The first time I visited the port city of Latakia, it was timed perfectly with an August sunrise. The taxi driver grabbed a handful of jasmine flower petals drifting just outside the car window as we passed the final military checkpoint into the city and threw them in the back seat. “Welcome to Syria!” he exclaimed in English, instantly filling the car with their sweet smell.
My first visit to Syria took place in 2017, six months after I married my husband, Bashar, in Istanbul – and this was my first time meeting his family in person. I was living in Turkey as an English teacher and had spent time in Cuba and Tajikistan as a student, so I was comfortable visiting new places somewhat cut off from the rest of the world. But Syria was something else.
While this visit was a first for me, it was a first after a long time for my husband, who had left the country nearly four years prior. He first went to Turkey on Christmas Eve, cutting his college studies off early since, as a military-aged man, he would no longer be allowed to avoid the military draft once he graduated.
One of the first things Bashar told me about himself was that he was someone who never thought he would leave his hometown. I was quite the opposite – having left my home in a small US city at 18 and moving successively further east as the years progressed. I always felt a strong urge to be far from home, experience new things, learn new languages and avoid routine as much as I could.
My husband, on the other hand, learnt Turkish and English only as a survival mechanism. His identity as a musician not only provided him with a musical ear perfect for language learning but for social networking that allowed him to create a liveable path for himself as one of millions of Syrian refugees abroad.
When we arrived at Bashar's family home, it was his older brother who first came down to greet us at the car. I was not expecting it, but the tears started to flow from my eyes involuntarily as I recognised his face from the months of video calls. The communal sobbing continued as I met his mum, his sister-in-law, his dad and the rest of the family. Everyone had stayed up all night waiting for us to arrive. Bashar finally met his niece for the first time.
From inside that living room, there was a full world. We drank coffee, ate sweets, sat with our feet up and everyone seemed at such ease and comfort in being themselves. In the days that followed, I finally understood why Bashar never felt the urge to leave. Inside this house, it was OK to be bored, to be sad, to be happy, to be yourself. Older generations spent time with the younger generations, and it didn’t feel forced by family obligation. Outside, all within walking distance, was an open-air market, a seaside promenade, a dairy shop for yoghurt and labneh, a tiny hummus shop, several bustling cafes, an old church … what else did you need?
Life, despite its inherent material challenges, was simple. I never needed to leave. But leave we did, and we tried to come back at least once a year for a visit. With each successive trip, the military checkpoints became fewer, but so did the hours of electricity available per day. All the same stores were open, but food quality was poorer. The Syrian pound sank to new lows as inflation hit new highs. The simple mood inside the house, too, began to decay into pessimism, laments, and resignation to a relentlessly tiring fate. Years of scraping by had taken its toll on the ability to live in the present, much less imagine a better future.
When my husband first left Syria, he told me, he wasn’t in the habit of carrying a wallet, he didn’t know what email was, and so many of the modern formalities strongly in place by 2014 became something he had to quickly learn to survive in the outside world. In my early visits, I got to see this simple existence. Now, only time will tell what kind of life will become normal in Syria in the years to come.
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
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*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre V6
Power: 295hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 355Nm at 5,200rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
Price: Dh179,999-plus
On sale: now
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
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SPEC SHEET
Display: 10.9" Liquid Retina IPS, 2360 x 1640, 264ppi, wide colour, True Tone, Apple Pencil support
Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 64/256GB storage; 8GB RAM
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, Smart HDR
Video: 4K @ 25/25/30/60fps, full HD @ 25/30/60fps, slo-mo @ 120/240fps
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR, Centre Stage; full HD @ 25/30/60fps
Audio: Stereo speakers
Biometrics: Touch ID
I/O: USB-C, smart connector (for folio/keyboard)
Battery: Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; up to 9 hours on cellular
Finish: Space grey, starlight, pink, purple, blue
Price: Wi-Fi – Dh2,499 (64GB) / Dh3,099 (256GB); cellular – Dh3,099 (64GB) / Dh3,699 (256GB)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
Score
Third Test, Day 2
New Zealand 274
Pakistan 139-3 (61 ov)
Pakistan trail by 135 runs with 7 wickets remaining in the innings
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Dunki
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Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
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