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In Syria “we have to face two monsters: the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the ‘Daesh’ (Arabic acronym for the terrorist group Islamic State),” said writer and activist Samar Yazbek, who recounted in “The Crossing” the “atrocities” she has witnessed.
Her intention with this book, Yazbek explains, was “to set the record straight” and give a “voice” to the victims of an “international war governed by the interests of the great powers” which has reduced her country to “rubbles”…
Yazbek, who before the war was a journalist, and a well-known TV presenter, is also a writer, and in Paris became a social activist. She established “Women now for Development“. In this association, which already has “a network of 10,000 women”, all decisions are taken “collegially” says Yazbek, convinced that “if something is left of Syria” after the war, civil organizations will be “essential to rebuild the country.”
The purpose of the association is to be “a bridge” for women who are in Syria and in the refugee camps to “help them economically” and “train them as community leaders”…
In designating the biggest culprit of what happened in the country, the winner of the prestigious Pen Pinter Prize in literature points to the regime of the Syrian President. “Focusing only on ‘Daesh’ is wrong,” says Yazbek…
“Assad is attacking his own people and that started before the presence of terrorist groups,” she explains…