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Sports activities for disabled people in northwestern Syria limited, unsustainable

Idlib’s Paralympics—cut short by the HTS-backed Salvation Government—were a welcome outlet for hundreds of disabled people of all ages in northwestern Syria, breaking social isolation and boosting self-confidence.


IDLIB — Shadi al-Basha watched with pride as his 10-year-old son entered Idlib’s Municipal Stadium on August 26. “The first time I saw Zain’s smile, his confidence in himself, was the moment he entered the stadium in his wheelchair” for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games set to be held in the northwestern Syrian province.

The sporting event, organized by a local humanitarian organization, coincided with the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. More than 333 disabled people of all ages from northwestern Syria, including 72 women and girls, had spent weeks training and preparing to participate. 

The experience “was a great transformation in his life, and our life as a family, through Zain participating in a sport he has long dreamed of,” al-Basha told Syria Direct. Zain has muscular dystrophy, and has used a wheelchair for years.

The Idlib Paralympics were to include 11 sports, and followed a month and a half of preparation and training supported by Violet Organization, the tournament’s sponsor. During the training, al-Basha saw “a noticeable improvement in Zain’s behavior with his friends and brothers” as his confidence grew. 

The games were short-lived. Just two days after the opening ceremony, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-backed Salvation Government shut them down, “turning the feeling of overwhelming happiness into frustration and sadness,” the father said. 

Canceling the event on August 28, the Salvation Government cited “the occurrence of numerous violations in the activity that are contrary to our culture, customs and religion.” The use of an Olympic torch during the opening ceremony, during which the torchbearer bowed to the crowd in greeting, had sparked controversy in some circles about the use of pagan symbols.

Syria Direct sought comment from Violet about the cancellation of the event, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

The short-lived Idlib Paralympics were the largest sporting event bringing together people with disabilities from across opposition-held northwestern Syria. Of the area’s 4.2 million people—half of whom are displaced—52 percent of those above the age of two have disabilities or difficulties performing daily tasks, according to an October 2023 study by the Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU).

For Hamdou Salat, 44, the games were an opportunity to achieve his dream of returning to sports. Salat, who works at the Idlib Health Directorate’s Office of Disability Affairs, and who had polio as a child, helped organize the competition as a “supervisor and coach,” he told Syria Direct

Hailing from the Idlib countryside city of Binnish, Salat was crowned weightlifting champion at the 2009 ASEAN Para Games in Malaysia, and participated in the 2010 Asian Para Games in China. He has 37 international and 200 local achievements under his belt, but the war in Syria has kept him on the sidelines for years. 

Thousands of people with disabilities in northern Syria face the same challenges and conditions as their neighbors, while also facing an additional concern: fighting for recognition of their rights to participate fully in public life, including sports and recreation. 

After the Syrian revolution broke out in March 2011 and developed into a war, “disabled people’s access to sports and recreation facilities became more difficult,” Asmaa al-Masri, the head of the Samidat Association supporting war-wounded women in Idlib, told Syria Direct. This, coupled with “the problem of funding and challenges in obtaining necessary approvals from local authorities, as well as conditions imposed by donors, makes organizing [events] more complicated,” she added. 

Breaking isolation

For more than a decade, Salat has watched sporting events come and go with a heavy heart. From the 2012 London Olympics to the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and most recently the 2024 Paris Olympics, he felt his hope of participating fading away, unable to leave northwestern Syria. 

The Idlib Paralympics were a bright light, a “unique event,” Salat said. Since the start of the war, “we had not seen any sports activity bringing all people with disabilities together in a single tournament mimicking world championships,” he added. Being left out of sports “increased our marginalization and isolation from society.” 

As a coach during the preparations for the games, Salat noticed “a significant transformation in the lives of the participants, to the point that their perception of disability changed from it being an obstacle to an advantage,” he said. The activities had “a positive psychological impact on the participants, who felt they were capable of making significant achievements.” 

Psychological support plays an important role in improving the psychological and physical condition of people with disabilities, Talal al-Haji, a psychosocial support worker at Medical Relief for Syria (MRFS) told Syria Direct.

