Thousands in Idlib mark 12 years since Syria uprising

 

 'Thousands of people in opposition-held northwestern Syria have taken to the streets to mark the 12th anniversary of popular protests calling for the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad and his government.

 The demonstrations that began on March 15, 2011 swiftly took on a revolutionary nature. The uprising, however, soon morphed into a full-on war after a violent crackdown by security forces, with foreign powers also drawn in.

 Twelve years on, al-Assad still controls most of the country, largely thanks to military backing from Iran and Russia, after hundreds of thousands of people were killed and millions were forced from their homes.

 The conflict is currently largely frozen, although fighting continues intermittently, particularly in the opposition-held northwest. The region is home to more than four million people, most of them displaced from other parts of Syria during previous bouts of violence. Last month, it was hit by devastating earthquakes that killed thousands of people.

 “We want to send a message from this demonstration to the whole world that we are continuing our revolution against the al-Assad régime, despite the attempts of some countries to normalise relations ” Salma Seif, a former detainee in a government prison, said at Wednesday’s main protest in Idlib city.

 Seif’s comments echoed the views of other demonstrators denounced efforts by some Arab countries to facilitate Syria’s reintegration into the regional diplomatic fold in the wake of the February 6 earthquakes.

 “We have no alternative to overthrowing this régime so that the detainees in its prisons can see the light again,” said Seif, a displaced person from the capital, Damascus.

 Hundreds of civilians from towns and villages surrounding Idlib travelled to the city to take part in the demonstration.

 Ahmed Hayhan said he had come from Jisr al-Shughour with others “to confirm that we are continuing against the régime that brought other war criminals to Syria to contribute to our killing”.

 Hayhan called on the international community to hold al-Assad accountable for the bloodshed.'

 “The world must take responsibility after all this destruction and killing that took place because of the criminal Bashar al-Assad.”

 Abu Suhaib al-Hamwi, a displaced civilian who was among those leading the anti-government demonstrations in the city of Hama in 2011, said: "Despite all that we have witnessed in terms of killing, arrest, displacement and destruction, we are still continuing our revolution against this criminal régime and to affirm our demands for freedom and justice."

Umm Abdul Baset al-Sarout: Steadfast Mother of the Revolution

 

 'My children and I joined the revolution at the beginning, and we participated in demonstrations together, I stayed with them until the siege on Homs began and then I escaped by being smuggled out, while my children remained in Homs. My son, Walid was martyred before I left Homs, and after that, I, my husband, the widow of my martyred son Walid, her two sons, and the wife of my son Hussein fled the city, while the rest of my children stayed in Homs.

 All five of my sons were martyred, as they were martyred for the sake of Allah, and I only say, thank Allah, they did not die in vain. They died defending the land and honor of the people, and all the youth who joined the revolution were like my sons, I did not tell any of my sons not to join the revolution, and I did not prevent them. They used to participate in the demonstrations while women trilled chants behind them, and I was always present with them at every demonstration, and when the demonstrations were over, I would return home and they would return to the city Homs to participate in other demonstrations.



 Palestine has been resisting for decades, while we’ve only been resisting for 12 years, and it’s okay to continue for another 12 years or more. We are patient, and we will be able to win by our strength, Allah willing, as there are still honest and honorable people who follow the path leading to achieve the goals of the revolution. My sons were indeed martyred, but all Syrians are my children. We are like one hand, women and men, old and young, and we, Allah willing, will be able to achieve victory, and we do not want other countries to rally around us. We, Allah willing, will continue until the last drop of blood in our bodies, women and men.

 My son was indeed a goalkeeper, but I believe he was one of the revolution’s leaders, and how I wish I had more sons to push them to follow the path of the revolution as Abdul Baset did, and if there was someone like my son in the revolution who works properly, then what happened to us today would not have happened.



 My message to all the mothers of the martyrs and to all women who still have young men is to send their sons for the sake of Allah, for the sake of their homeland and their honor, and the sake of the detainees in Assad’s prisons, and we reject Bashar Assad by all means and we do not want him by any means. Because any mother who has lost a martyr among her children will never accept Assad in power in Syria, even if the whole world allies with him! We do not want him, and we do not want anyone from the outside to try to control our fate.

