The Question of Syria 2018 - Doomed by Hope

General Information October 11-12, 2018 info@space-org.no hope.space-org.no @actcentre fb.com/SyrianPeaceActionCentre spaceoslo

All events are free of charge and open to everyone!

Venues in Oslo

Litteraturhuset

Wergelandsveien 29, 0167

Kulturhuset

Youngs gate 6, 0181 Oslo

Melahuset

Mariboes gate 8, 0183 Oslo

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Contents 01 General Information 03 Welcome to The Question of Syria 05 Speakers 07 The Trajectory of Hope 09 Cultivating Hope: Tribute to Ghouta 11 Solidarity Reading Circle 12 Stranger Times 13 Concert with Simona Abdallah 15 Future Events 18 Program 19 Sponsors and Partners

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Welcome to:

The Question of Syria Doomed by Hope The Syrian Peace Action Centre (SPACE) has been working since early 2015 to diversify and enrich the discussion about Syria, primarily through giving space to many underrepresented Syrian voices, broadening the set of questions and topics normally associated with Syria and emphasizing the role of democratic actors among the Syrian civil society and intellectual sphere. Looking at the past three years, SPACE contributed to portraying a nuanced and informed picture of Syria in Norway, most notably through our yearly conference The Question of Syria. Alas, since the first edition in 2015 and against our cautious ambitions to work towards a better Syria, the situation in Syria has been only getting worse, on all fronts, not the least, the humanitarian and political ones. Most regrettably, Syrians realize today that their collective and individual agency have diminished through the last few years, and they have become increasingly sidelined on any decision pertaining to their reality or future of their country.

This led to increased cynicism and hopelessness in Syria and worldwide—not a surprising result given the retreat, globally, of democratic values and particularly, the bleak prospects of justice, peace and prosperity in Syria and the Middle East region. The deferred quest for justice in the face of endless streams of witnesses and testimonies challenges the core of our universal, unanimous understanding of human rights.

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Against this sweeping feelings of helplessness and fear, we, at SPACE, can only be motivated to further seek hope in mounting layers of despair. The Question of Syria in 2018 takes its cue from the famous last line of the speech of one of Syria’s leading playwright Saadallah Wannous, delivered on World Theatre Day (1996), that “we are doomed by hope, and what happens today cannot be the end of history.” We interpret this statement as a call for action, as an untiring alertness to what dynamics of possibility exist to the struggle for justice, in a world that seems increasingly hopeless.

The Syrian quest for a democratic change despite its repeated defeats, and the pessimism surrounding its future nevertheless carries the labor and the stories of many Syrians, and continues to provide lessons of inspiration to anyone who believes in human rights and freedom.

Over the past three years, SPACE has organized and participated in almost thirty events related to Syria in Norway and Europe, and we are often surprised and grateful for the level of engagement we encounter. Through our dedicated focus on Syrian civil society and Syrian culture, we hope we have been able to nuance the reductive and apolitical media image of Syria as a place of perpetual and incomprehensible violence. It is with this spirit that The Question of Syria in 2018 will pose the question of hope.

About SPACE Established in May 2015, the Syrian Peace Action Center (SPACE) is a non-profit, independent association that focuses on providing room for Syrians and Syria with the aim of combating the violent fragmentation the people of Syria are undergoing. The underlying assumption that frames the work of SPACE is that the role of the people in political questions remains at bottom the main problem facing Syria today. SPACE emphasizes that the question of Syria can only be answered democratically, and that any narrative that excludes the people is ultimately an endorsement of undemocratic and inhumane processes. In 2011, for the first time since decades the Syrian people have reclaimed the public space and started constructing their narratives, gains we believe are irrevocable and are building blocks for a democratic and just Syrian society.

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Speakers Wendy Pearlman is an Associate Professor of Political Sci-

ence at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the comparative politics of the Middle East, social movements, political violence, refugees and migration, emotions and mobilization, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Wendy’s third book, We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria (2017), is a collection of first-hand testimonials that chronicles the Syrian rebellion, war, and refugee crisis exclusively through the stories and reflections of people who have lived it.