Sports and physical activity stimulate “the release of happiness hormones such as endorphins, which leads to improved mood and reduced anxiety and depression” while “boosting self-confidence through small achievements,” al-Haji said.

From a social perspective, sports can help disabled people “connect with others and build social support networks, which is crucial to alleviate feelings of isolation and discrimination,” al-Haji added. They also “provide a daily routine for disabled people, which supports psychological stability.” 

Al-Haji has seen sports activities make a difference for multiple people with disabilities. He recalled one man who had a lower limb amputated and suffered from severe depression. “His life changed,” al-Haji said, “and in the end managed to participate in a major sports event.” Integrated forms of psychological support for disabled people “promote mental health and empower them to confront challenges,” he added. 

Limited women’s representation

While all disabled people in northwestern Syria face marginalization, women face the biggest challenges, al-Masri said. “Women’s participation in sports and recreation in Idlib in general is low, but for disabled women it is virtually nonexistent,” she said. “Society thinks disabled women are not able to participate in sports or any other event.” 

Al-Masri, who herself was shot in the foot by a regime sniper in 2012, founded her team of 15 women who together have been able to “provide psychological and social support to more than 100 disabled women through basic activities, such as awareness sessions and visiting those who cannot leave their homes due to their injuries,” she said. 

In the beginning, al-Masri struggled with feelings of social isolation, which she tried to overcome by “establishing a team concerned with war-wounded women, holding their hands to overcome feelings of fear and pain and integrate them into society,” she said. 

She, too, emphasized the positive impact of psychological support—including through sports—for disabled people. “Women’s participation in the games organized by Violet was the first experiment. It was an opportunity to come out of isolation and discrimination and appreciate oneself again,” she said. 

Before the cancellation, 45 women and 27 girls participated in the Idlib Paralympics, according to figures Violet released in a brochure describing the tournament. Preparations for the event helped “improve the condition of women participating, as they moved from shame and fear to self-confidence and faith in their personal abilities,” al-Masri said. 

Alongside this psychological improvement, the training helped “achieve a physical improvement among the participants,” al-Masri said, emphasizing the importance of including women in such activities, as small initiatives like hers cannot organize similar events. Over the summer, al-Masri’s organization organized one recreational trip, “ an activity at a swimming pool in Idlib attended by 40 women, which cost $400,” she said. 

Financial support is “the biggest hurdle we face to organizing similar large events,” al-Masri added. Obtaining approvals from the Humanitarian Coordination Body at the Salvation Government’s Ministry of Development—which oversees organizations’ activities—is “easy, so long as we adhere to social norms and meet the required standards,” she said. 

Thinking outside the box

In 2022, Violet held a Camps World Cup, coinciding with the World Cup in Qatar at the time. The event was well received among Syrians, including those who participated. 

The tournament brought together 32 teams of children representing 25 displacement camps and seven industrial zones across northwestern Syria. Its organizers aimed to send a message that recreation is an urgent necessity for children in the camps, no less important than relief or education programs. 

Read more: Idlib’s World Cup: Children of the camps take the field

Building on that success, Violet’s most recent tournament was aimed at people with disabilities, seeking to provide a program unlike the area’s prevailing medical, financial and psychological support initiatives. 

Introducing such activities for people with disabilities is important in a country where 28 percent of the population—around twice the global average—has a disability, and where the war “continues to have a devastating impact on children with disabilities,” according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). 

While laws and regulations in Syria protect the rights of people with disabilities and their inclusion in employment, they “do not oblige institutions to provide sports and recreational activities, which further marginalizes this group,” Idlib-based lawyer Hala al-Ibrahim told Syria Direct.

Despite the successes of large sports events in northwestern Syria, they are not sustainable. When activities stop for long periods, the psychological state of participants can decline. 

Zain’s experience as a participant, and Salat’s experience as a trainer, in Idlib’s Paralympics shows the impact sports can have as a form of social and psychological support for people with disabilities. As Zain’s father said, participating in the games was—if only for a moment—an escape from isolation.

This report was produced as part of Syria Direct’s Sawtna Training Program for women journalists across areas of control in Syria. It was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson. 

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