Syria - The Revolution (Preview)

SYRIA
- The Revolution

Syria - The Revolution
Syria - The Revolution
Text and Photo © Malek Tarboush 2016

Intro: Malek Tarboush
1 Syria before the revolution
2 The first demonstrations
3 The regime is killing us
4 The barrel bombs
5 The beginning of an armed resistance
6 Silence in the world outside Syria
7 The rising of Daesh
8 The schools are empty
9 America and Russia answers us with bombs
10 The Free Syria

Intro:
Malek Tarboush

Living in Assad’s Syria before the revolution was
like living my life in a big prison. But the walls and
boundaries were in my thoughts and my dreams.
I was afraid everywhere, because the security forces
could arrest me at any time and torture me and even kill
me if I was talking about banned topics.
And those who should be telling the truth: journalists,
media and teachers were corrupted by money and power.
Or too scared to tell the truth.
When the revolution came, I was filled with hope. It
was what I had waited for, in so many years.
I remember my first demonstration.
I was so scared. I could not imagine that I would be
able to shout loudly about the frustration I felt.
I remember that I took a few steps into the
demonstration, and then backed away, and then dared
to rejoin again. Shouting freely from my heart was so
foreign to me. But I was filled with life, felt alive, as if
someone had slept inside me all these years and just
woke up. It was as if something inside me began to grow
there, like a seed that has been in the dark for many
years who suddenly feel the earth and sun and water.
My heart began to beat, and my heart demanded
freedom. Although I knew that I could die in the
demonstration, I knew I had to be there.

For the first time I was able to explain all the feelings
and thoughts that had been hidden. For the first time
I was able to talk about the ugly truth about Assad’s
dictatorship.
That time I was happy and relieved.
But I was soon arrested.
The Shabeha* came to one of our demonstrations and
beat me with sticks.
I started bleeding from my head and was taken to a
small cell with 14 other young men and the Shabeha
started torture us with cables. I was left, laying on the
ground nearly naked all the night.
It was so cold.
Then they cut my hair and humiliated me and talked
bad about my family. They left all of us without food
for several days and we had to drink water from the
toilet to survive. They took me to the confession room
and tortured me because I refused to sign a paper saying
I was an armed terrorist.
I had to pay a very large sum of money to get released.
But I was lucky.
Most prisoners never leave Assad’s prisons alive.
Still, this week of arrest was the harshest experience in
my life and I wish that no one in this world had to go
through this experience.

But even after this, I couldn’t stay away from the
demonstrations.
I had to be brave, for my dignity, for my country and
for my freedom. Our demonstrations and slogans
threatened the dictatorship.
Our courage was dangerous for the regime. They tried
to build the prison of fear within us again, but now
we were alive, our hearts was strong and nothing could
make us go back to silence.
Shortly after, the military began shooting us. One by
one, people fell in the demonstrations and their hearts
stopped beating.
People died by the hundreds. Soon thousands.
It was after this the opposition started to use weapons
do defend the people in the demonstrations. It is
important to remember this. The revolution in Syria
was peaceful for a very long time and the people who
got killed in the demonstrations were unarmed. But the
silence of the international community and the brutality
of this regime forced the opposition to take up arms.
Assad’s forces have continued to kill us since then. And
they still focus on killing us who don’t bear arms.
Every day the helicopters fly over our houses where
we civilians live. Where the schools and hospitals and
markets are located.

They are dropping barrels filled with explosives and
sharp metal pieces aimed to kill and hurt as many
people as possible. And they try to stop food, water and
medicines to reach us.
Despite all this, it is better to live in the liberated parts
than in the regime areas. For in the liberated areas, we
have the freedom to express ourselves and put words
to our thoughts and opinions. We can discuss freely. We
are alive inside, because we lived in fear for so many
years and now we have to throw away this fear. If we
become afraid and silent again, the regime has won.
I think that the European people should learn more
about Syria and Assad’s dictatorship. To understand
what happens and what our struggle is.
Not long ago, Europe struggled against dictatorships
and fascists who used to burn books and use terror to
control people’s thoughts.
Now we in Syria are fighting for the same freedom as
Europe did 60 years ago. I hope that this book can help
people outside Syria to understand us, and support us in
our revolution.
Malek Tarboush, Photo journalist in Aleppo
*”Shabeha” are criminal gangs paid by the regime of al-Assad and the
Ba’ath Party to kill, torture and spread fear among civilians in Syria.”

