cases of killing. Read more

This is Why We Took to the Streets

Posted on | Juni 21, 2012 | No Comments

By Rima Fleihan

When my phone rang that day last year, I had only been out for a few hours after spending four days in prison. I had been detained for participating in a demonstration in Al-Maidan neighbourhood in July 2011.

I didn’t recognise the caller’s number that showed up on my phone, but I answered anyway.

“You owe me several smacks and electric shocks, as well as countless whippings,” the voice said.

I started trembling as I didn’t understand what the caller was getting at.

Farmers in Syria’s North Face Dire Situation

Posted on | Juni 1, 2012 | No Comments

When the Syrian regular forces entered Hama, Idlib and the countryside of Aleppo province, not only did they force many residents to run for their lives, they destroyed the economic infrastructure by burning down stores and laying waste to agricultural lands.
Abu Muhammad, who fled from the countryside in Aleppo province to the Kalas refugee camp in Turkey, says tanks and other military vehicles drove through wheatfields, destroying half-grown crops. There are no estimates for the scale of this kind of damage. Read more

Camera vs. Murder: Syrian Revolution Shapes New Wave of Documentary Films

Posted on | Juni 1, 2012 | No Comments

Update: Syrian activist and filmmaker Bassel Shhadeh was killed on May 28, 2012. One of his major works was Saturday Morning Gift, a short film based on an interview with a Lebanese child who survived the 2006 war in Lebanon.
The internet is not short of video clips documenting the Syrian revolution. These videos have become an effective tool for fighting the complete information blackout imposed by the regime. For television and other media, they have provided a major source of evidence of the regime’s crimes, especially the stories of torture that the security forces have inflicted on unarmed Syrians. Read more

Female Activists at Syrian Centre for Media Speak Out

Posted on | Mai 7, 2012 | No Comments

The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, SCM, is a non-governmental organisation that aims to defend the freedom of belief and expression, in cooperation with government institutions and civil society organizations. SCM had continued its work over the past year, and issued several reports about the arrest and harassment to which journalists have been subject during their coverage of the Syrian revolution, before it was closed by security forces on February 16, 2012. A detailed article about the SCM’s work is available here. Read more

Freedom of the Press Shall Survive Mazen Darwish’s Arrest

Posted on | Mai 7, 2012 | No Comments

Mazen Dawrish, along with the other detainees from the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, SCMFE, has recently completed 60 days in the cells of the Air Force Intelligence, AFI, at Al-Mazzeh military airport outside Damascus. The prisoners include, among others: Hussein Ghureir, a father of two and ex-detainee; Hani al-Zaytani, who still hopes to pursue a PhD; Javan Farso, who supports his family, lost his night job; Bassam al-Ahmad (his mother desperately seeks the slightest news of him); Mansour al-Omary, who was dreaming of moving into his new house, but got arrested before setting up the furniture; Abdel Rahman Hammadeh, arrested on his birthday and who had previously been detained by AFI. Read more

Experts in Death Do Not Cry

Posted on | Mai 3, 2012 | No Comments

By Razan Zeitouneh

I am a documenter of death. I watch videos that show martyrs so as to record their names and the details of their death — dozens a day, and when we periodically update our database, the number reaches hundreds within a few hours. The average length of a single video is one minute. In one hour you could watch as many as 60 bodies, unless the footage depicts mass massacres; then the number would multiply. Read more