Sarah Hunaidi
@SaraHunaidi
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Exiled Syrian Writer, Human Rights Advocate, Feminist, Translator, Person | 🎓 @Harvard |✍🏼: @ForeignPolicy @Independent +|. She/Her/Hers 🌈
Not at home
Joined September 2014
I’m not a Syrian refugee anymore. I’m Syrian. Just Syrian.
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Love seeing Rania Khalek, Max Blumenthal, Aaron Maté, and the fake Australian Syrian girl squeaking as they fall into oblivion while we take back our Syria. بالعربي منقولها: صياحكن طرب. بس ما حدا فيكن بيقرا عربي.
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The west is suddenly worried about Syrian women. They weren’t worried when Assad bombed us or tortured women & children in his dungeons for more than a decade. “You consider yourself a feminist.” Lol.Spare us your white feminism. #Syria
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In an interview today, I was asked for my message to the international community. I replied: I have none for those who watched us die for over a decade. Our advocacy was ignored, the UN is a farce, and Gaza & Syria prove it. I speak only to Syrians now. To hell with the world.
Mazen ❤️🩹. For years he spoke to leaders around the world about the torture he endured & they didn't do shit. He went back to Syria to help fellow detainees. Today his tortured body was found. Everyone failed him. Every official who met him & didn't do shit for Syria failed him.
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He was all dressed up for #Eid when a bomb hit him in Alhara city in Daraa, #Syria. Sources say the Russian backed #Assad regime was bombing the area. Their tyranny doesn't take any days off, even during religious holidays. #EidAlFitr2018
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So let me get this straight. People demonstrated in 70 cities in the US today against the US intervening in the ME against Iran, but how many times have people demonstrated when Iran intervened in places like Syria, Iraq, & Lebanon killing thousands of innocent people? Hypocrisy.
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When some claim Assad isn’t so bad or that Syrians should accept being killed by him for the sake of Palestinian liberation, they ignore the truth: Assad has never been an ally to Palestine, and no one who kills Syrians and Palestinians can liberate our Palestine.
The Assad regime will go down in history as one of the ugliest, bloodiest and most brutal regimes ever known. The post-Assad era is unknown. Everything is possible. But this is a truly historic moment of freedom that is worth celebrating, big time, regardless of what comes next.
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I recently lost someone to suicide. He couldn't bear the pain of life after experiencing exile & torture in Assad's prisons. Our complex grief after living in Assad's Syria is killing us even when we are thousands of miles away from home. Be kind. Don't forget the disappeared.
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The release of hundreds of detainees from the infamous Palestine Branch prison, which was controlled by the fallen Assad regime, and the overwhelming joy of the detainees. 🥹
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A 27yo woman just set herself on fire at #RukbanCamp on the Syrian-Jordanian borders because she and her 3 kids haven't eaten for days. She and her 1 months old baby are in a bad condition and were admitted to a hospital in Jordan. Her name is Sundus Fathallah.
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Assad exploited the name of Palestine in the Syrian psyche, associating it with torture and fear. This is how he divided us—weaponizing the Palestinian cause against us.
The release of hundreds of detainees from the infamous Palestine Branch prison, which was controlled by the fallen Assad regime, and the overwhelming joy of the detainees. 🥹
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Hello Twitter. I know, Syria is like SO 2012! BUT I wanted to say that as we speak, Syrian asylum seekers are forging a new route in the woods between Belarus & Poland, &some are freezing to death. All of this to escape a dictator who won over our dead & displaced bodies.
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I can't believe I have to say this:.Do not praise Taliban as a decolonial movement! Do not praise Taliban, period!.We don't need you to show how much you hate US foreign policy over the literal dead bodies of Afghans who fell from American jets to escape the group U ARE PRAISING.
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14 women from Swaida were kidnapped by ISIS in the last couple of days. We want them back. We want our sisters back. We are not slaves to anyone.
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The release of detainees from Sweida Central Prison after it was taken over by local rebels. One man says, “8 years in prison, they deprived me of my son, I didn’t het to carry my own son.”.Another says, “We want Syria to be ours, not for the Russians or Iranians."
