In book after book, Samar Yazbek has depicted the war-torn Syria in various ways. In 2011, she went into exile in Paris, but has maintained close contact with women's associations and underground resistance groups that worked against the now-deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad. Seeing him fall was a joy difficult to describe for her.
This is the first time in my life that the Assad family does not have power. It's like being in a different world, on a different planet, she says, and in the next breath expresses strong concern for the Syrian people.
Yet, she wants to move back. She doesn't seem to hesitate.
Not at all, I want to continue my life in Damascus. I just have to resolve all the administrative matters first.
Miracle
When Aleppo fell, Samar Yazbek followed the development "second by second" without being able to sleep; something she still has difficulty with today.
The "monster" Bashar al-Assad has not only destroyed the country but also made Syria a sectarian society, she notes – a new civil war was her first fear. But the Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa passed through different regions with Christians, Alawites, Ismailis, and Druze without attacking any group.
For me, it was a miracle. They have said that we are all Syrians, but I am afraid all the time, I am afraid for the women's sake.
Poet Raafat Hekmat has been a writer-in-residence in Stockholm since 2023, but only after the "joy shock" when the regime fell could he breathe a sigh of relief. He is suspicious of HTS and emphasizes that Syrians now must dare to express their opinions "with full freedom".
We need democratic elections. We should give them a short time – one or two months – while we criticize everything without fear, while we give them suggestions on what we think about the future.
Patience
Raafat Hekmat saw it as his responsibility to depict the war – which led to him being imprisoned and his family being harassed. He does not believe it will be safe in Syria for at least a year, and asks Western governments to be patient.
In Germany, they have already stopped giving asylum, and people there are afraid that they will have nowhere to go. So many in Syria have lost everything, he says, and tells that his own house was leveled to the ground in 2013.
He is waiting for developments in his home country from Sweden, but writes with renewed strength.
I write about people Assad killed, whom no one remembers anymore. But I remember, for I lived there. It is my responsibility.
Born: 1970 in the Syrian coastal city of Jableh, incidentally the same city where poet Adonis was born.
Lives: Since 2011 in Paris. Last visited Syria in 2013, then in secret.
Books in Swedish: "A Dark Strip of Light" (2013), "Journey into Emptiness" (2015), "The Woman Who Walks" (2017), "Nineteen Women" (2019), "Where the Wind Rests" (2023).
Regarding the situation of women in Syria, she refers to a message that the Islamist HTS published on Telegram:
They write that one does not have the right to force women to wear hijab or restrict their freedom – that is also a reason to return to Syria, she says, and tells that she was surprised.
Right now, it looks good, then we'll see. They are a group of militant Islamists.
Raafat Hekmat is a poet and novelist from Syria. Under a pseudonym, he has written about Syria for the Lebanese website Daraj.
After being arrested several times for his texts in Syria, he fled to Lebanon. Since 2023, he has lived in Stockholm as a writer-in-residence.
Hekmat was awarded the Sharjah Prize for Arabic Culture in 2020 for his short story collection "As If I Dreamed". His latest book "Ten Minutes Too Late for the World" was published in 2023 by Dar Al Nahda Al Arabia. His texts are also published in anthologies by publishers based in Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.
Hekmat on making his voice heard: "All writers and journalists should make their voices heard now. Recently, one saw behind HTS that they had put the revolutionary flag behind the Islamist flag. Many wrote and protested – that we do not want to see any flags for the Islamist movement – and then they removed it".
