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| Zeinab and Iyad |
Her name is Zeinab.
His name is Iyad.
They met, fell in love and got
married.
A simple, everyday love story
you would think.
Not quite so simple when you
are in today’s Syria.
Their love story blossomed in
the middle of the killing, fighting, raping, detention, torture, displacement,
sickness and exile raging throughout Syria since March 2011.
They are both from the western
Governorate of Latakia.
Zeinab is from the city
proper, held by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Iyad is from rebel-held Reef Latakia as the surrounding
agricultural towns and villages are known in Arabic. Regime forces are
continually attacking the Reef.
Latakia is Syria’s fifth
largest city after Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Hama. It borders Tartus to the
south, Hama to the east and Idlib, Turkey to the north. It is the capital of
the Alawite population and is a major cultural center for the religion.
Zeinab is Alawite.
Iyad is Sunnite.
They met and fell in love and
were already planning to get married before the outbreak of the revolution in
March 2011. As events got worse, they were separated for a year during which
Iyad was arrested, accused of supporting the revolution and detained for two
months.
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| Zeinab and Iyad: "At the end of the day, we are one people..." |
The couple resumed contact in
the months following Iyad’s release.
Zeinab decided to leave her
family to be with Iyad.
She says in the video below
she fled to Turkey and Iyad crossed over to get her. They got married two
months ago and now live as husband and wife with Iyad’s family in the Reef.
Their surnames and exact location
are withheld for their safety, although they appear in the Aljazeera video.
“At the end of the day, we
are one people, we both belong to the same religion,” Zeinab says.
Iyad adds: “We [Syrians] are
not a sectarian people.”
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| Iyad's mother: "Zeinab is my daughter..." |
The couple was talking while
sipping tea with Iyad’s mother, who says, while wiping out tears, “Zeinab is my
daughter. I love her like my daughter. I hope her family understands this…”
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| Zeinab with her pupils at the village school |
The villagers are happy to
have Zeinab and have warmed up to her. She is a university graduate holding a
degree in psychology and is now teaching mostly displaced pupils at the village
school.
Zeinab and Iyad’s love story
is maybe one of many around the country in these difficult and sad times. It
gives hope that sectarianism will not prevail after all in Syria.
Good luck to Zeinab and Iyad in
their married life. Hopefully, their fairy-tale will inspire love and
reconciliation in the new Syria.