Nadim Khoury is an Associate Professor II in international

studies, peace & conflict and a former postdoctoral fellow in philosophy at the Arctic University of Norway—University of Tromsø. His pedagogical interests include the history of political theory, nationalism, the politics of memory, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Currently he is completing a book manuscript that deals with the ways enemy nations negotiate their histories during peace processes.

Golan Haji is a Syrian Kurdish poet and translator with a postgraduate degree in pathology. He was born in 1977 in Amouda, a Kurdish town in the north of Syria. His collections of poetry in Arabic include: Called in Darkness (2004), My Cold Faraway Home (2013) and Scale of Injury (2016). He also published Until The War, a book of prose based on interviews with Syrian women (2016). He also recently translated Alberto Manguel’s Stevenson Under The Palm Trees (2017) and Packing My Library (2018).

Zoé Beau is a French sociologist specialized in the preservation of the Mediterranean peasant heritages and more particularly heirloom seeds. She traveled along Mediterranean countries (France, Lebanon, Greece, Tunisia and Palestine) to collect local seeds for rescue by multiplying and redistribution. She is one of the co-founders of Buzuruna Juzuruna.

Simona Abdallah is a percussionist, born 1979 in Germany, where her Palestinian parents escaped to from Lebanon.

Later on, the family moved to Denmark. Simona plays Arabic percussion, primarily the Darbuka, a goblet-shaped drum, which is considered solely a masculine instrument, and is traditionally always played by men. That makes Simona the first female musician from an Arabic background to break the tradition with an internationally acclaimed success to follow.

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Mahmoud Bwedany is a 21-year-old activist and student from Douma in Eastern Ghouta. He worked as social media manager and campaigner for several campaigns in Syria over the past few years. Mahmoud is now a first-year student of computer science at the online university, The University of the People.

Rana Issa is an Assistant Professor in Translation Studies at the Department of English and is affiliated with the Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages. She holds a PhD from the University of Oslo. Her doctoral work on the Bible explores how translation emerged as a tool of synchronization in the nineteenth century. Issa is a cofounding member of SPACE.

Lubna Al-Kanawati is a women’s rights activist. She participated in the very early stages of the Syrian revolution in demonstrations for dignity and justice. She later led efforts for humanitarian aid in besieged areas. Observing the deteriorating conditions for women during the war, she dedicated herself to women’s empowerment projects with ‘Women Now for Development’, first as local Director and then as a Programme Manager in Gaziantep, Turkey.

Ingeborg Moa works with Norwegian People’s Aid. She lived her childhood and youth in a small town in Norway, but in a family where it was important to be involved in your own community and in solidarity with other people. During a BA in Development studies, she spent a semester at Birzeit University in the West Bank. Arriving in autumn 2000, a few weeks prior to the second Palestinian Intifada and staying on, this was an experience that shaped her interest in and thought processes around what “solidarity” means. Ingeborg has an MA in ME Studies from the University of Exeter.

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Tammam Azzam

The Trajectory of Hope

Speakers: Golan Haji, Nadim Khoury and Wendy Pearlman.

Moderated by Rana Issa Litteraturhuset. Room: Nedjma Thursday, 11 October. 17:00 In the opening session, keynote speaker Wendy Pearlman will map out trajectories of hope as lived and practiced by ordinary Syrians. This will be followed by Nadim Khoury who will weave in the personal memories from his upbringing in Jerusalem to the grand contesting narratives building on his research on the politics of memory.

Finally, Golan Haji will reflect on Syria as seen through universal pursuits of hope.

Wendy Pearlman: Chronicles of Hope: Syrian Voices on the Past and Future Just as the Syrian revolution was a triumph of hope over fear, so is the challenge before Syrians today to sustain hope in the face of violence and loss. What can the past eight years teach us about the journey of hope that Syrians have traveled and where this struggle might be heading from here? Wendy Pearlman will probe these questions by sharing selections from interviews that she has conducted with more than 400 displaced Syrians across the Middle East and Europe from 2012 to 2018. Among these will be testimonials from her book, We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, which chronicles the origins and evolution of the Syrian conflict exclusively through the words of ordinary people who have lived and been transformed by its unfolding.