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Thinking of the 19yo teenager who was found dead crossing the Belarus/Poland borders. The total of dead Syrians & Iraqis reached 8 this week. Some are 19 & 24 years old. This morning, I sit with their unrealized dreams and I mourn them.
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Good news: my political asylum in the US was approved after 6 years of displacement in 3 countries!.Bad old news: millions are still displaced. Open your borders to those who lost everything because of their political opinion. Don't aid oppressive regimes in silencing us.
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I remember hearing about those teenagers myself few kilometers away from us in southern Syria. I was also a teenager, 16 years old when the revolution started. The hope that was shattered the past 13 years is now reignited.
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It is time for your not-so-friendly reminder that:.-Syrians are not homogenous. -Being against Assad does NOT =ISIS. -Being against religious extremists does NOT= pro Assad. -Assad is NOT pro-Palestine. -Russia, Iran, Hezbullah, US, Turkey, all made the Syrian conflict worse.
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Saying that authoritarian/dictator regimes did something right is like saying that an abusive husband who beat his wife to death did in fact bring groceries to her & the children.
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Rania has been a filthy Assadist for a decade. Now she is acknowledging the regime’s “original sin.” Go to hell, Rania.
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A protest in my city in south Syria against the Syrian government and in solidarity with Syria’s north. Despite the regime using Islamists as a scarecrow to minorities, seems like they are too fed up with Assad to care.
#شاهد: مظاهرات في شوارع مدينة السويداء جنوب سوريا اليوم الاثنين للمطالبة بإسقاط نظام بشار الأسد والتغيير السياسي. #سوريا #السويداء #مظاهرات #حلب
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We know Syria is beautiful. I didn’t need regime apologists to remind me of the beauty of my country. The country that I can’t get back to as long as our dictator is in power. How many peaceful activists did the Assad regime torture to death and exile?.
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I did not hear ONE chant from the anti-war demonstrations today against Iran's interventions and wars. Only about the US, &/or general anti-war slogans. Our blood as Syrians/Iraqis/Lebanese in the past decade on Iran's hands did not deserve your attention? Not surprising.
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Turkish fascists attack you. Then Turkish authorities arrest you and deport you for reporting the attack and daring to use the legal route to protect yourself. Turkey is not safe for Syrian refugees. Syria is certainly not safe either. We deserve better!.
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A man named Bashar Bseis killed his sister yesterday to “wash his honor”. He did it live on Facebook. Yet another honor crime in Syria. You will not be forgotten, Rasha Bseis. Rest in peace. I am so sorry you were born in such a world. I’m sorry for all of us.
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Today in my city. "We want the detainees!".Syria has more than 130,000 detainees and forcibly disappeared persons. The vast majority of those detainees are taken by the Syrian government. We want our detainees back!.
#شاهد: بالحق بالدين. بدنا المعتقلين. المحتجون في ساحة السير/الكرامة وسط السويداء، يطالبون بالإفراج عن جميع المعتقلين السوريين.
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President Bashar Alassad’s recent @skynewsarabia interview ignited whispers of revolution. From Suwayda to Aleppo, #Syria’s spirit renews its call for change. #UN Resolution 2254 promised progress, but where’s the #accountability?.Via @TheSyriaCmpgn.Idlib📷: @AliHajSuleiman
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I have to stop myself from explaining to my young nephew why I will be arrested& tortured if I come home to see him. Why do I stop myself? Because he is in Assad’s Syria. Why am I exiled? Because I write and expose the human rights violations done by Assad. Only Assad? No.
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“Claims to be Syrian” 😂 this app is too funny.
@Tom_Rowsell @SaraHunaidi Can we get content from you at some point about the “white” diaspora of the Middle East. This woman claims to be Syrian but could easily call herself White, especially in America.
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Hitler was a Western-educated “artist”. Don’t you dare call us terrorists for standing against one of the worst war criminals in history just because he wears a tie and suit and has blue eyes. What a colonialist backwards take. Ignorant.
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Yarmouk camp is being bombed by Assad for the past 3 days. Assad, who is anti-imperialist/anti-israel, is bombing Palestinian refugees and destroying their homes with Russian equipment. Funny, isn’t it? No.