8
The Schools
are Empty

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.
After that massacre, I met one of the kids who survived the attack. His name
is Tawfik and he is 10 years old from al Sukkary area.
He is still recovering from the massacre, but he is trauamtized after what he
witnessed. When I met him he told me:
“Suddenly my friends was ripped in pieces and scattered on top of me. I was
feeling nothing around me, I only saw blood.”
Now Tawfik, and many other kids, never go to school. They are too afraid.
And this is the plan of the regime. These bombings of schools aren’t only a
disaster for the families who are losing their youngest, but also for the whole
education system and the future for our liberated areas. Because parents
have, for understandable reasons, stopped sending their children to school.
We teachers try to practice our profession in basements or other shelters who
are less dangerous, but the regime are really furious in targeting us whenever
they get information about our hidden schools.
They try to destroy every hope for a future.
And as brutal as ever, Assad aims at our children.
Ali Ghazal, teacher in liberated Aleppo

Over 20 000 children have been killed by the regime since 2011.
That is over 94% percents of all killed children in Syria.
One quarter of Syrian schools have been damaged, destroyed, or
is used as shelters or for other purpose than education.
Between 2011 and 2014 at least 3878 schools was targeted by
the regime.
Schools are protected from attacks by International Human
Rights and Humanitarian Law.

(Above) Eid festival launched by the education institution in the liberated areas of Aleppo.
(Below) Opening of a new school in the liberated areas of Aleppo after other was bombed.

(Above) Class in a special school for orphans.
(Below) Orphans trying to paint a brighter future on a school wall. As the precision bombings of
schools continues, more and more schools have moved their classrooms and schoolyards underground.

(Above) Sidra is an orphan girl. Her mom and dad were killed by Assad’s militias a year ago. She
now lives with her sister. They try to handle the losses, but new shells, aircraft bombings and explosive
barrels continue to haunt them everyday. Two months ago Sidra stopped going to school. She
said “I hate school”.
(Below) Children on their way to school in liberated parts of Aleppo.

(Left) Barrel bombs falling over populated areas in the liberated areas of Aleppo.
(Below) Father holding his son whilst trying to escape after a barrel bomb hit his home.

(Above) Painting by children of Ayn Jalout school. The photo was taken shortly after a warplane hit the
school and killed 22 children. The children had gathered to have vernissage of their paintings. The child
who drew this painting was killed that day.
(Below) Ten year old girl under rubble after her home is hit by a barrel bomb. The civil defense is
trying to rescue her, but she died before they could dig her out of the rubble.

(Above) Buildings wiped out after being targeted by several barrel bombs in the liberated areas of Aleppo.
(Below) Children are playing in an underground shelter. It’s too dangerous to be out because of the
aerial bombing.

(Above) Because of heavy shelling and airstrikes targeting students, one school chosed to go to
each students home and deliver the final result and certificate at their door.
(Below) Young student who lost her legs is playing football in a school for disabled in the liberated
areas of Aleppo..

(Left) Girl trying to sell wood in the winter in the liberated areas of Aleppo.
A lot of chiildren have to help their families by working instead of going to school.
(Below) Trying to support their families, children are trying to sell biscuits and candy on the streets.

(Above) Child playing with a balloon he got from the garbage.
(Right) A stove painted on a wall and children from the neighborhood playing they get warm.
Most children don’t have any heater in their homes, which is hard in the winter when the
temperature reaches below -10 celcius in the nights.

This is the first chapter of a photo book
about the Syrian Revolution.
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