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Tagged: Syria

„Ḥamā lam tamut” (“Hama did not die”) – Remembering the Hama Massacre after the Fall of the Assad Regime

By Anna Christina Scheiter. With the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the brutal violence with which the regime had held on to power for 54 years came increasingly and overwhelmingly into the public eye. The Hama massacre in February 1982 is a momentous example of this violence. This central and defining event of Assad’s rule, which was a strong taboo for decades and has never been discussed or dealt with publicly, is now openly and freely commemorated for the first time and the victims are mourning on the occasion of its 43rd anniversary in February 2025. Addressing the Assad regime’s atrocities of the last 54 years openly at last and seeking justice for its victims is central for social reconciliation and a basis for the establishment of a new collective identity after the end of the dictatorship.

“Let Us Imagine a Parallel Universe” – 5in10 with Zoya Masoud

Zoya Masoud works at the intersection of postcolonial studies, post-foundational urban theory, and critical heritage studies. As of Autumn 2024, she has taken on the role of postdoctoral researcher within the framework of the ERC-funded project “BEYONDREST,” based at the Forum Transregionale Studien. Her current research initiative is titled Irrestitutable: Inquiries into Hauntings of Absent Cultural Heritage. In October 2024, she successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Dislocated. Heritage Construction through Experience of Loss in Aleppo” at the Technical University of Berlin within the DFG Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage.”

Towards Syrian-led Transitional Justice

By Anne-Marie McManus. Images of joyful men and women waving Syria’s three-starred flag last weekend confirmed that many Syrians view the rapid overthrow of the Assad regime on December 8 as a revolution. Today, Syria’s political future is unclear, as the crowds celebrating on the streets of Damascus, Homs, and Hama know well. It is a mistake for European observers to attribute their optimism to naiveté. At this moment of opening and uncertainty – when Syrians, against all expectations and odds, have freed themselves from a decades-old dictatorship – their choice to publicly embrace national unity is a political stance.

“The story has not ended yet”: Home is Struggle and Achievement – A Conversation with Wendy Pearlman

Wendy Pearlman is Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University where she specializes in Middle East politics, social movements, and narrative approaches to understanding conflict and displacement. She has been EUME-CNMS Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Forum Transregionale Studien during the summers of the years 2016-2018 and 2021-2022. She is the author of “The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora” (Liveright Books, 2024)

That Was Tomorrow: A Conversation About Arab Imaginaries in Berlin

Syrian writer Rasha Abbas and Palestinian artist Muhammad Jabali, in conversation with Diana Abbani, discuss the evolving dynamics and narratives shaping Berlin, a city once envisioned as an Arab cultural hub. By exploring how Berlin’s cultural landscape has been influenced by migration, identity politics, and recent political changes, emphazizing the need for both imagination and realistic approaches to create more livable cities.

Domicide: Architecture, War, and the Destruction of Home in Syria

In this article, Ammar Azzouz introduces his recently published book “Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria”. The deliberate destruction of peoples’ material, built and social environments have become to be known as domicide. Domicide is the deliberate killing of home. Focussing on the Syrian city of Homs, the author brings the mass destruction of cities during wars closer to the suffering of the people.

Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo: A Syrian Tale of War and Exile

By Elise Daniaud Oudeh and Loaay Wattad.
“Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo” is an animated film produced by artists Marya Zarif and André Kadi. As the sequel of the film, “Dounia and the Great White North”, will soon be playing at festivals, this article explores the original creative process of Marya Zarif. The movie introduces us to the life of Dounia, a young Syrian child born and raised in Aleppo. From her birth in an old traditional house, to her departure, hands in hands with her grandparents, as civil unrest and repression start spreading in the country, the viewer follows the daily life of the small family.

Kahramanmaraş Earthquake: How the Syrian Regime is Instrumentalising the Natural Catastrophe

By Elise Daniaud.
On February 6, the world started to witness some of the consequences of the tragic earthquake which hit the southeast of the Anatolian peninsula, close to the Syrian-Turkish border. Four weeks after the events, the death toll is estimated above 51.000. This article investigates the diplomatic action the Syrian government has taken since, in an attempt to secure its international recognition.

“Why Queer? Don’t you have something more important than this to talk about?” – 5in10 with Razan Ghazzawi

Razan Ghazzawi’s research focuses on everyday queer and trans encounters at checkpoints, prisons, and queer asylum in the contexts of “war on terror” and the “refugee crisis”. Razan is a EUME Fellow in the academic year 22/23 and they are a former prisoner of the Syrian state and an award winner of Frontline Defender in 2012.