War is raging in Aleppo but in a classroom

40km away, there are grounds for hope

Under the Assads, Kurds were forbidden from learning their own language at school, or even from speaking it in the military. The result is a generation of Syrian Kurds, many now in late middle age, who can't write their own language. "Nobody taught us the grammar," Hamar said regretfully. He added: "Before, the Kurds never had any rights. But this revolution began over the rights of citizens."