As the Syrian popular uprising continues despite the brutal response by the regime that has killed more than 3,500 people during the last eight months, Razan Zaitouneh recounts, from hiding, her daily confrontations with the arrest, torture and disappearance of family members, friends and fellow activists. Through the cracks of regime repression, though, shimmers the widespread sense of connection and solidarity among the activists as well as their undaunted dream of freedom.

Click here to read There Must Be a Freedom Square (4 pages, pdf, 238KB)

Kalamoun is an Arabic quarterly magazine published in Lebanon. It seeks to provide a free space for articles, essays, studies and literary texts pertaining to the Arab world and aims at stimulating dialogue among intellectuals and academics, artists and critics from the region and the world. It is produced by the “letter S” organization, supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East Office and published by Dar Al-Saqi.

This article was first published in Kalamon Issue 3, 2011.

It was translated from Arabic by Robin Moger.