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Golan Haji: Hope: A Personal Matter. The Syrian Ayyūb (Job) As An Example In the novel “A Personal Matter”, by the Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe, the school teacher called Bird awaits the birth of his baby. His long-awaited son is then born with a brain hernia. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are disturbingly present. The father expects the imminent death of his son who will survive and live long as a “sick hope”. The bandages on his son’s head reminds him of Apollinaire when the latter was severely wounded in WWI. Bird does not fulfill his dream of traveling to Africa. In the end of the novel he’s given a dictionary as a present. He reads “Hope” in the dedication, and wishes it were “Patience”.

I’ll talk about the other side of hope: Patience.

Prophet Job is said to be born in Hauran, where the Syrian uprising started in 2011.

Syrians have been punished since. Has this ongoing punishment led to absurdity or to God? How’s their blasphemy? Have they stopped their unanswered calls and prayers?

Does the meaning lurk in the waiting?

Nadim Khoury: The shadow of Oslo is Only Getting Darker Coming of age during the “peace process,” my trajectory was shaped by the Oslo agreements. Twenty-five years ago, my generation was promised freedom through statehood. What it received was colonialism through peace. Today Gaza is an openair prison that is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster. Trigger-happy Israeli soldiers shoot and kill with impunity. Palestinians have two governments and no state.

Palestinian society is shattered, fragmented, and divided. This trajectory marked by false promises raises a nagging question: where does one look for hope while hopeless? With time, I have found it in the least obvious of places: in being a problem, rather than looking for a solution; in the past, rather than in the future.

After their individual talks, Golan Haji, Nadim Khoury and Wendy Pearlman will sit for a panel discussion moderated by Rana Issa.

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Cultivating Hope: Tribute to Ghouta Speakers: Zoé Beau, Lubna Kanawati and Mahmoud Bwedany Litteraturhuset. Room: Nedjma Thursday, 11 October. 19:00 In the grand picture, the Syrian story is not one of hope. But many Syrians proved to be agents of hope, in the best and the worst of times. Eastern Ghouta stands out as an embodiment of both hope and despair.

The Assad regime besieged Eastern Ghouta for more than five years deploying starvation, denial of healthcare, indiscriminate bombing and use of chemical weapons as strategies to defeat the people and achieve a hollowed military ‘success’. Earlier this year, the regime, supported by Russia, recaptured Ghouta; tens of thousands were forcibly displaced to Northern Syria while others remained, dispossessed and uncertain of what future awaits them. Against all odds, many in Eastern Ghouta continued to resist and create until the last moments, under siege and bombs.

Women fought for their space in a militarized and male-dominated public sphere; resisting, creating and mobilizing in social, political and humanitarian fields in the face of oppressive local armed groups and the siege imposed by the regime. Young students trapped in Eastern Ghouta carried their dreams forward by turning to online universities.

This is the story of Ghouta: Everyday acts of resistance and creativity carved out hope in the midst of the bleakest picture. A plethora of practices, hopes and dreams; many are shattered, but the uncompromising desire to live continues.

In this session we pay tribute to Ghouta and learn how its people managed to cultivate hope. Lubna Kanawati will talk about her personal experience when she lived in Ghouta and her work as part of the organization Women Now for Development.

Mahmoud Bwedany, a 21-year-old activist and student from Douma, was one of the last people to be forcibly displaced from Eastern Ghouta. Mahmoud has an incredible story to tell; a story of activism, perseverance and hope. Zoé Beau (co-founder of the Buzuruna Juzuruna organic farm collective) will share the story of cross-border hope and solidarity by Syrian refugee farmers in Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.

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By Ammar Bwidany for the Ghouta Campaign

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Solidarity Reading Circle Moderated by Ingeborg Moa

Litteraturhuset. Room: Kjelleren Friday, 12 October. 17:00 The notion of solidarity has been at the center of liberation struggles against oppression, tyranny and colonial powers and structures. Having taken different forms across times and geographies, the term “solidarity” has come to encompass a spectrum of contradictory practices and dispositions; from localized struggles to internationalist and socialist movements. However, on one end of the spectrum, we find a “solidarity” that has been confiscated by ideologies and is reproducing the very same unequal power structures, discrimination and injustices that it claims to resist.

