Syria - We are not one single colour - Ihna mish laun wahid

Over the 14 years since the regime’s brutal crackdown on protests began, Syrians both inside the country and abroad have accomplished extraordinary things. Those who remained in Syria often kept their families alive under the most difficult conditions, living in constant fear of arbitrariness and violence. In rebel-held areas, people organised their own lives, built political structures, set up underground schools and hospitals and, despite ongoing threats from intelligence services, the military and armed groups, managed to maintain a semblance of daily life. In these areas, as well as within the Syrian diaspora, journalists, activists, lawyers and artists have worked to document abuses, pursue accountability and envision a better future for Syria.

Since then, violence and massacres have shaken the coastal region as well as the south of the country, hitting religious minority communities particularly hard and significantly undermining trust in the transitional government. How do Syrians who move between Europe and Syria view the situation today, a little over a year after the transitional government under former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa assumed power? What would it take to ensure safety for all civilians in Syria? What might citizen-centered reconstruction look like? And what is the role of women, who often carried immense responsibilities during the war and who have worked tirelessly to communicate what is happening in Syria and what justice could mean?

With:

• Ahmad Almahairy (Architect, Strategic Planner, Founding Member of Together Space)
• Chaghaf Howayek (Architect, Founding Member of Together Space)
• Rula Asad (Journalist, Co-founder Female Syrian Journalist Networks)
• Yasmin Merei (Journalist and activist)
• Razan Rashidi (Executive Director, The Syria Campaign)
• Joumana Seif (Lawyer, ECCHR)
• Jamshid Hussein (Sociologist, Activist for Kurdish rights)
• Petra Stienen (Strategic advisor on international relations and human rights, and former diplomat in Syria)

Languages: English/German, Arabic with simultaneous translation 

Information:
Birgit Arnhold, Programcoordination,  Middle East & North Africa Department
E birgit.arnhold@boell.de