Keyword: Tradition & Heritage

Katia Mezaal

Katia Mezaal, 43, lives in Germany. Here, she talks to us about her sense of identity: I’ve really struggled with the issue of identity and...

Simav Hassan

Simav Hassan, 29, is from Syria. Here, she talks to us about her sense of identity: Whenever the subject of identity comes up, I immediately...

Omar Ali Al Hussein

Omar Ali Al Hussein is 35 years old and currently lives in Syria. Here, he talks to us about his sense of identity: I was...

Zafer Nahhas

Zafer Nahhas is in his early 30s and lives in the UK. Here, he talks to us about his sense of identity as a Syrian:...

Mohammad Amin Bikdaliya

Mohammad Amin Bikdali is 23 years old and lives in Germany. Here, he talks to us about his sense of identity as a Syrian: I...

Ronas Sheikhmous

Ronas Sheikhmous, 31, lives in Germany. Here, he talks to us about his sense of identity: The injustice and oppression practiced against the Kurdish people...

Mustapha Alouche

Mustapha Alouche, 50, lives in Germany. Here, he talks to us about how he defines his identity: I am Syrian by birth, but at the...

Hozan Ibrahim

Hozan Ibrahim, 36, lives in Denmark. Here, he explains how he conceives of his identity: I’m a Syrian Kurd. Religious affiliation means nothing to me....

Reem Alshaar

Reem Alshaar is a forty-something woman living in Damascus. Here, she talks to us about her sense of identity: In my opinion, a person’s identity...

Dyala Ghanem

Dyala Ghanem is Syrian and currently lives in France. Here, she talks to us about how she sees her identity: I’m Syrian, but I also...

Kenan Nassar

Kenan Nassar is Syrian and currently lives in French Guiana. Here, he talks to us about the factors that influence his sense of identity as...

Mozna Bilal

Mozna Bilal lives in Damascus. Here, she talks to us about the factors that influence her sense of identity as a Syrian: I’ve been living...

Rim Mahmoud

Rim Mahmoud is a journalist from Syria. Here, she introduces herself in terms of her Syrian identity: I present myself as a person living in...

Yahya Hashem

Yahya Hashem is a Syrian actor currently living in the Netherlands. Here, he talks to us about his sense of identity: I am a believer...

Lina

Lina (not her real name) is Syrian and lives in Damascus. Here, she talks to us about her sense of identity and how it was...

Diala Fedawi

Diala Fedawi is Syrian and currently living in Germany. Here, she talks to us about her Syrian identity: As a person, I have no problem...

Yasmine Atassi

Yasmine Atassi is from Syria and currently living in The Netherlands. Here, she talks to us about her Syrian identity: Because of family circumstances, I...

Fareed Yaghi

Fareed Yaghi is a Syrian poet living in Germany. Here, he talks to us about his Syrian identity and what impacts it: For me, the...

Hadeel Alsamman

I am Hadeel and I am 21 years old. I am from Damascus, Syria. I came to Sweden in 2014 and have been here for...

Hassan

Hassan is from Tartus, Syria. Here, he talks to us about the factors that he feels have had an effect on his Syrian identity: The...

Jamil Jamaleddin

I am Jamil Jamal al-Din from Syria. I am proud to be from Damascus, Al-Midan neighbourhood. I am 33 years old and currently work in...

Dea Saffan

I am Dea Saffan. I am 25 years old and was born in 1994 in Deirezzor, where I lived for almost seven years before moving...

George Marash

My name is George, I was born in Damascus in 1993. I began my degree in Pharmacy at the University of Aleppo. Then, when the...

Adnan Almohamad

Adnan Al-Mohamad is 40 years old. He used to travel frequently for his work as "a researcher in the field of Syrian antiquities." He currently...

Mohammad Khader

Mohammad Khader is a 32-year-old father of three. His first child, who is 5 years old, was born in Syria where Mohammad lived until 2014....

Nour Owais

Nour Owais grew up in Yarmouk, a camp for Palestinian refugees just south of Damascus. She completed both her elementary and middle school education at...

Miral Zahed

Miral Zahed was born in the city of Homs in 1979 to a Syrian father and Lebanese mother. She describes Homs as a small city,...

Elham Hakki

Elham Hakki was born in 1960 in al-Raqqa city. Her father was from al-Raqqa and her mother from Homs. Her father, Mohamed Naji Hakki, established...

Basil al-Sorouji

Basil al-Sorouji was born in Damascus in 1963. He spent the first two years of his life in Algeria then moved with his family to...

Abdallah Khairo Burgul

Abdallah Burgul moved with his family to the city of Saraqib, his mother’s hometown, in 1953. However, his love and attachment to Kafr Nabl always...

Hala Al Nasser

Hala al-Nasser grew up in Raqqa province, where she completed her primary and preparatory education. She then moved to Hama in order to continue her...

Ihab Al-Said

Ihab al-Said was born in 1965 in Qadisiyah village in Al-Haffah region of the Latakia province. Ihab says that Al-Haffah community was composed of three...

Jinan al-‘Awwad

Jinan al-’Awwad was born in 1958 in al-Mayadin in Deir ez-Zor, a town on the banks of the Euphrates, about 45 kilometers away from the...

Ousama

Ousama* was born in 1967 in the Bab Hud neighborhood of Homs to a middle-income well-known ancient family. Bab Hud is one of the ancient neighborhoods...

Abu Reda al-Maydani

Abu Reda al-Maydani grew up in the Damascene district of al-Midan, which extended from Bab Musalla to the end of al-Ashmar Square up to the...

