Syria Speaks

A Syrian graffiti artist-activist's tale of living through bombings, gunshots and displacement

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

I'VE finally met my mom after 11 years!" messaged the 30-year-old Syrian artist-activist Abu Malek AlShami, a few hours after reaching Damascus, the Syrian capital. "We will talk a lot," he told me, "but let me understand that I am living this dream... I still can't believe it!" It was December 11, 2024. Syria's dictatorial ruler, President Bashar al-Assad, who indiscriminately bombed his own country since 2011 and displaced millions, had fled Syria three days ago.

Assad's exit was a dream come true for thousands of Syrian refugees, including Al-Shami. He rushed back from the European country (which he does not want to mention), where he had been living a secretive life as an illegal migrant.

Al-Shami is among seven million Syrians who are scattered around the world, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq in West Asia, Germany and Sweden in Europe and Egypt in North Africa. Syrians started leaving their land en masse in 2012 after the Assad regime launched a brutal crackdown on antigovernment protesters.

When the protests began in 2011, Al-Shami was 17. In 2013, hounded by the security forces for his participation in antigovernment protests, he left Damascus, Syria's capital, and his hometown, after his brothers were arrested. He sneaked into Darayya, a suburb of Damascus, and joined the Free Syrian Army, an armed group with a broadly secularist-nationalist approach.