Syria
From Assad to Salafism?
The question of whether Syria is becoming more Salafist is both unavoidable and misleading. It assumes that because those who captured the state emerged from a particular Islamist trajectory, they can simply remake society in their own religious image. But political victory is not the same thing as religious authority.
Heritage Without Heirs
Syria’s shadow puppetry, oud-making and glassblowing, which once won UNESCO recognition, are now at risk of dying out, say their practitioners.
Inside the Syrian Village Hit by Jordan’s Airstrikes
Lamis was 8. Her brothers, Osama and Yaseen, were 9 and 11. They were killed alongside their uncle and grandmother when Jordanian jets struck their village in southern Syria, in what Amman called a precision attack against the Islamic State group. The children’s father had been disappeared by Assad.
The Land Expropriations of the Assad Era Still Hang Over Syria
When the Assad regime expropriated land outside Damascus from local farmers, it became part of a chemical weapons facility. Across Syria, similar injustices occurred, and so far the new government has offered nothing to the families who still hold their title deeds.
The Syrians Languishing in Israel’s Prisons
Israeli forces have detained dozens of Syrians from the country’s south, some of them teenage boys taken from farms and family homes. Their families still don’t know where they are being held or why.
A Change at a Damascus School Has Syrians Reading the Runes
A hundred years after its founding, the elite, secular Laique school in Damascus has decided to separate boys and girls for the first time. Syrians are asking what that means for the school, and the future of Syria.
Syria’s Winemakers Press on Under New Alcohol Rules
From the vineyards of the coastal mountains to a small family winery, a handful of producers are trying to sustain a modest wine industry amid economic pressures and changing alcohol regulations.