Syria - The Revolution

More documents

Recommendations

Info

8 The Schools are Empty 114
Before the revolution I was a French language teacher in a school close to the old medieval castle in Aleppo. When the revolution came, some of the teachers who were pro-Assad moved to areas where regime was in control, and my old school was soon bombed. Because I stood up against the dictator, I was wanted by the regime and therefore had to start working in field schools. Even though teaching now is very hard cause of the frequent bombings, it has many advantages from how it was before. Before the revolution, we used to see schools as military bases where the directors behaved as generals. Horrible punishments were applied, such as using the cane to beat students and other brutal practises that doesn’t belong in schools at all. Now, in the schools in the liberated areas, we have at last get rid of these punishments. They are totally forbidden and it makes me happy and proud every day. One more important thing that makes me feel proud of my field schools is that all the pictures of al-Assads family and their military commanders are ripped out from the books. Curriculum is filtered and modified to not to have anything about al-Assad family or his regime. Before, it was like being in a prison to have to teach the students about the greatness of the dictator every day in class. Now I feel free, as teachers and students should feel. To understand the brutality of the regime, we have to see the pattern of how al-Assad reacts to people who try to disobey him. When the regime loses a town or the people in a city dare to stand against Bashar al-Assad, the regime try to destroy everything that could grow strong and free in that area. Aleppo is a clear example of this. The regime is using barrel bombs to kill civilians each and every day. In the hunt for the regime to cause the biggest loss of civilians, they tend to target marketplaces, homes and medical facilities. And of course, the schools. Many are the students and children who have been killed in their classrooms, or on their way to or from school. One of the worst massacre against the kids was in Ein Jaloot. That day, kids were having an exhibition. By the help of their teachers, they had prepared an exhibition to show the current situation through paintings to encourage their talent. Some kids were really talented and some paintings were really good. Kids were happy preparing for that exhibition. But as by given commando, two aircrafts bombarded the schoolyard using missiles. The first one fell close to the school, while the second one was a direct hit. Targeting the school was very clear. They targeted kids on the day of the exhibition where they were showing drawings about the massacres committed by this regime. Sadly, more than 40 kids were killed that day, in addition to 2 teachers: Bahsar and Nasr. Now those kids and the teachers are in a higher place, they went from being in classrooms to being in Heaven. I have to think like this to manage to go on. 115
Page 1 and 2: SYRIA - The Revolution 40
Page 3 and 4: Intro: Malek Tarboush 1 Syria befor
Page 5 and 6: Living in Assad’s Syria before th
Page 7: According to the Committee to Prote
Page 11 and 12: 117 Over 20 000 children have been
Page 13 and 14: (Above) Eid festival launched by th
Page 15 and 16: 121
Page 17 and 18: (Above) Sidra is an orphan girl. He
Page 19 and 20: 125
Page 21 and 22: (Above) Painting by children of Ayn
Page 23 and 24: 129
Page 25 and 26: (Above) Because of heavy shelling a
Page 27 and 28: 133
Page 29 and 30: (Above) Child playing with a balloo
Page 31: Share this preview on your social m

Syria - The Revolution

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?