Drawing on the Palestinian and Syrian experiences, this reading circle aims to discuss some of the following questions: How does solidarity manifest itself in these two interconnected contexts? In an increasingly connected world, what shared values and practices underpin our collective struggles today? What concrete actions can we take to revive the space for a genuine, internationalist solidarity thinking and practice against the tendency of selective and competitive solidarity?

This open discussion, bringing a Syrian Palestinian critique of solidarity, aspires to lay the foundations for mutual relationships, free from power and manipulation; based on respect, equality, parity, and internationalism.

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Stranger Times Speakers: Rana Issa

Litteraturhuset: Room: Kjelleren Friday, 12 October. 19:00 Stranger times is an attitude to the contemporary that attends to how strangers stay alive outside their usual habitats. It reflects on the figure of the stranger in relation to the politics and temporalities of the contemporary. I define the stranger as a person who is paradoxically liberated yet fixed into tribal and national structures. I take Syrian strangers as an extreme case of this relation to the contemporary that I term stranger times. Like many other places around the world, Syrians became strangers under pressure from processes of acceleration of production and the eternalization of tyrannical modes of rule. For my arguments, I select Syrian films and textual narratives that depict the stranger in various contexts. As I trace the figure of the stranger in 40 years of Syrian cultural production, I explore how the figure of the stranger apprehends, constructs and organizes the contemporary. Arriving upon inhabited places, the stranger has a past that is unpredictable and unknown to her interlocutors. She intrudes, is out of synch, like a freshly born infant that has not yet learned the times of day. The strangers that I examine survive through intrusions into a market and political sphere that has no place for them. Some translate, others communicate by other means. All accelerate their step, and seek to acquire a new past and a new language that can root them in this new environment.

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Concert with Simona Abdallah Melahuset Friday, 12 October. 21:00 SPACE and Mela invite you to a special concert with the internationally-acclaimed percussionist Simona Abdallah concluding The Question of Syria - Doomed by Hope conference.

Simona plays Arabic percussion, primarily the Darbuka, a goblet-shaped drum. She fuses her ancestral Arabic rhythms with House, Electronica and World music.

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Photo Credit: Trine Aare

The Darbuka is considered solely a masculine instrument, and is traditionally always played by men. That makes Simona the first female musician from an Arabic background to break the tradition with an internationally acclaimed success to follow.

Simona had to teach herself to play the percussion and has been playing since she was 15 years old. Because of her chosen instrument, she was often challenged, both in her choices and the pursuit of her career. Simona never lost sight of what she wanted and strongly believes in following your dreams and staying positive - even if the going sometimes gets tough.

Join us to listen to Simona’s rhythms as well as reflections on her experience in a short talk before the concert!

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FUTURE EVENTS

Let’s Talk about Images Speakers: Khaled Barakeh, Terje Abusda Moderated by Sara Rundgren Yazdani Fotogalleriet Thursday, 1 November. 19:00 Meet Syrian artist Khaled Barakeh and Norwegian storyteller Terje Abusdal in conversation with Sara Rundgren Yazdani about crafting images and redefining identity in zones dominated by a mass media representation and territories of conflict.

In this current overwhelming torrent of images, can we discern ‘artistic approaches’ to this new image environment, to world events, and to history in general? Is art an antidote to this one-way street image production, or capable only to document the scars which are left behind? And is the role of art to humanize the violence of the imagery we are subjected to, or to instead shape different ways of seeing?

Born in 1976 in Damascus Suburb, Khaled Barakeh graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 2005. Today, Berlin-based artist works in a variety of media, deliberately chosen for each project, focusing on the current and pertinent issues and often revolving around power structures in context of identity, culture and history. Barakeh is part of a global artivism movement – focusing on topics of cultural preservation, aiming to see between the cracks of social and political systems.

Through these actions, Barakeh aims to create new environments for the audience, challenging their expectations and pre-existing assumptions.

