Bio
Alaa Nassar
Alaa was forced to flee Damascus with her family because of the pressure from the Syrian regime in 2013. She was a student of Arabic Language & Literature at the University of Damascus. She came to Syria Direct because she hopes to find a new direction in her life and to show the world what is happening in her country.
Latest Articles
Far from home, Syrians in Europe mark Ramadan and Eid with mixed feelings and renewed traditions
As Ramadan draws to a close and Eid al-Fitr approaches, Syrian refugees in Europe seek community and renew traditions while missing the atmosphere and flavors of holidays past.
Across Syria this Ramadan, incomplete joy and deepened hardship
Amid worsening economic conditions, Syrians throughout the country are greeting Ramadan this year with tighter budgets and “feelings of loss.”
A new bread crisis: Rukban on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
With vital smuggling routes cut off by Damascus, residents of southern Syria’s Rukban camp are facing the latest in a long line of humanitarian crises, with no help in sight.
‘We cannot go on’: Unpaid teachers on strike for ‘dignity’ in Idlib province
In opposition-held Idlib, thousands of teachers have been working without pay due to lost funding, some for as long as two years. Now at their breaking point, they are on strike.
Medical and food blockades deepen the ordeal of al-Rukban’s forgotten Syrian inhabitants
In addition to the food blockade imposed by the Assad regime since 2016, al-Rukban camp, in the no-man’s-land along the Syrian-Jordanian border, suffers a medical blockade following the close of the UNICEF medical point on the Jordanian side of the border in March 2020.
With government complicity, Syrians’ property falls victim to forgery
The Assad regime, characterized by corruption and brutality, paves the way for a growing forgery market for individuals to seize other Syrians’ properties illegally.
The Syrian revolution on its 10th anniversary: No regrets, but longing for its early days
Since the start of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, hundreds of thousands have been killed, arrested or forcibly disappeared by the Assad regime, and almost half of Syria’s pre-war population has been displaced.
Keeping hope, but still waiting: Syrian feminism and a decade of revolution
Women’s presence and role over the past decade reflect the course of the revolution: the militarization, emergence of separated areas controlled by different international, regional and local actors, as well as the rise of extremist groups such as ISIS and HTS.
Invisible under the law: Syrian widows in Jordan suffer from missing documents and identification
Since 2011, Syrian refugees poured into Jordan and the vast majority of them arrived without identification papers, especially widows who lost their husbands in the war or whose husbands were among the scores of missing and forcibly disappeared. Without these papers, widows face intense legal challenges.
Like being in Assad’s prisons: Female survivors recall their ordeals in HTS cells
After almost three months in detention by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), media activist and humanitarian worker Nour al-Shalo was released on Monday.