 To every mother, sister, and aunt, who is the relative of one of the martyrs, the old and the young, I call for everyone not to accept any decision to maintain or legitimize Assad. We, the people of the revolution, rose against this régime and sacrificed martyrs, and we still have young men, and we will resist the despot, but the people must fear Allah and follow the path of Truth, and we must be united, and then we will be able to topple it!



 I send a message to every person who works with Assad and follow his path, that Allah does not forget, and you will face the punishment for what your hands committed, and I hope that Bashar Assad will be trampled by the soles of the revolutionaries.

 We do not want Assad or any of his men, and we do not accept any “solution” in which Assad remains in power. We will not accept any “solution” by the international community that is not in our favor and we will continue our revolution, Allah willing!'



 Taken from an interview done by Levant 24, an Idlib-based news agency, with Umm Abdul Baset al-Sarout.

From bullets to starvation: Syrian refugee in Windsor chronicles life in war-torn homeland

 

 'It fell from the skies with bombs, ricocheted through the streets with bullets, and consumed the innocent with starvation.

 The fight for survival and search for hope, in a place where both seemed like impossible dreams, are among the themes of a new poetry book from Syrian refugee and Windsor resident Mohammed Y. Burhan.

 Bird from the Battlefront: Reflections from War-Torn Syria, which took 10 years to finish, was released this month. It’s Burhan’s seventh book, and his first in English.

 “We had three kinds of death,” said Burhan, 48. “Death if you were arrested by the security forces, because especially at the beginning of the revolution, being arrested means you are killed. Death from shelling and bombing because the régime was crazy, especially between 2012 and 2015. At that stage the régime was bombing without stopping, without distinguishing between kids or ladies or old men. And the third kind of death was the death of hunger, because the security forces were preventing food from entering the city. I can tell you people were eating grass to survive.”



 The Syrian civil war began in March 2011 with a wave protests against the régime of President Bashar al-Assad. The civil unrest escalated to armed conflict after al-Assad’s violent crackdown on protesters with arrests, torture, and killings.

 Burhan’s hometown of Zabadani, near the Lebanon border, was a key strategic location. The bloodshed came early there.

 “It was the first city to get civil demonstrations,” said Burhan, “So the régime was very tough in bombing the city and killing the city.”



 Burhan, who frequently travelled between Zabadani and Dubai where he worked with CNBC Arabiya, said he and his family quickly became targets. He hasn’t set foot in Syria since 2012.

 “I was wanted by the régime because I was considered the opposition,” said Burhan. “I attended the first demonstration. When the shelling started and the situation got to be very bad, I didn’t travel to Syria because I knew I was wanted, because of my articles.”

 Some of his writing had been critical of the Syrian government.

 “The régime became very angry about it,” said Burnham, who also runs a consulting company called New Vision Media. “From that date I could not go to Syria because I was getting death threats.”

 His family fled to Dubai and applied for refugee status in Canada. But the death threats followed.

 “Even when I was in Dubai, I used to get threats over the email and mobile messages, that if you come back to Syria you will be killed, you will be arrested.”



 Undeterred, Burhan started chronicling what he had seen and experienced. It took several years to gain refugee status. Burhan kept writing.

 “The toughness of the life there was unbelievable,” he said. “Death was staring at you wherever you go.”

 But amidst the death and destruction, Burhan saw hope.

 “It was very tough, but it was at the same time a very special experience,” he said. “I felt that the people were together again because they were demanding freedom. They were all acting together as one group, and that wasn’t the case before. So there were good points during that experience.

“I lost a lot of friends during the war. My brother-in-law has been killed by the security forces. My wife, her brother has been killed there. He was wanted because he was demonstrating, so her name was on the list as well.” '

Women suffer ‘layers of violence’ 12 years after start of Syrian war

 

 ' “The war changed women’s lives in Syria,” says Amina Abdullmajid Albish. “Most women lost their husbands, the breadwinners, so they were forced to take on more responsibility. They had to support their family and work,” she said from her home in Idlib province, northwest Syria, where the 34-year-old runs one of The White Helmets‘ women’s centres.