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"We are not demanding something hard, we are demanding the fall of this criminal regime, that's all." 😂 I just love how nonchalant this guy is, not hard at all. Ah I love our spirit! 😂.
"ما رح نتراجع لحتى نحقق هدفنا". مقابلات في ساحة الكرامة مع أبناء السويداء المنتفضين. #إضراب_السويداء.#مظاهرات_السويداء
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1/2 🌍 Syria Faces International Justice 🏛️ Canada and the Netherlands have taken Syria to the ICJ over allegations of torture since 2011. What could happen next?. [Sources: SNHR, UNCAT, SJAC, TIMEP, HRW, AlJjumhuriya]
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Sweida rebels burn Bashar Al-Assad’s picture in my hometown, Shahba in Sweida province.
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This badass Palestinian woman is criticizing Hamas and exposing their mistreatment of Gazans ✊🏼.
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Around 300 Syrians have been forcibly returned to Syria from Turkey today. Among those are children.
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The same people who used to be genocide deniers in Syria are now using footage from those SAME war crimes falsely alleging they’re from Gaza. It’s not that our death wasn’t believable, as they claimed; rather, it wasn’t convenient for their agenda. Shame.
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2011, I was an 11th grade student contemplating the risk of using my real name online to criticize the Syrian government. Today, in my exile, I am a master’s student at Harvard contemplating the same thing, in the US. The irony.
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I had to live in Lebanon, Turkey, &now the US alone since I was 17. Went through things I’m still learning how to talk about. But Max Blumenthal can go inside Assad’s Syria and take pictures whitewashing our dictatorship. Ok.
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Hafez al-Assad died OTD in 2000. It was a shock to us, the young generation, bc we were taught in school that he was immortal. "The immortal leader" died. It did not make sense. We revolted 11 yrs later. We came a long way. Unlearning & learning, & we have a long way ahead.
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Yes. I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. I left Suwayda heartbroken & scared after 2011. We never dreamt of standing in the main square facing giant gov buildings! I'm seeing people who used to stand against us in 2011 are now calling for the fall of the regime in 2023!.
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It’s not hard. Don’t deny war crimes. No matter who committed them. Don’t be a garbage human being.
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The fact that I can say “fuck the regime” even though I was programmed like these kids, is in itself a revolution and a miracle. Fuck the regime, fuck fascism. Oh and while we’re at it, fuck the patriarchy :)
The Syrian regime does not make it easy to keep Nazi comparisons out of the conversation about its conduct:. Here are children at one of the regime's schools in Homs city:
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Rami Hanawi died under torture in Assad’s prisons after his arrest in 2012.He was a peaceful activist from Swaida, a religious minority province in southern Syria.Activists like him expose the hypocrisy of a regime that claims to protect minorities.Rest in power. We will continue
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Iraq is revolting, along side Egypt. Syria. Lebanon is fed up too. Jordanian teachers are on strike. I think it's pretty clear that the people of the Levant/ME have had enough of these post-colonial corrupt dictatorships. Anyone who tries to deny that is simply stupid.
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Ok apparently I need to address this because many people are referring to me as Syrian-American. I am not Syrian American. I am Syrian exiled in the US, with my political asylum pending for years now. I’m technically a Syrian stuck in the US.
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#URGENT Layan is a Jordanian girl who fled to #Turkey after her brothers sexually harassed her, and her family physically abused her. She has no help in Turkey and her family is threatening her with her life. #savelayan #ساعدوا_ليان
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My beloved aunt just died in Syria from Coronavirus. Mourning Beirut, mourning my aunt; I’ll need a lifetime of mourning to process everything that ever happened in that region, my home.
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Some Syrians hv been celebrating, ppl who'v been exiled bc Assad kicked them out of their own homes wth Iran's help. They later saw pics of Soleimani walking over the rubbles of their homes. They didnt celebrate bc they are pro-US. But bc we have not seen any justice since 2011.
