This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Ottawa chapter.

In our society we still take for granted our right to vote, our freedom to walk around the street without getting kidnapped, our right to a fair trial without getting tortured, our right to even say out loud: “ I HATE THE PRIME MINISTER” without getting shot, our right to walk to school and attend a lecture without fearing that a bomb will suddenly destroy your school and kill your friends or even yourself. Those are all atrocious situations, imagining that any of this could happen to you is horrifying. Sadly, this is the reality of millions of Syrians every day. Roughly two years ago, when asked where I was from, people often confused Serbia and Syria, wondering where that “Syria” was. Today, the reaction is quite different, from shock to awkward smiles, the conversation often shifts to questions: Do you have family there? Are they ok? Is is true what they say? Are you pro-Government?: people often forget to breathe in between questions. Truth is do I ever want to answer those questions? Not really. Pretending that everything is fine is something we all do. However, when it comes down to your own country going through a Revolution that has turned into a Civil War it is hard to pretend.

For those of you who read the news or even those of you who don’t, you may have heard a couple of things about the Syrian conflict. In fact, Syria is more than a war zone, its history is fascinating: did you know that Damascus, its capital, is the oldest capital in the world? The old city of Damascus is listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage, considered to have “outstanding universal value”. Sadly, that heritage is getting destroyed, little by little. But how did we get there ?

The present government, the Ba’ath party, came to power in 1963 after a coup d’État. The father of the actual President Bashar Al Assad, Hafez, played a role in the coup and was put in charge of the Syrian air force. In 1970, Hafez himself operated a coup, while he was the Minister of Defense and declared himself president. After Hafez’s death in 2000, his son, Bashar El Assad, a doctor, took over the power. The dictatorial regime has had a bad reputation, from the Hama massacre to torturing their prisoners without forgetting corruption, when Bashar, a young doctor who spent some of his life in England came to power, Syrians had hope. They believed or wanted to believe that everything would get better. When Bashar married Asma, a young educated Syrian woman who was raised and educated in the U.K, women hoped for a bright future for Syria as well. That hope was taken away when on March 15th 2011, peaceful demonstrations were held to condemn the imprisonment of children. Those kids had drawn quotes on walls criticizing the authorities. They did not realize at the time, that anyone who ever said anything against the government could pay a heavy price for carrying out such an act. On July 15th 2012, the Syrian conflict was assessed as a “non-international armed conflict” under the International Humanitarian Law. While life is full of surprises and you always wish that only the best is yet to come, when your country undergoes a violent civil war, it feels like someone just stabbed you in the heart and is slowly removing the knife, taking years to do so.

I will not go on concerning the details of the conflict, since it is a complex situation. However, I would encourage those of you that are interested to do more research on the subject. It is difficult to understand conflicts by simply reading the news, there is always more to the story. Syria is not the only country going through such a disaster and it can be challenging for some to relate to the situation. Thus all the fundraisers and events that are meant to help are a wonderful way to get involved, simply appreciating what you have is also a great way to help out. I have always believed that education is a weapon of mass construction, your knowledge and your words can be more powerful than a nuclear weapon. A documentary by Lina Sinjab, a BBC reporter based in the Syrian capital, named “Suryaat” which means “Syrian women”, shows some of the reality of the Revolution: everyone is suffering, people are dying, from any of the sides. It portrayed a 20 year old man, who wanted a woman’s camera in exchange of his weapon: he did not want to use violence to fight anymore, he wanted to raise his voice. This man’s weapon felt heavy on his heart, he was able to take someone’s life and add to the thousands of dead in an instant.

What is different this time is that the people of Syria decided that even if they had to pay the price of death, they would rather die free than live in silence. Appreciate your freedom, raise your voice for those who can’t, take advantage of your education. Millions of kids around the world envy your 20 hours of class attended every week. Appreciate your friends and family, you never know when they will be taken away from you. Be a fighter, because as the author Irshad Manji says “courage is not the absence of fear, courage is simply admitting that some things are more important than fear”. And today, after almost two years of Revolution, of citizens of my country simply seeking freedom, dignity and to be heard by their own government, I have never been so proud to say that I am Syrian (even if it takes me quite some time to go through the U.S. borders when they realize that I am).

Real message sent from a Niece still living in Syria to her Uncle who found asylum in France:

How are you my dear uncle?

For my part, I am disgusted with this situation, I’m tired and bored.

Every second there is torture, a murder, death and blood.

In the streets, we see strange faces continuously.

Faces that are scared faces with full of hatred and resentment.

Whenever I meet someone who is part of this government that I hope that God will take, I want to kill him, insult him or even spit on him, and then I change my mind, because I fear for the safety of my family.

I’ve never been so quiet in hearing them saying those despicable words, without replying, staying silent.

I can no longer bear it, I’m so tired, tired, tired to the point that I feel that I am in the process of choking.

I wonder if dying would be better than endure such a life.

I did not want to annoy you with all this.

I’m sorry

Sources:

http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/syria

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/09/world/meast/syria-propagandist-defects/

http://www.geneva-academy.ch/R…

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/

https://www.irshadmanji.com/

Photo credits: