Kenan Rahmani is a law student at the University of Notre Dame in the U.S. state of Indiana. He shared with us that he has traveled to Syria to assist an activist network with English-language media relations. He says he recently returned again to Syria with a small group of expatriates from the Syrian More »
Yisser Bittar, a Syrian-American, tells us that since she was a little girl she used to travel to Homs every year to visit relatives. Due to the civil war and intense fighting in the city, she was unable to visit last year, but says that she and six other Syrian-Americans managed in December to More »
Rund, by her own account, is a citizen journalist in Izraa, Syria. In this installment of her regular posts she shares the story of a family’s daring escape from Syria into neighboring Jordan. Middle East Voices’ “Syria Witness” series features personal accounts by citizen-journalists inside Syria about the grim challenges of survival in a war More »
Last month, a small group of Syrian-Americans traveled to Syria’s northern region where rebels now control large parts of the country’s commercial capital, Aleppo. On that trip, the group got to see how a city functions and how people live – and die – in a state of war. The group also met with More »
Sami, a self-described citizen-journalist in Qusayr, writes about how the prolonged armed conflict in Syria has changed not only the outlook on weddings and marriages but also longstanding traditions surrounding them. Sami has shared previous narratives about barrel bombings, a Christian friend who fled Syria, and the impact his brother’s combat injury has had More »
During a Skype interview with Syria Witness, Abu Hadi identified himself as a former businessman who joined the protests in Syria at the beginning of the uprising in March of 2011. Abu Hadi is not his real name. He said he has become involved in the political realm of the movement to oust President More »
A small number of exiled Syrians in Paris, Cairo and other cities launched a radio station called SouriaLi (My Syria / Surrealist) in October for the people of war-torn Syria. The programming is uncensored and available from a Cairo studio as a web-based series of podcasts on www.souriali.com. Two of the station’s founders spoke More »
Kareem is, by his own account, the publisher of an underground newspaper in Damascus and an activist performing relief work and media relations for the Local Coordination Committees of Syria in Damascus and in Homs, where he grew up. He talked recently on Skype with Syria Witness about the difficulties of living in Damascus More »
Our source for this report is Sami al-Rifaie who, by his own account, is an activist and citizen-journalist living in Qusayr. Sami al-Rifaie is not his real name. He recently wrote about the bombardment of his hometown and a Christian friend who escaped from Syria. His latest contribution is about conditions in a makeshift hospital The More »
Our source for this report is Sami al-Rifaie who, by his own account, is an activist and citizen-journalist who lives in Qusayr. Qusayr is a city in the mountains of western Syria that overlooks the Lebanese border. Sami al-Rifaie is not his real name. Sami last wrote about a childhood friend who escaped from Syria More »
Our source for this post, Mousab Alhamadee, by his own account, is a school teacher and an activist serving as an international media spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees of Syria. He purportedly works under the protection of the Free Syrian Army in the mountains near Hama. He also says he is a former translator More »
Our source for this post, Rund al-Huriya, by her own account, is a student and citizen journalist from Izraa who regularly commutes to Syria’s capital city of Damascus. She has written previously about struggles families face when their sons defect from the military as well as about the ingenuity of mothers coaching their small More »
Our source for this post, Mousab Alhamadee, by his own account is a school teacher and activist who serves as a spokesman to international media for the Local Coordination Committees of Syria. He purportedly works under the protection of the Free Syrian Army in the mountains near Hama. He says he is also a More »
Our source for this post is Kareem Lailah, by his own account a blogger, editor-in-chief of what is reportedly the first underground opposition newspaper, Syrian Hurriyat, and an activist with the Local Coordination Committees in Syria. He writes here about what happened to a woman whose two sons were taken away by security forces. More »
Rund, a self-described citizen journalist, writes from Izraa about a family trying to cope with the disappearance of two of its male members nearly two months ago. Neighbors say that for relatives and friends, the uncertainty of the fate of those who disappear in the midst of the Syrian conflict is almost worse than More »
Abu Leila Halabi, by his own account a citizen journalist inside Syria, reports that in the battle for Aleppo, long-time Christian communities are caught in the middle of a political conflict that threatens to turn into a sectarian war. Among the Christian communities, Armenian leaders steadfastly insist they remain neutral in spite of being More »
Our source, Sami, by his own account, is a Sunni Muslim who lives in Qusayr, a farm town near the city of Homs. He grew up in Qusayr with his best friend, Fadi, who is a Christian. Given the existing sectarian divisions in Syria, their friendship and current separation, in many ways, illustrate the More »
On Sunday, August 26, M., his wife, L., and their 18-year old son, B., reportedly were among the mourners at a funeral in a Damascus suburb. As they were leaving the burial site, they were approached by a group of armed men in civilian clothes who took M. and B. aside and began questioning More »
Our source for this post is Sami al-Rifaie who, by his own account, is an activist and citizen journalist in Qusayr where he says he has witnessed Syrian government helicopters dropping large barrel bombs with TNT and scrap metal on the town’s residential areas. Sami al-Rifaie is not his real name and his account, More »
Ahmad al-Halabi, our source in Syria, is an engineer in Aleppo. He spoke via Skype with VOA’s Avi Arditti and Carolyn Presutti about the conflict in Syria’s largest city and how it has affected his life. Ahmad is not his real name. Ahmad al-Halabi, western Aleppo, August 13th, 2012 Aleppo is quiet today compared to the past few More »