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"Syrian and Ukrainian people suffering from the same killers.".Yesterday in Suwayda.#Facts #UkraineRussianWar #Syria #Suwayda
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Lebanese racism towards Syrians knows no boundaries nor shame. This poster says "get out of our land, and people who are bothered by this should go with you. [hashtag]Lebanon is for its people."
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Commemorating the independence from the French occupation in 1946, in Damascus, by raising the Russian and Iranian flags.
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This is a demonstration in Suwayda where shaikhs & men are standing behind a young woman bravely reciting the demands of the recent revolt in Syria. Assad kills one revolution, 10 others erupt. Every generation will rise against your tyranny!.
#شاهد: من بلدة ملح التي تشهد انتفاضة اليوم الثلاثاء، حرة من حرائر البلدة: نحنا مش جوعانين، ومطالبنا سياسية
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Today is the 6th anniversary of the disappearance of Samira al-Khalil, Razan Zeitouneh, Wael Hamada, & Nazim Hammadi. Known as #Douma4. Our resistance is against forgetting. Our war is a war of memory too. Our memory is our responsibility. Where are the forcefully disappeared?
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On this day in 2013, the Assad regime used chemical weapons resulting in a massacre on civilians and whole families in Douma, the suburbs of Damascus. Our memory is our responsibility.
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I want to discuss the nihilistic futility Syrian exilees feel when we see Rami Makhlouf's son driving a Ferrari in LA, when we see countries normalizing relations with a regime that killed&displaced us. How are we supposed to move on when the blood of our martyrs is still warm?.
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The last couple of days have been one of the hardest as we received news about friends and beautiful activists who died under torture in Assad’s prisons. The regimes isn’t even hiding his crimes anymore; he knows that no one cares about us.
So the Assad regime basically updated its prison databases & marked 100s of people dead by torture. Dozens of families are discovering daily that their loved ones died years ago. What a cruel world we live in - when murder is not only openly admitted but openly accepted. #Syria.
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A reminder that US-centrism is a thing. Frankly, an annoying thing. P.S. don’t know what “broke” has to do with US imperialists. But the meme still stands.
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It's so beautiful to see people creating their own future. My heart aches for us, Syrians, because our revolution was stolen. But our neighbors on both sides, the Lebanese and Iraqis, are giving people like me so much hope. We're all watching and cheering despite our losses.
"This revolution emancipated women from suppression and fear". Meet the young artists reviving the subways with revolution-themed graffiti. #IraqProtests .
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Note that the conditions of the refugee camps in Syria's neighboring countries in the winter are unbearable due to the harsh cold, let alone poverty. Something needs to be done.
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1000 names of our finest men who died under torture were released in the last couple of days by the Assad regime. 1000 names from Darayya, from one small town. Peaceful activists and civil society leaders.
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@bobfrombrockley @LailaAlodaat @ZainaErhaim @RanaKabbani54 @LeilaShami @ynahlawi @MaryamSaleh @Linashamy @leila_na @ShiyamG @OulaRamadan @RafifJ @AmalHanano @RedRazan @RazanSpeaks @AliaMalek @HindKabawat @SaraAfshar @rallaf @LubnaAlkanawati @Deana_Lynn73 Living under the Assad rule my whole life I was the most fearful for myself&other women. The stories we heard frm Assad’s prisons were horrendous; our bodies were commodities for higher army men. The revolution we joined is about dignity& freedom from the Assad rule&that fear.
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Relocating 700,000 Syrians. Turkey is following Assad’s lead in demographic re-engineering. They are creating a Syria that native Syrians can’t recognize anymore.
Turkey is indicating it will carry out demographic re-engineering in areas it captures: overwhelming majority of refugees in Turkey are Arabs, while areas ceased would be majority Kurdish. "Resettlement" in an area of conflict is also illegal under int'l law (non-refoulement).
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In 2011/2012, I had to rename Sarout’s songs on my phone when I went through checkpoints in Syria. His songs on your phone could get you arrested because they were filled with words such as “revolution, home, martyrs. ”.In the early days his songs gave us hope and unity.
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Those of you writing to me that US citizens are only concerned with their country's actions are the same ppl who usually preach solidarity, global citizenship, & abolish the borders etc. Again, pick one. Anti or pro war? We're all one or are we divided. Double standards much?.
