Syrian musician Maya Youssef has released her first album, Syrian Dreams, a retelling of the civil war that ripped her homeland apart. YouTube/ Maya Youssef
Syrian musician Maya Youssef has released her first album, Syrian Dreams, a retelling of the civil war that ripped her homeland apart. YouTube/ Maya Youssef
Syrian musician Maya Youssef has released her first album, Syrian Dreams, a retelling of the civil war that ripped her homeland apart. YouTube/ Maya Youssef
Syrian musician Maya Youssef has released her first album, Syrian Dreams, a retelling of the civil war that ripped her homeland apart. YouTube/ Maya Youssef

Damascus-born Maya Youssef pays tribute to war-torn homeland with first album Syrian Dreams


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Damascus-born musician Maya Youssef is set to launch her first album in London on Monday, re-telling her own personal journey as an exile through the war that has torn her home country apart.

Instrumental album Syrian Dreams is a translation of Ms Youssef’s memories of home, as well as a “prayer for peace”, told through the qanun, a traditional Syrian 78 stringed plucked zither.

The launch, which takes place in London, is the first opportunity fans will have to hear the album, which was released last week, live.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Ms Youssef explained how the plight of children in the Syrian Civil War led her to start writing music.

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“I was watching the news one day and saw a report from Syria on how a girl my son’s age died in her living room,” she said. “I began crying and held my qanun and a piece of music came out of me — I did not understand at the time that I was writing music but that piece became Syrian Dreams. I’d never written music before the war. That was how the album started.

“I want it to be a prayer for peace. I was really, really low. You either do something or you perish.”

Ms Youssef, 33, began her career in music at the age of just seven when she started learning violin. She later switched to the qanun two years later, eventually majoring in music at Damascus University.

It was in Dubai that the talented musician honed her skills on the instrument and developed her own personal style.  In 2009, she was invited to Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University in the Department of Music and Musicology, which is where she was when the Syrian Civil War broke out.

Ms Youssef now lives in London, having moved to the city under Arts Council England’s “Exceptional Talent Scheme”. Alongside her solo career, Ms Youssef plays with Damon Albarn’s Syrian refugee orchestra and lectures at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Maya Youssef is playing at Rich Mix, London, on November 20

Who has been sanctioned?

Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.

Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.

Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.

Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.

Your rights as an employee

The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.

The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.

If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.

Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.

The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.