Syrian Graffiti Artist Takes On Regime

Aleppo, Asharq Al-Awsat—Khalifa has a message for the people of ravaged Aleppo: ‘Tomorrow this will be beautiful’. “It just came into my head one day as I was looking at the damaged buildings,” he says. “I heard that regime soldiers were painting ‘Only Assad, or we burn the country’ on the walls of people’s houses. So I decided to start painting this onto the buildings that they have destroyed in Aleppo, to show that them they have not won.” Just days after scud mi...

Read more »

Home is Where the Heart Is

You will not see Ahmad in a television report, trapped in a war zone that used to be his home. He is not among the refugees escaping Syria for a new hell in the camps. Ahmad is one of the lucky ones: his dual nationality was his ticket out of Syria, and in August last year he cashed it in. But leaving was not the easy option. From his new home in North America, Ahmad speaks about his decision to leave Damascus, and the daily torment he faces when he thinks about the friends who stayed beh...

Read more »