Rasha Rami Since protests began in Syria in March 2011, female activists have played a significant role, both by taking part in demonstrations in the early phase of the uprising, and by carrying out humanitarian work.

Bab Touma Bombing An explosion struck the Christian-majority quarter of Bab Touma in old Damascus city center on Sunday October 20, 2012, killing at least 10 people. On the same day an explosion targeted another Christian neighborhood in Aleppo, the Syriac Quarter, resulting only in material damage. (Click here to see photos of the Bab Touma bombing.)

Historical sites under threat Clashes between Syrian regime and opposition forces in Aleppo have not been limited to residential areas, as fighting extended to historical sites causing significant damage. After the burning of parts of the old souk in Aleppo on September 29, the Grand Umayyad Mosque was burnt on the night of Monday October 15. Kinan Qoja, a Syrian […]

Maamarji In the past few months, security checkpoints have proliferated on the roads between villages surrounding the city of Messyaf, in the western Hama governorate. At the same time, the forces manning these checkpoints behave relatively courteously towards travellers, especially in the daytime. This seems to be a response to a number of violent incidents.

If you walk around the town of Kobani, you will see the flags of Kurdistan, the Democratic Union Party, and the Syrian revolution. The symbols of the Syrian regime have disappeared since the government withdrew its security forces and senior public servants from Kurdish-majority areas of Aleppo governorate in July. “Since the beginning of the revolution, I have dreamed that […]

Muhieddine Isso The Dumez refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan is located on arid land with no trees in sight, ten kilometres from the city of Dohuk. Most of the camp’s residents are Kurdish families from Syria who have fled from areas that have seen heavy fighting – Damascus and the surrounding countryside, Homs, Aleppo and Hama.

Assad’s hometown rebels against him A demonstration in Kfar Nubbul in the province of Idlib. “Qirdaha, we’ll be with you till death.” - YouTube. Syrian Facebook pages were recently covered with discussions of the news from Qirdaha, President Bashar al-Assad’s hometown. An argument reportedly took place there between a man from the Assad family and another from the Othman family, […]

Um Ward al-Suriyya My home city, Jaramana, lies between Damascus and the agricultural area of Al-Ghuta. I have a lot of memories in both those places, and also friends whom I visit from time to time to make sure they are all right. They live in hotbeds of revolution where fighting and artillery shelling are commonplace. When that happens, all […]

Aleppo Souks turn to ashes The most widely circulated news about the fighting in Aleppo last week concerned the fire that destroyed parts of the city’s old souk, one of the longest vaulted marketplaces in the world. Social media websites witnessed many heated discussions about who was responsible for the fire. Shadi Abu Karam, a Syrian journalist living in Beirut, […]

By Ward al-Assi In late August, I was on my way back from a friend’s house in al-Rabwah when I passed by the Tishrin Park, the largest in Damascus. Despite the noise of heavy machine gun fire and the thunder of war planes, there was a film shoot going on in the park. Out of curiosity, I stopped to take […]