Syrians in the Shadow of War

Gripping accounts of how ordinary Syrians strove to survive the hardships that preceded the Assad regime’s collapse

Activists striving in the shadow of Syria’s police state; widows launching small businesses to feed their families; farmers tending fields battered by destruction, pollution, and drought: their voices are as central to Syria’s conflict as they are absent from most discussions of it. Drawing on more than three thousand interviews between 2017 and 2024, Syrians in the Shadow of War explores how ordinary people began picking up the pieces as battle lines froze and global interest in Syria waned. It documents the social and economic decay that preceded the Syrian regime’s spectacular collapse: the hollowing out of public services and productive industries, the disintegration of social ties, the trauma of a war seemingly without end. Equally important, it captures the resourcefulness through which Syrians helped one another survive, and which will prove vital in the uncertain stage ahead.

This book is itself a testament to such tenacity: born of on-the-ground fieldwork by Syrian analysts in one of the world’s most forbidding research environments, thesefindings concern anyone with a stake in Syria’s future or that of other post-conflict societies—from grassroots organizers to international policymakers.

Contributors:
Lina Ghoutouk, researcher and human rights practitioner, Damascus, Syria
Lina Omran, graduate student, Danube University Krems, Austria
Malak al-Shanawani, researcher, filmmaker, and feminist activist, Damascus, Syria
Manar al-Tizini, psychologist and social researcher, Marseille, France