At the beginning of 2016, the Al-Jumhuriya Collective launched the Al-Jumhuriya Fellowship for Young Writers, in collaboration with the Asfari Foundation. The objective of the program is to work with young Syrian men and women - both inside Syria and in neighboring countries - who, due to the circumstances imposed by war, were not given a chance to specialize in the fields of journalism and social sciences, yet who have ambitions to develop their writing skills and strengthen their knowledge of social journalism and the modern history of Syria, as well as their critical thinking.
The articles below are the fruits of these young writers' experiences with the Al-Jumhuriya Fellowship.
This week marks two years since thousands of civilians and rebel fighters were displaced from Syria’s Eastern Ghouta. A writer based there at the time profiles one fighter, and how he chose between leaving his hometown and staying under Assad’s ruthless rule.
For each husband killed in Aleppo, there is a widow struggling to provide for her surviving family. Our writer heard dozens of these women’s stories first-hand; an experience that sent him into an "abyss" of drugs and mental disturbance.
Despite the presence of Hezbollah, over 100,000 Syrian refugees live in south Lebanon, often for economic reasons. While outwardly they may appear to have adapted to the environment, inwardly most live in great private fear, estranged not just from their homeland but themselves.
For Syrian political prisoners and their families, life is a perennial wait for an amnesty that in many cases never comes, writes the daughter of a political prisoner who would later be incarcerated herself in turn.
Over 400 Syrians have been killed trying to cross the border into Turkey in recent years. A writer with personal experience traversing the border charts its transformation from an open door to a deadly sealed fortress.
Who exactly are the people of the occupied Golan Heights? Local writer Aram Abu-Saleh charts their history, including the profound transformations brought about by the Syrian revolution in 2011.
A Syrian Christian recalls early prejudices received about her Muslim compatriots, and how friendships with veiled women later broke these down.
Military service, chants for Bashar, and pretending not to recognize friends in the street: A Homs resident describes life after the regime's recapture of opposition territory.
A young Damascus resident questions the value of the cultural initiatives sponsored by international NGOs in the regime-held capital.
A displaced resident of Homs’ al-Wa’r district describes her journey on foot from the regime-held city center into the besieged neighborhood during a 2016 ceasefire.
Al-Jumhuriya gains access to Qudsaya juvenile prison, where food shortages, drugs, and physical and psychological abuse are rampant, leaving many detainees worse off when they come out than when they went in.
The thriving trade in possessions and even infrastructure looted by the Syrian regime isn't just a symptom of economic crisis and a wider moral breakdown following the war; it points to the ever-worsening criminality that awaits the country's future under Assad.