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FUTURE EVENTS

Freedom to Remember/Create Speakers: Diala Brisly and Khaled Barakeh Moderated by Nabil Canaan Kulturhuset Saturday, 3 November. 14:00 Syrian artists Khaled Barakeh and Diala Brisly will discuss their artistic practices and processes, what it means to create within contexts of oppression and exile; physically dispersed yet under a shared collective experience. They will also discuss contemporary artistic expression by other Syrian artists in the Middle East, across the diaspora and from those who have recently relocated to new realities. How do the arts preserve cultural heritage? What narratives do they create? How do the arts and creative sector contribute to healing and rebuilding a nation?

This seminar is a part of Oslo World & Station Beirut: NextStopDamascus, a Syrian takeover at Kulturhuset, during Oslo World.

Diala Brisly was born in Kuwait to Syrian parents in 1980. Her career began as a cartoonist and gradually expanded into other media and capacities, including graphic design, animation, concept art, painting, comic books and character design. Her artwork on the Adra Women’s Prison hunger strike campaign helped secure the release of 23 women prisoners. Currently, Diala’s work focuses on drawing attention to the educational situation of Syrian kids, and refugees in general.

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FUTURE EVENTS

Mapping Home Facilitated by: Diala Brisly Kulturhuset Saturday, 3 November. 16:00 Maps have been extensively used to tell stories and to show how the stories relate to a place. Equally, narratives have contributed to the shaping and production of a place. How do we make sense of a place that we no longer can visit? What places do we remember and long for? What narratives live in these places and what can they tell about us and about “home”? How do we begin to discover and become acquainted with a new place? What invisible boundaries do we draw as we settle in our new destination?

Welcome to this free workshop facilitated by Syrian artist Diala Brisly and Norwegian artist Lars Sandås, who will navigate our spatial memories and take us through the journey to discover, map and narrate a place called home. This workshop is a part of Oslo World & Station Beirut: NextStopDamascus, a Syrian takeover at Kulturhuset.

This workshop is a part of Oslo World & Station Beirut: NextStopDamascus, a Syrian takeover at Kulturhuset.

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Program Venue

Time

Event

Thursday 11 October 17:00

Litteraturhuset Room: Nedjma:

The Trajectory of Hope

Litteraturhuset Room: Nedjma:

Cultivating Hope: Tribute to Ghouta

Wergelandsveien 29, 0167, Oslo 19:00

Wergelandsveien 29, 0167, Oslo

Speakers: Golan Haji, Nadim Khoury and Wendy Pearlman

Speakers: Zoé Beau, Lubna Kanawati, Mahmoud Bwedany

Friday 12 October 17:00

Litteraturhuset.

Room: Kjelleren

Solidarity Reading Circle

Litteraturhuset.

Room: Kjelleren

Stranger Times

Melahuset Mariboes gate 8, 0183 Oslo

Concert with Simona Abdallah

Moderated by Ingeborg Moa

Wergelandsveien 29, 0167, Oslo 19:00

21:00

Speakers: Rana Issa

Wergelandsveien 29, 0167, Oslo Concert and Talk

FUTURE EVENTS Thursday 1 November 19:00

Fotogalleriet

Møllergata 34, 0179 Oslo

Let’s Talk about Images

Speakers: Khaled Barakeh, Terje Abusdal Moderated by Sara Rundgren Yazdani

Saturday 3 November Freedom to Remember/Create Kulturhuset 14:00

16:00

Youngs gate 6, 0181 Oslo

Speakers: Diala Brisly and Khaled Barakeh Moderated by Nabil Canaan

Kulturhuset

Mapping Home

Youngs gate 6, 0181 Oslo

Facilitated by Diala Brisly

All events are free and open to everyone!

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Sponsor

Partners

SPACE team: Murhaf Fares, Rana Issa, Zeina Bali The Questino of Syria 2018 - Doomed by Hope Volunteers: Chiara Pecl, Julie Berg, Marta Maciejewska and Ramah Aleryan.

Do you have a question, suggestion or feedback? We would love to hear from you! info@space-org.no

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“We are doomed by hope, and what happens today cannot be the end of history.�

Saadallah Wannous on World Theater Day (1996)