Writing
Published nonfiction and essays on Syria, feminism, and public life.
Selected essays
The Syrian exile: From «let’s do something» to «What can be done?»
January 22, 2025
The Price of a Voice
December 10, 2019
In Order to Be Taken Seriously
December 20, 2016
Am I Capable of Killing?
March 11, 2016
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Honorary Doctorate Acceptance Speech – University of Essex
It is with deep gratitude that I stand before you today to receive this honorary doctorate. And so, before anything else, I want to begin by dedicating this honor.I dedicate it to every Syrian student…
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The Syrian exile: From «let’s do something» to «What can be done?»
March 2024 marked the end of my tenth year of exile from Aleppo, my hometown. On March 17, 2013, I was detained for several hours, and by the morning of March 18, I had left Syria,…
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Out of the rubble: Rebuilding intersectional feminism
A call for the global feminist movement to meaningfully respond to the earthquake in Syria and Turkey Sara Jaleela, Marcelle Shehwaro For days after the earthquake, Syrians searched for their loved ones under the rubble of destroyed…
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One hour of my Syrian Facebook
February 10, 2023 “The Search for Survivors of Earthquakes”, a Facebook Group. A photo of a young, handsome man believed to be in his twenties and a post reading: “His name is Nael Masri. He…
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Suffocation, our ethics and Russia
“Should we post on social media about the possibility of the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine?” A survivor and volunteer of “Do not suffocate the truth” campaign raised in one of our weekly meetings.…
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Motherless
“I moved to the US to write a book about…” and the topic of my book changes depending on so many factors, my mood, the identity of the person who asked and the language that…
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Safe
I wasn’t sure if I could write about Ukraine as a Syrian who survived barrel bomb attacks on my hometown Aleppo. I don’t know how to write about the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a…
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Fiction: Karkobia and the Alleged Pandemic
The head of Karkobia’s security forces has caught a deadly virus. How will he hide the news from the Palace? A short piece of satirical fiction. Unfortunately, I’ll have to kill the doctor. It’s too…
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The Price of a Voice
When was my first attempt to claim a voice, and whose voice tried to silence mine? Did the silencing begin in my school in Aleppo? When I was forced to memorize and believe in anything…
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To Valeria
We know the water between the fear and the dream We wish we didn’t though We know the parenthood that forces you to choose between bad and worse, We wish we didn’t We know the…
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In the Box
Throughout my childhood, and until I came of age, there was no diversity among my group of friends: not a single Muslim in a city whose Muslim population runs into the millions, no Kurds, no…
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What if we accept Bashar Al Assad?
Let’s discuss “peacefully” that “elephant in the room”, as you say, what if we accept that Assad remains in power? We are asked the question sometimes obliquely, and sometimes filtered through the closed circles that…
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In Memory of Aleppo
To all those who will inhabit the places we left…. We once had a revolution there. I never resided in those neighborhoods, but was a visitor, a stranger, with all my little rituals, such as…
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A letter to Osama Nassar
[Editor’s note: This article is a response to an earlier Al-Jumhuriya article, ‘Siege versus prison in Assad’s Syria: a comparison,’ written by the former political prisoner Osama Nassar, currently living in besieged East Ghouta, outside…
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What Christ Is Born Among Us Today?
If Jesus were to come to us today we would spend a long time wondering about the scarf covering Mary’s head; we would close our doors in the face of the poor man and his…
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In Order to Be Taken Seriously
Immediately after we’d finished discussing the challenges facing Aleppo in front of a large audience I was asked by a friend of mine, a leading figure in the Syrian civil society movement, how I was…
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Where are the Syrians in Max Blumenthal’s Article?
I read Max Blumenthal’s article, which aims to open our eyes to the dangerous hidden reality behind The Syria Campaign. I read it over and over and all I felt was a combination of patronisation…
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I Am Lucky to Have a Syrian Passport
Dear Officer, I am lucky to have a Syrian passport. You see, if it weren’t for this passport, random selection wouldn’t have chosen me, randomly and coincidentally, for investigation in all airports I’ve ever been…
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Syria: What Forgiveness Doesn’t Mean
In the beginning I was beautiful, as I was filled only with the powerful beauty of the revolution, with the pure belief that we were here to make a change and that hatred could never…
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Am I Capable of Killing?
Am I capable of killing? If somebody had asked me this question five years ago, being a person who used to decorate her desk with Jesus’ advice to Peter—“Put your sword back into its place.…
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The Syrian Conflict Won’t Steal My Christmas
Christmas used to have a special meaning in my family, full of spiritual and familial rituals. As children, my sister Leila and I used to take turns throughout the night watching out for Santa Claus,…
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What’s Personal When You’re Syrian?
I see my psychotherapist on a weekly basis, without any of the feelings of shame widespread in our society regarding this practice. But I have a barrel of guilt inside me that is wearing away…
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Kidnapped, But Sameera Is Ever-Present in the Memories of Syrians
He is surrounded by friends, who seek his advice on matters relating to their personal exhaustion. And why not, when he has lived all of this? He has been through all the stages of our…
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A Year Away From Syria
“I should have cried.” This is the only thing that goes through my head over and over again when I remember the little girl that was torn into pieces. I don’t know anything about her,…
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My Birthday
I open Facebook to find a birthday greeting. I grasped the opportunity to return the greeting, making up for those three years in which I couldn’t send him birthday wishes. Those were the three years…
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In War-Torn Aleppo, There’s No Place Like Home
Very few Syrians have not experienced compulsory displacement. The fact of having to move from one place to another, abandoning the tangible present while ruminating on memories over and over again until they’re worn out.…
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The Funeral That Brought Syria’s Revolutionaries to a Church with Red Roses
Perhaps I have overwhelmed you with the details of my personal loss, telling you in a previous article the story of my mother and the murderer that grew in me after she was killed. But…
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How ISIS Came to Leave Its Black Stain on Syria
When I was asked to write about the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), I left the blank page open on my computer for several days. How was I to write about ISIS for…
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If I Were A Dictator, I Would Consider You My Enemy
For you to understand the situation more accurately, allow me to place you in the place and time it happened, and offer some details. The Time: October 7, 2013. It was the night my friend…