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Al-Nawfara cafe
Al-Nawfara cafe

Damascus : a city tired from outside, alive from within

    By Zeina Yagan After landing at Damascus International Airport, and while being transferred to the airport building, I could not hold back my tears. Am I really in Damascus? From the very first glance, I felt a deep sadness. The airport simply does not suit you, Damascus. You deserve a better one. And yet, amid this feeling of heaviness, there was warmth. The people working inside the airport were highly professional, generous, and smiling. They were doing their best to leave a warm first impression on Syrians coming back home. In that moment, longing prevailed over everything else. Read More …

    Tears of Syrian liberation

    Catharsis and Closure: The Role of Collective Grief

      Everywhere you look in Syria, people have tears in their eyes. This widespread, visceral crying witnessed across the Syrian population following the liberation from the Assad regime is more than just a reaction to a political shift; it is a profound sociological and psychological phenomenon. Read more at: Line (Lyn) Khatib, Radio Free Syria…

      Dr Zaher Sahloul

      About the Kurds by Dr Zaher Sahloul

        The decree issued by President Ahmed al-Sharaa is a historic decree, similar in importance to the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The Proclamation has the potential to end discrimination against the brave and dignified Kurdish people, who represent an essential component of the Syrian fabric. Read More at: Dr Zaher Sahloul…

        The Hadhad family on their website

        The Peace by Chocolate Story

          After the bombing of my father’s Damascus chocolate factory during the Syrian civil war, my family fled to Lebanon as refugees, eventually moving to Antigonish, Canada. Initially I struggled to settle into small-town Canadian life caught between following my dream to become a doctor and preserving my family’s chocolate-making legacy. After successfully establishing our chocolate business with the support of the community, we now sponsor peace-building projects around the world. Our story is all about the importance of peace. Without peace, there is no life. Read More at: Tariq Hadhad, CEO Peace by Chocolate… Peace by Chocolate movie trailer…

          Line Khatib

          The New Syrian Model

            It is tempting to read what is emerging in Damascus as a straightforward turn toward religious governance; as if Syria is finally resolving a long tension between secularism and Islam in favor of the latter. But this reading misses the deep entanglement between the secular and the religious in Syria, not over the past 50 years, but for too many centuries. What the new Syrian government is constructing is not the defeat of the secular by the religious. It is, rather, the latest iteration of that entanglement — and perhaps the first authentic one in decades. Read More at: Line (Lyn) Khatib, Radio Free Syria…

            Ibrahim al-Youssef showing seeds grown at his Aleppo farm

            Seeds Against Bombs: scenes from Syria’s agricultural resilience and revival

              Once scattered and safeguarded abroad, Syria’s native seeds are taking root once more, part of an organic revival aimed at restoring the country’s agricultural heritage. “A hundred years ago, our grandparents used to save seeds from their own crops and replant them the next season, generation after generation. This concept has always existed—we’re just reviving it. It’s our way of responding to crisis and heading towards food sovereignty,” seed farmer, Ibrahim al-Youssef, explained.Read More at: Philippe Pernot, Syria Direct…

              Celebrating Easter in Homs

              Easter Greetings

                In his Easter greetings, Dr Sahloul describes how the Christian and Muslim faiths have been integrated harmoniously for centuries in Syrian life. He explains that in his native city of Homs, “the sound of Muslim call for prayer intertwines with the sound of church bells. Local TV and radio stations air Christian songs. Muslim and Christian youth perform the local folkloric Aradha, chanting mythical songs about Homs, the city of peace and den of lions.”Read more at: Dr Zaher Sahloul…