Wafaa Mohamad

Wafaa Mohamad was born in Saraqeb in the countryside of Idlib, a city famous for its diverse agricultural crops such as grains, olives and cotton....

Jamil al-Kayyem

Jamil al-Kayyem was born in the city of Palmyra, a city distinguished by its rich historical and archaeological sites. Most of the city's population worked...

Abdul Bary Othman

Abdul Bary Othman was born in 1962 in the Kurdish village of al-Kouwa in Al-Hasakah governorate, 19 km from Qamishli city. He lived a simple...

Mariam Zakaria

Mariam Abdelrahman Zakaria grew up in the city of Deir Atiyah in the Damascus countryside. The city is famous for its beauty, infrastructure and outstanding...

Sabrie Abtini

On the day she was born in 1953, Sabrie Abtini’s grandmother was angry because the newborn wasn’t a male. She left the house feeling upset...

Amina Nona

Amina Nona started her own clinic in Haritan, a town in the countryside north of Aleppo, at a time when the area lacked midwives or...

Hayat al-Bitar

Hayat al-Bitar was born and raised in the city of Latakiya, until she was married at the age of seventeen and moved with her husband...

Reem Seifeddine

Reem Seifeddine was raised in a middle-class family in the village of Jusiya, located within Hama Province. She demonstrated academic excellence early, during elementary school,...

Nada Abdul Kader

Nada Abdul Kader was born in 1989 to a huge family living in Aleppo and originating from the countryside south of Aleppo. Her parents were...

Miryam Boushi

Miryam Boushi was born in the town of Binnish in Idlib province, and began working in the fields, planting the crops and harvesting them from...

Dana Yacoub

Dana Yacoub, 34, recalls the gatherings of the Circassian community, held yearly on the seventeenth of April in the two villages of Bariqa and Bi’ir...

Hasna Assaf

Hasna Assaf recalls some of the customs and traditions practiced by the Turkmen in the village of Talf in rural Hama, where there was a...

Amira Ajmiye

Amira Ajmiye doesn’t remember her birthdate. She was born in the city of Talkalakh in rural Homs province, at the time when it was under...

Yehya Ghiryani

Yehya Ghiryani grew up in the Qaterji neighborhood in Aleppo, a working-class neighborhood where most of the inhabitants came from rural areas, though there were...

Khalil Ibrahim

Khalil Ibrahim’s village in rural Aleppo is only about fifteen kilometers away from the Turkish border. It is bound on the north and east by...

Nadia Saeed

Nadia Saeed grew up in the village of Ras al-Ain in the Qalmoun area in Rif Dimashq Province. She lived a simple, rural life within...

Jamila Amin

Jamila Amin flips through her journal, recalling the beautiful days spent at her grandmother’s house in Syria’s Quneitra Province. “That was the only time where...

Rima Oshana

Rima Oshana recalls some of the different social occasions celebrated by the Assyrians in Hassake province in eastern Syria. The Assyrian New Year, for example,...

Toufic Mohamad

Toufic Mohamad recalls his childhood in his village in rural Hassake, how he would play in the fields with the other children while their fathers...

Najah Ahmad

Najah Ahmad grew up in one of the villages in Suweida province. Her father worked in Kuwait and Libya, then as an art therapist in...

Joumana Khamousie

For the first five years of her life, Joumana Khamousie lived in Beirut. Her mother is Palestinian-Lebanese and her father Syrian, from Hama. Her father...

Abdelsalam Hamdan

Abdelsalam Hamdan is from Deir Ez-Zor Province. A lack of general education in the area along with local customs that promoted early marriage, resulted in...

Abeer Idriss

Abeer Idriss was born to a Sunni father and an Ismaili mother in the town of Masyaf, part of Hama Province in Syria. “Most of...

Maryam Darweesh

Maryam Darweesh was born in the town of Al-Sakhna in the Syrian desert, located between the provinces of Homs and Deir ez-Zor. Al-Sakhna is a...

Nour Shamaa

Nour Shamaa grew up in a conservative, working-class neighborhood in Aleppo. He began attending classes on Islamic Sharia law at one of the local mosques...

Mohamad Khalaf

Mohamad Khalaf belongs to the Al-Uqaydat tribe, made up of an alliance of different clans living in Homs and Deir ez-Zor provinces, as well as...

Kheiro Qasim

Kheiro Hammoud Khasem learned the basics of farming from his father and older brother, and began working the land when he was only 8 years...

Walaa Mousa

Right from the very start, Walaa Mousa was unhappy about getting engaged. She wanted to finish university first and get her diploma in Arabic literature....

Mira

Mira grew up in a poor neighborhood on the edge of Damascus, dubbed Dammar al-Balad (which tellingly translates into “the country was destroyed”). She never...

Aebesh Khalil

Aebesh Khalil was born in 1962 in Afrin, in rural Aleppo. He was brought up in the general atmosphere of coexistence and tolerance that prevailed...

Zeina

Zeina* was born in Sweida Province in southern Syria. She studied Business Administration and Psychology at university and specialized in the rehabilitation of those with...

Malek Satoof

Malek Satoof was born in Sheikh Alwan village in eastern rural Aleppo. “My village is quite remote,” he says, “far from the main highway. Most...

Ghada Hamoud

Ghada al-Haj Hamoud grew up in the town of Jdeidat Artouz in Rif Dimashq Province. Her family was Muslim in a predominantly Christian neighborhood, where...