• Challenge of whether to tell the story of Darayya, a Syrian suburb locked down by Assad
  • If their story is told, can get the information wrong— Assad is not the only one spreading misinformation; are the rebels really jihadists?
  • If it’s not, risk losing their story to history, letting the oppression roll on.
• Found an abandoned house full of books (many people fled the city), and soon collected thousands more
  • Turn old underground area into the city’s first public library
• Before war, books were heavily censored to only contain praise of the Assads, who claimed to be representatives of God; pages and pages left white, erasing history → library is a whole new world of no censorship
  • Most people haven’t been interested in books or literature
  • Tentative first selections at the library, but one popular volume = The Alchemist; speaks simply of self-discovery
  • People asking for books about democracy, ex. Arabic book on rise and fall of Arab empires
• From her home in Instanbul, Minoui interviews dozens of library patrons, talking about the new books they’ve discovered
  • The library and books = hope in the dark times of war
• Why is the regime focused so much on Darayya?
  • Known for sweet wine/grapes and fertile soil, “the city of many houses”
  • “Not like other cities”
  • Across Syria, talk of the regime only happened underground, until 1990s, a group of Darayyan activists emerged, inspired by writings of Muslim non-violence → their resistance group famous
    • Discrete disobedience to regime long before Arab Springs
    • One of the original leaders now mentoring the group leading the library
  • Victim of massacres before the war; chemical weapons attack during, more atrocities following that

Reading is a diversion, it keeps us alive. It reminds us that we’re human... [it is] a survival instinct.

• In Darayya, reading = act of transgression (the blatant lack of censorship)
• Does Darraya harbor any Islamic jihaadists, even a small fraction?
  • At beginning of war, probably — young people easily influenced... but uniquely able to drive out such factions and not be controlled by the caliphate (unlike other cities like Raqqa)
  • Result of their strict adherence to governing rules, military decisions by robust and extensive city council, not Free Syrian Army
• Attacks on Paris — in part due to support of French support for some groups in Syria?
• Library attacked → purposeful, like targeting of hospitals and doctors? Hard to tell
• Darayya undergoing constant bombings from the regime, more and more people flee...
  • Regime claims no civilians left in the city
  • Most of city life moves underground: library, schools, hospitals
  • Library also used as community gathering space, professors giving lessons, concerts
    • Self-published “magazine” of sorts with functional how-tos, history tidbits, some short poetry and stories, news/media— no politics or propaganda, but more humorous and satirical... crosswords, Zodiacs
• Assad trained as ophthalmologist, so ironic that he is so unable to see the full picture of the war, the existence of a moderate resistance
  • Vs rebels in Darayya, able to have critical conversations evaluating the war: what could have been done differently? Was it worth it? Culture of debates
  • How would the soldiers in the military to a conversation like this? Would they be able to see the nuances, or does free access to books really allow for more free thinking?
  • Kafka: “A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
• Pause in the bombings (2016?) → life begins to emerge at last
  • Schools opening for the first time
  • Babies born underground (600 or so) see daylight for the first time
  • Graffiti artists at work with poems, murals → hope
• Despite lull in bombings, multiple years of siege siege → starvation, no food, running out of necessities in Darayya (cut off from everywhere)
  • Call for aid, lifting of aid in letter by 47 women
  • Breaking of anonymity = huge risk, bc can be blacklisted by regime
  • “Behind the courage of men, the suffering of women...” — so many hardships of war rarely discussed
• May 2016: series of disasters for Darayya
  • UN/Red Crescent envoy comes, but is not allowed to bring food except baby formula... then only vaccines... then the Darrayans are shot as they await
  • Barrel bombing begins again → sleep deprivation in addition to starvation
• Some sense of comfort from reading about other who went through similar experiences: blockade of Sarajevo, for example → connected with survivors
• Darayya sent letter to French president pleading for aid— the pacifist city at risk of complete massacre, after resisting both the regime and extremists
• Assad continuing to escalate— use of napalm (banned by international law), bombing hospitals
  • International support nonexistent for fear of aiding the extremists, sometimes even opening up communications with Damascus again
  • Darayya backed into a corner → forced to negotiate with the regime directly for the first time, to try to save civilian lives
• After 4 years of blockade, rebels in Darayya finally left: 7500 people evacuated by bus to neighboring town, then ~2700 fighters taken to a rebel stronghold
• Library pillaged by soldiers, sold cheap on streets of Damascus— response of rebels: ideas cannot be destroyed
• The Darayyans were still successful, despite the city falling— used words vs violence, established language of peace for the next generations
  • Siege paradoxically protected them vs extremists, because no outside invaders, community had to work everything out by dialogue
• 2017: some progress toward establishing “deescalation zones,” but Darayya’s third path of civility, moderation not a part of this— controlled by military, still many extreme factions
• Most founders of the library now in Turkey (where many Syrian refugees went)