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Then and now: 10 Syrians recount a decade of war in pictures

Monday marks 10 years since Syrians took to the streets to protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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Rukaia Alabadi, a 32-year-old Syrian journalist and refugee, in France's capital Paris on February 27, 2021. She is holding a photo of herself in 2011 when she was an economics student at al-Furat University in her hometown of Deir Az Zor, eastern Syria. Rukaia arrived in Paris as a refugee in 2018 after escaping threats over her reporting on the reality of life in under ISIL (ISIS) rule. Before that, she had been detained for months over her work as a media activist. [Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP]
By AFP
Published On 15 Mar 2021

Samer was paralysed, Bakri had to have his leg amputated and Rukaia fled her country: a decade of civil war in Syria has devastated theirs and millions of others’ lives.

As the conflict enters its 11th year this month, 10 Syrians shared pictures with AFP news agency of themselves from before the start of the 2011 war and recounted how their lives have been changed by the fighting.

Speaking from across fragmented Syria or from abroad, they give a personal account of a war that has killed more than 387,000 people and displaced millions from their homes.

Dima al-Kaed, a 29-year-old Syrian journalist and refugee, in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region, on February 28, 2021. She is holding a 2013 photo of herself graduating from Damascus University. Dima lost her parents and her home during the war. "I dreamed of changing the world, but instead the war changed mine," she says. [Safin Hamed/AFP]
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Samer al-Sawwan, a 33-year-old wheelchair-bound Syrian, pictured in the capital Damascus on March 1, 2021. He is holding a photo of himself 10 years prior, standing on a beach in the coastal resort of Latakia. Samer's vehicle was pierced by a bullet while driving in 2011, sending the vehicle into a barrel roll that paralysed him forever. "I passed out with two legs, and woke up in a wheelchair," he says. "My ambitions and dreams have changed." [Louai Beshara/AFP]
Ahmed Nashawi, also known as Abu Abdo, pictured outside his ruined house in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on February 22, 2021, holding a portrait of himself 10 years ago. Ahmed, now in his fifties, was once one of the city's most popular fishmongers. He said his home and shop on Sahat al-Hatab Square were destroyed in clashes between opposition and pro-government fighters in 2015. [AFP]
Fahad al-Routayban, a 30-year-old Syrian refugee, in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli on February 23, 2021. He is showing a photo of himself 11 years ago when he was a Syrian government army soldier. Fahad fled his hometown of Raqqa, northern Syria, to Lebanon in 2013, fearing he might be recalled for duty by the military. His parents later received an official summons for him. Fahad changed addresses at least 10 times as he moved across Lebanon from south to north, before finally settling in Tripoli where he got married. [Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP]
Abu Anas, a 26-year-old Syrian, in the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib on March 10, 2021. He is holding a photograph of himself before he lost his sight. Originally from the town of Saqba in the countryside outside Damascus, Abu Anas was displaced from his home in 2018. He was then injured during shelling by government forces in 2020 and lost his eyesight. He is currently a fourth-year law student at Idlib University. [Omar Haj Kadour/AFP]
Mohammed al-Rakouia, a 70-year-old Palestinian painter from the ravaged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp south of Syria's capital Damascus, stands among damaged buildings in the camp on March 7, 2021. He is holding a decade-old picture of himself working in his former studio. Mohammed laments his losses, saying "nothing can make up" for them. "My studio has been destroyed, my paintings have been stolen, and my colours have been scattered all over the place." [Maher Al Mounes/AFP]
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Anas Ali, a 27-year-old Syrian citizen journalist and refugee, in France's capital Paris on February 27, 2021. The photo he is holding on the left is 10 years old, the one on the right is from when was injured in 2013 while covering fighting between opposition and government forces. Originally from the town of Kafr Batna in the long-time rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, Anas has lived in France as a refugee since 2019. At the start of the conflict, his name was on the government's wanted list over charges of filming demonstrations. His parents' house was raided several times and he surrendered himself to the authorities and signed a pledge to stop filming. He remained in Ghouta until it fell to government control in early 2018 after years of bombardment and a devastating siege. [Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP]
Mohammed al-Hamid, a 28-year-old former Syrian opposition fighter and amputee, in Idlib on March 6, 2021. He is holding a picture of himself in a military uniform and holding a weapon. Mohammed says he was wounded in a 2016 battle against government forces in Latakia, where his brother also died in his arms. That same year, he learned that three other siblings had died in prison after they were detained two years earlier. In 2017, warplanes bombed his home in Idlib, killing his daughter. [Aaref Watad/AFP]
Bakri al-Debs, a 29-year-old Syrian medic and an amputee, in the town of Ihsim in Syria's rebel-held northwestern Idlib province on March 6, 2021. He is holding a picture of himself in a similar pose from ten years ago at Tishrin University in Latakia where he studied Sociology, before losing his leg in a government air raid in 2015. Bakri says when protests against President al-Assad broke out in 2011, he was arrested several times and tortured by regime security forces due to a case of mistaken identity with his cousin who shares the same name and who led demonstrations in Ihsim. [Aaref Watad/AFP]

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