It is a lovely, bright day in the Syrian spring of the 1960s, and you want to travel from your small town situated one hour away from the city. Obviously, you might think it will be like a walk in the park, but it is a daunting task that needs organizing beforehand....
The faces shine, everyone feels fine, our hearts are full of Iman; we are all ears to hear the Athan and our hands pray to let us live the Holy Month of Ramadan. The crescent of Ramadan appears. Mesaharati beats the drums and says, “Oh… you who are asleep, wake up and...
If Syria disappears, Lebanon will disappear with it, since Syria and Lebanon are basically one country separated by the French occupation. If Syria disappears, one of the oldest capitals of the world, Damascus, which appeared before 9,000 BC and was mentioned in...
The fez, or tarboush as it is called in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan) is also called “سر بوشش دادن” in Persian, which means headdress. This flat-topped men’s hat is red, cone-shaped, made out of felt, and topped with a tassel. Some sources say the...
Dressing customs in the Levant, especially in Syria, have some similarities across all countries in this region. In Syria, because of traditional dress, we can easily recognize where people come from and whether they live in cities or the countryside. As a countryside...
150 years ago, Jane Digby, the great English beauty, left her palace to live a love story in the Syrian desert. Jane Digby was married four times, including to Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria. Her love of travel took her to the East in 1852. In Syria, she fell in love with...
Weddings in Syria are all about traditions and how the ceremony is carried out. The protocols that both the groom and bride must follow are well-taught and inherited, so there is no running away from it. When any man falls in love, he must consider how to arrange a...
Everybody needs to read to become a highly-qualified, well-educated person and to be able to understand the matters which surround them. Books are one of the ways that a person can increase their knowledge and culture. I recently finished reading a book called “Rising...
We laugh and cry, feel happy and sad, angry and calm. We can feel everything around us, but sometimes we just can’t feel what goes on inside us. What does it mean when we fail to connect with our inner self? What could our silence sometimes mean? Or the comfort that...
The importance of cinema is that it is one of the media that sheds light on community issues and makes the voice heard. It differs from other media because some do not convey the truth objectively. The Greeks classified the arts into six types: architecture, music,...