Features

Home >> Features

Assad intelligence used rape to humiliate victims, families: activists

(Zaman Al Wasl)- As the Syrian regime arrests hundreds of young men in the Eastern and southern suburbs of Damascus despite reconciliation deal reached in April, another dirty game the intelligence has been working on related to the values of the conservative society in Ghouta district....

At Syria border, Jordanians dash over for cheap shopping

Near the recently reopened border with Jordan, former Syrian rebel fighter Bahaa al-Masri sells date-filled pastries and sesame biscuits to Jordanians flocking across the frontier to snap up bargains. Syrian regime forces retook control of the Nassib border crossing from rebels in July,...

French jihadist mothers in Syria face terrible choice

For dozens of French women detained in Syria, an impossible choice looms: keeping their children in a war zone, or sending them home knowing they might never see each other again. Like other Western nations which experienced a jihadist exodus to Iraq or Syria, France is grappling with...

Mouwasat Hospital: negligence, medical errors and corruption

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At a time when government agencies were honoring and hailing the medical achievements of the Mouwasat hospital in Damascus for carrying a successful operation or holding a medical conference, a number of accusations against the hospital came to the fore. The last...

Syrian laws 'too' lenient with honor crimes: advocates

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The murder of a teenage girl in the southern province of Sweidaw who was shot in the head by her father a few days ago brought to mind the issue of crimes of honor that have spread horribly in Arab societies during the last few years. Girls at the spring of their lives...

Israeli PM hopes to derail Russia-Syria S-300 deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will try to discourage Russia from providing Syria with an S-300 air-defense system during his upcoming visit to the U.S., according to Israeli media reports. Netanyahu is scheduled to attend the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, which is...

In abandoned villa, Syrian children study on the ground

In rebel-held northern Syria, displaced children sit or lie on the ground of an unfinished villa, bending over their notebooks to apply themselves as they write the day's lesson. Four teachers instruct around 100 children -- girls and boys aged six to 12 -- at the makeshift school in an...

American broadcasts from Syria’s last rebel-held zone

Pointing to a green screen as if presenting a weather forecast, Bilal Abdel-Kareem analyzes the Turkish-Russian deal over Syria’s Idlib, broadcasting in his native English from inside the war-torn country’s last rebel stronghold. The 47-year-old American convert to Islam is a long way from...

Kurds, Christians split over Syria school curriculum

Kurdish authorities in Syria's diverse northeast are facing swelling anger from the area's Syriac Christians after shutting down more than a dozen schools run by the ancient minority. At the heart of the dispute is a debate over whether to use the new school curriculum championed by the...

Ruhaiba town suffers thirst despite surrender deal

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Following the Russian-brokered evacuation deal of late April, Syrian regime forces took control of al-Ruhaiba and the eastern towns of Qalamoun. Since then the residents of the city ofal-Ruhaiba of the eastern region of Qalamoun near the capital, had been suffering from a...

Syrian refugee says hard to find wife in Europe

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Contrary to the commonly held belief, that European women are to be found lying on the roadside, waiting for the arrival of the Syrian refugees, many young Syrian refugees living in Europe speak of the difficulty of finding a partner. Before coming to Europe, most...

Syria’s women prisoners, drawn by an artist who was one

Azza Abo Rebieh got her guards to give her pencils and paper, then began sketching the faces and habits of fellow inmates in Syria’s notorious detention system. This is Hiam, a 65-year-old woman smoking a cigarette and sipping matteh, a warm herbal drink popular in Syria. It is...

A crime or a right? Some Danish Muslims to defy face veil ban

On Aug. 1, when face veils are banned in Denmark, Sabina will not be leaving her niqab at home. Instead, she will be defying the law and taking to the street in protest. In May, the Danish Parliament banned the wearing of face veils in public, joining France and some other European...

In Damascus, Syrians dare to hope war’s end may be near

Crossing into Syria from neighboring Lebanon, visitors are greeted by giant posters of President Bashar Assad. The signs proclaim: “Welcome to victorious Syria.” In the capital of Damascus, many of the checkpoints that for years have snarled traffic are gone. The city is...

Street by street, gutted Harasta begins reconstruction

Khaled’s delicate hands were accustomed to cutting and styling hair in his Syrian hometown Harasta. Now, they’re hauling concrete and sweeping floors in order to repair homes ravaged by years of fighting.Mountains of rubble still block many of the main thoroughfares in Harasta, a town...

Syria: ‘One country,’ or uneasy co-existence

Former Syrian rebel commander Omar Melhem has nearly come full circle. He was a colonel in the Syrian regime army when the uprising against Bashar Assad began in 2011. He defected a year later and joined the armed revolt against the Syrian leader. Then, when Assad’s forces marched...

Injured civilians turn to historic foe Israel amid Deraa bloodshed

The last thing Diaa, 24, remembers is the growl of an aircraft above his village in Deraa, Syria, the target of a brutal offensive by the regime against the rebels. He and an employee had gone outside their shop to take a look. The ground was suddenly ripped from beneath their feet. The...

Syrian girl born with no legs finds hope in Turkey

Earlier this month, Maya Merhi, 8, born with no legs due to a congenital condition, was moving around a Syrian displaced persons camp on artificial limbs made of plastic tubing and tin cans. But after pictures of her plight, including those taken by AFP in Syria, were seen around the...