2 min read

Preparing for iftar in Kafr Nubl (Photos)

Umm Muhammad prepares an iftar meal for her children in Kafr Nubl, the southern Idlib town she and her husband returned to after the Assad regime fell. Many families—including her children—have not returned due to extensive destruction and poor services.

By Syria Direct

27 March 2025

Umm Muhammad fries kibbeh, a famous Syrian dish made with bulgur wheat and meat, outside her home in the southern Idlib countryside town of Kafr Nubl, 20/3/2025 (Salwa Abdulrahman/Syria Direct)

KAFR NUBL — Umm Muhammad prepares to host her children for iftar, the evening meal breaking the holy month of Ramadan’s day-long fasts, frying kibbeh outside her home in Kafr Nubl. She returned to the southern Idlib town with her husband after the Assad regime fell in December 2024.

Many families, including Umm Muhammad’s children, have not returned due to extensive destruction and poor services. Returns from internal displacement camps remain “limited,” according to the United Nations, with 158,000 people leaving camps since December 2024.

Kafr Nubl rose to prominence after 2011 as one of the creative hearts of the Syrian revolution. For years, demonstrators in the town regularly posed with banners written in English, addressing the Assad regime, world governments and global conscience.

Regime forces took control of Kafr Nubl in 2020, leaving it badly destroyed and largely depopulated.

A deserted street in Kafr Nubl shows the aftermath of destruction caused by Assad regime forces, 20/3/2025 (Salwa Abdulrahman/Syria Direct)

Umm Muhammad sits between her husband (right) and son as she prepares food for the iftar meal outside her house in the southern Idlib countryside town of Kafr Nubl, 20/3/2025 (Salwa Abdulrahman/Syria Direct)

A view of Kafr Nubl, a town in southern Idlib that some residents have returned to since the Assad regime fell, 20/3/2025 (Salwa Abdulrahman/Syria Direct)

This piece was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.