 Her husband survived, but was arrested twice by Bashar al-Assad’s forces. She had to bribe them for his release after they forced him to join the military. They fled to the capital, Damascus, after their village in Idlib was captured by the régime forces. She describes almost being shot while doing laundry on the roof of her home.

 They only returned to Idlib once anti-government rebels took the province, which is now the last rebel-held territory.



 Every day after preparing her five children for school, she goes to work in the centre, where her main task is providing medical aid for the women who come in on a daily basis.

 Over a month since the devastating twin earthquakes struck the region, exacerbating an already dire situation in a country where conflict has been raging for 12 years and 90 per cent of the population live under the poverty line, her job is essential.

 When the uprisings began 12 years ago, Mrs Abdullmajid Albish, like many Syrians, was optimistic about the future of her country. She took part in the peaceful demonstrations calling for democracy that swept across Syria after seeing videos on social media of children tortured by the régime for graffitiing a wall in the southern town of Daraa.

 The graffiti read: “Your turn, Doctor,” in reference to Bashar al-Assad, who is a trained ophthalmologist.



 Inspired by the protests happening around the Arab world in spring 2011, this anti-Assad slogan sparked a revolution, but it was met with brutality and violent suppression from Assad’s forces, descending into a bloody war. Since then the régime has inflicted a catalogue of human rights abuses on civilians, including chemical weapons attacks, bombing hospitals, and forced disappearances.

 “At that time, everything was changing and the Assad régime was falling apart and the demonstrations were everywhere. But now the situation is different,” she said.



 War magnifies gender inequalities, increases discrimination, and exposes women and girls in particular to sexual violence and exploitation – the conflict in Syria is no exception, says Farah Youssef, research fellow on Syria at the Arab Reform Initiative, an independent think-tank based in France.

 “Today the main challenge is shelter; many women are living on the streets or in tents,” she says, adding that they don’t have access to clean water, medicine, or electricity.

 “It is the same for men, but for women it is worse because they face difficulties going to the bathroom, they face harassment and sexual assault.”

 “The most affected area [from the recent earthquakes] is the northwest and the women there have accumulated layers and layers of violence – they’ve been forcibly displaced and experienced many types of violence, so they are exhausted,” says Ms Youssef.



 In régime-controlled areas, she says, women don’t even have the right to work distributing humanitarian aid – those that do are threatened with arrest.

 When Syrians first took to the streets in 2011, she said: “We wanted freedom of speech, freedom of expression, we wanted dignity. But now activism is reduced to asking for food, asking for tents.”



 Mrs Abdullmajid Albish says her main worry is the lack of safety. The northwest is still being bombed by the régime, as well as by their ally, Russia.

 “We are in danger because of the bombings, the double taps,” she says, adding that she is also concerned about the psychological impacts of this on her and her children.

 Lubna Kanawati, a Syrian activist and deputy executive director of Women Now Development, an NGO focused on empowering and advocating for Syrian women, says that her countrywomen have suffered rights violations during the war, but at the same time the uprising has changed gender roles and “opened a lot of spaces to women’s activism and contributions in the public sphere, showing the agency of women and the importance of their leadership.”

 She adds: “I believe in us and we’ve done a lot in the past decade. I will always be thankful to be part of the Syrian feminist movement that was born because of the social and political change the 2011 revolution brought.”

However, this activism must now translate into political participation and representation, says Ms Youssef.

 “We need to have a serious international will to push a political solution which is gender sensitive and co-designed with women,” she says.

 Mrs Abdullmajid Albish is hoping for a brighter future for her own daughters, aged 17 and 6. She says she doesn’t want them to get married young like she did.

 “My personal life before the uprising was totally different, I married after ninth grade at school [around 15 years-old] – there were no rights for women at that time.”

 “I’m standing by my daughters and providing them with psychological support – I talk to them to try to overcome the effects [of war], the psychological impacts, the danger, everything. I’m trying my best to be a good mother to them.” '