Al-Jumhuriya - Translated by Alex Rowell Earlier this year, between the summer and fall, I spent several months in Turkey following up on the case of the “Douma Four” activists—Samira al-Khalil (my wife), Razan Zaitouneh, Wael Hamade, and Nazem Hammadi—who were abducted and disappeared in Douma, east of Damascus, in December 2013. My aim was to…
Islamists and the Douma Four
Al Jumhuriya - Translated by Alex Rowell On the 18th and 19th of July this year, I attended a workshop in Istanbul on dialogue between Islamists and secularists, organized by the Islamist-leaning Jusoor (“Bridges”) center, along with more than twenty other mostly male participants. This was the second of three workshops organized by the center;…
Letters to Samira (8): Four years, four words
Why Zahran Alloush stands accused
Douma4 (Originally published on Al-Jumhuriya), 31 May 2015 When he was asked about the case in August 2014, Zahran Alloush barely even denied his group’s responsibility for the kidnapping of Samira Al-Khalil, Razan Zaitouneh, Wael Hammadeh and Nazem Hammadi. Rather than a direct and straight forward denial he preferred to give the kind of answer Bashar…
Samira, Razan,Wael, Nazem, and the other absolute others
L’Internationale, 10 February 2015 About fourteen months ago, a group of masked gunmen kidnapped my wife and partner, Samira al Khalil, in Douma, which is a few kilometers to the east of Damascus. Abducted along with her were RazanZeitouneh, Wael Hamadeh, and Nazem Hammadi. Since that time, we - the families of “Douma 4”- have…
Samira Khalil
Douma4 (Originally published on Al-Quds Al-Arabi), 27 May 2014 - Translated by Murhaf Fares After four years of imprisonment (1987–1991), Samira, who comes from the Homs region, chose to live independently in Damascus. She worked in typesetting and formatting books, a job that merely earned her $100 per month at the time. It is not…