Photos show normal life in the Syria we never see

Published April 25th, 2016 - 06:11 GMT
A basketball game in Syria on Sunday. (photo:@LinaArabii)
A basketball game in Syria on Sunday. (photo:@LinaArabii)

Usually when you see photos of Syria, they’re images of death and destruction. But despite the ongoing horror in the Middle Eastern country, which has been at war for over five years now, with as many as 470,000 dead, normal life continues as best it can.

Photos and videos uploaded to Twitter over the past couple days by a Syrian student illustrate this.

The university student, who goes by the Twitter handle @LinaArabii, posted photos from Hama and Damascus that show a Syria often ignored by the mainstream media: 

Here’s another: 

And another: 

Below is a photo of the “lazybones market” in Damascus: 

This photo, taken Sunday, shows Palm Sunday celebrations in Damascus: 

The sunset Monday night:

More of Lina Arabi’s photos from Damascus show street scenes:

And basketball games:

Of course, it could be argued that these scenes of calm in the Syrian capital—which is largely under the protection of Bashar Assad—come at the expense of Assad’s relentless barrel-bombing of civilians in other parts of the country. 

In addition to the hundreds of thousands slaughtered by Assad and the Syrian Army, at least 6.5 million others have been displaced from their homes. 

The war is unquestionably one of the greatest tragedies humanity has ever witnessed. But it’s still useful to remember that the real Syria is more than the war, and more than how media portrays it. 

--Hunter Stuart

Tags:HamaDamascusTwitterSyrian armyBashar AssadLina Arabi
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