Standing barefoot on an Israeli beach, Hamama Jarban blew her whistle and watched her students race towards the water clutching their colorful surfboards. Each weekend she welcomes enthusiastic would-be surfers to the shore, teaching them how to lie and then stand on their boards. "I am...

Since mid-2019, the rift between Bashar al-Assad and his maternal cousin and tycoon Rami Makhlouf has been growing wider, despite both parties’ initial attempts to find solutions and to keep the dispute from the public. However, with Rami Makhlouf’s media appearance, earlier this year,...

It was still dark in Damascus as I walked down the stairs, my new life contained in a red suitcase. My mother stood next to the taxi door praying for my safety. My father was silent, certain that he would never see me again. I lowered the taxi window and waved to my parents until they...

Nine years after tens of thousands of people were forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime during a crackdown on peaceful protesters, family members are still waiting for answers about their loved ones. An estimated 144,889 people have been imprisoned since the start of the revolution in...