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https://theconversation.com/journeying-through-syrias-shattered-cities-as-they-move-from-war-to-peace-290106>
"It was around seven o'clock in the evening when we arrived at a church in the
city of Hama, Syria, to attend the wedding of a friend. As guests gradually
filled the courtyard, music began to echo through the building. One by one, the
bride, groom, and their relatives entered the church accompanied by songs,
applause and cheers.
After the religious ceremony concluded, groups of young men and women began
performing
Ewiha, a traditional wedding chant in Syria and the Levant. Their
voices rose and fell in a rhythmic dialogue as verses praising the bride and
groom were answered by equally poetic responses from across the room.
Each verse concluded with a joyful
zalghouta – the high-pitched ululation
that has accompanied celebrations across the Arab world for generations.
At first glance, there was nothing extraordinary about the wedding. Yet after
more than a decade of war, the celebration felt like something more than a
family gathering. It offered a powerful reminder that cultural traditions,
social bonds, and everyday celebrations continue to endure, and that Syrians
are trying to rebuild ordinary lives amid an uncertain transition.
But we were not in Syria to attend a wedding. As peace and conflict
researchers, the three of us have long worked on questions of displacement,
refugee return and post-conflict recovery; combining research on Syria with
broader comparative perspective.
For this particular field trip, two of us, Bahadir and Zeynep, had spent the
previous week travelling across Damascus, Rural Damascus, Aleppo and Raqqa
observing firsthand how Syrians are navigating the country’s transition.
The journey, from June 1 to June 7, 2026, was part of a broader research
programme that has involved more than 200 interviews over the past two years
with Syrian returnees, internally displaced people, local officials,
humanitarian workers and civil society representatives. These conversations,
together with our wider research, have informed a series of peer-reviewed
publications and policy reports on refugee return and reconstruction."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