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Read this again and again. Very important. Very true.
For the record, as depraved as MBS is, the crimes of the Assad family during its 50 years in power make him look like an amateur. Nobody who supports Assad, Putin, or the Khomeinist Iranian regime has any moral high ground from which to speak about Jamal Khashoggi.
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Habibi Rania you worked hand in hand with this Baathist regime, you whitewashed its crimes and built a career amplifying its propaganda. You don’t get to be “happy” that it fell. يخربيتك شو وقحة.
We can do all of that (and have been), but the real question is: can you, after whitewashing Assad's crimes for so long, now criticise his regime with any credibility?. Because if "there has always been room for nuance", . Well, then where the fuck were you?
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On this day in 2013, the Assad regime used chemical weapons resulting in a massacre on civilians and whole families in Douma, the suburbs of Damascus. Our memory is our responsibility.
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This picture was taken today in Idlib after the Assad regime and Russian airplanes targeted a hospital. I’m speechless. speechless! These are civilians; a patient and their paramedic.
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I'm getting so much hate from bullies&trolls bc I'm talking abt the recent deportations of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Reminds me the hateful phrases I used to hear when I was a refugee in Turkey2014-15. I choose 2 remember the support of the warm ppl of Turkey, not the bullies.
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Search that question before whitewashing him and calling us terrorists. I’m from a minority. We’re from all backgrounds. Get out of your US centric thinking. It’s not about the US backing or not backing our revolution. We don’t care about the US. IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!.
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ISIS attacked my city, and the Assad regime, not surprisingly, stood still watching us die. The brave people of my city defended themselves with kitchen knives. More than 200 beautiful martyrs and around 300 wounded.
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This 9yo just committed suicide in Turkey because he was bullied in school for being Syrian. Think about that, and try to imagine the pain felt by refugees and people in exile. What a horrible cruel world.
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Fun fact: you can be against the Taliban AND be critical of US foreign policy AT THE SAME TIME. Hell, you can even admit that the US practically gave power to the Taliban 20yrs ago & STILL not see them as the decolonial wonderful movement that you so desperately want them to be.
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#Turkey just killed another #Syrianrefugee this morning (Aug9). Her name is Hadeel Ahmad al-Hussein al-Dakheel from Deir Ezzor. She was trying to cross the border from to Turkey when she was shot. Rest in peace, Hadeel. Only death opens its doors to Syrians now.
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Goodbye our dear Fares. This is such a horrible world. I’m so sorry for your sons and for all of us.
Kafranbel 21 Sep 2018.Me and my sons: Mohamad & Ahmad .Kafranbel Demonstration 😍😍
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Remember Idlib? Where Syrians are facing both the oppression of HTS and the bombs of the regime and Russia? Yeah those people, they still exist. They’re still chanting for their freedom.
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It's like people are arguing if it is right for a murderer to kill another murderer. It is absurd if your reaction is to defend the killed murderer or act like he wasn't a murderer!.The whole thing is absurd.
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Americans-- for the sake of every Syrian who died under tortured, who was exiled or forced to flee, for the sake of the kids who were born in refugee camps; go vote, Americans. Some of us went through hell to get the right that you take for granted. VOTE.
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I‘ve been MIA for months from social media & publishing, but the news of Shady Habash’s death broke my heart. It did, however, remind me of the importance of our word, how it shakes their regimes &fragile powers. I forget sometimes, but our memory is our responsibility. RIP Shady
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What kind of monster attacks refugees in camps? The answer is Assad. Assad, the “winner”.
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When trolls share my pictures to attack me and all I have to say is “aww I looked cute in there”.
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Turkey is punishing Syrians for not having legal papers, these same papers that Turkish immigration departments refuse to grant Syrians!
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On this day in 2013, Assad used chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta. Even the doves suffocated. The children never woke up from their beds. Never forget. Our memory is our responsibility.
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Today is Samira Alkhalil’s birthday. The woman that left me her diaries under siege as a responsibility to write about and translate into English. Today is her birthday, and there’s nothing I want more than to know where she and the rest of the #douma4 are.
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