The trip to the bathroom was a favorite ritual for my lover Atef Shaykhouni, 55, and his friends. "While in the bathroom, one could hear a man screaming," Where is the soap? Another one asks for shampoo, one wants someone to rub his back, the bathroom is usually full of noise, and after spending some time in the sauna, it is time for a play. A man in the bathroom rubs the bathroom guest hard, and I always pray that I do not hurt As a result of this rubbing ».
But this was before the war that hit Syria. "Today, the bathroom is cold and devoid of spirit," wrote Shaykhuni, who worked as a sports teacher in February 2017, shortly after the end of the worst fighting in Aleppo.
Four years after the war that ended in 2016, the eastern part of Aleppo, which was controlled by the opposition, was completely destroyed.
Modern reconstruction
After the Syrian war seemed to have come to an end, there has been much talk of reconstruction, but not only the building of buildings and infrastructure, but the historical and cultural ties that now bind these currently divided societies. The people of Aleppo, including Shaikhuni, took upon themselves to preserve their heritage, so they created a group on Facebook, where some 250,000 Aleppois of different faiths and ethnicities share their traditions and way of life before the war.
"I am afraid that we will lose many of the traditions and words that we used as a result of the migration of many," said the group's president, Souhan Shaban, 55, a mother of three who does not live in Aleppo now. She referred to the thousands of Syrians who left Aleppo since the outbreak of the Syrian war 2011.
Craftsmen
"For example, many handicrafts people have left the country now," she said. "The idea of the Facebook group is good because it has members all over the world, so when they present their information they remain in touch with the heritage and memories of their country , And appeared in this collection Encyclopedia of examples of popular Aleppo, as a platform through which the Libyans can publish their local ideals. During the years of the establishment of the group has become a platform on which the Libyans published many things related to the life aspects of the city. One member of the group recently spoke about a 75-year-old grille that survived the destruction of the Syrian war, while another spoke of the steps he had taken to obtain an entry visa to Italy in 1960.
Chapan was a former French language teacher and social media activist. She spent about 10 hours a day documenting and classifying information shared by members of the group.
There are now about 100 files on everything from local cooking recipes to handicrafts to the city's fashion and bathroom culture. "The Facebook group has made us more connected to the city, and the people who left the city are actually dreaming of returning to it," says Fawzi Shamsi, 35, an old member of the group who lives in the new neighborhood of Aleppo. Kind of with the place, it's a feeling that their lives are still there. "
Destruction everywhere
Before the war, Aleppo was not the second largest city in Syria, but rather its economic and industrial center, but today, after years of bitter fighting, which divided Aleppo into two parts: the western side of the government, and the eastern side of the opposition, Aleppo became a fantasy. Although the Syrian government took control of Aleppo in December 2016, destruction is still widespread, including the old city, which UNESCO has considered a global heritage.
Shamsi was under government control when Aleppo was still divided, but his family's fabric factory and shop were located in the eastern part, which was controlled by the opposition, which was heavily bombed. The building in which the factory and the shop were located were heavily damaged during the fighting and remained closed due to power cuts and lack of water and food.
Despite the cessation of fighting in the city, Shamsi says, "One still feels that he is living the war." In the chaos of war and ambiguity that has been going on, the Facebook group is where members can restore some control over their lives. Shamsi participated in information on the site on a number of topics related to the textile industry that characterize the civil, as well as his family for a long time. "We can not keep the place, at least we can keep things as intangible as our memories and our likes," Shamsi said.
File Christians
Among the files in the collection is a file devoted to the traditions of the Christian minority community in Aleppo, which had a pre-war population of about 250,000 people, but decreased greatly after the war. Most of the information in the file was provided by a Christian man named Joseph Hatem, 69, an electrical engineer who lived in the Aziziya neighborhood of Aleppo. He left the city in 2014 and now lives in Paris. Hatem is concerned about the consequences of the migration of Christians from Aleppo and Syria in general, which could lead to the loss of the heritage and culture of this minority. "The parents can know a lot about the heritage of Aleppo, but it is difficult to pass on to their children, who live in countries of exile," he says. The preservation of the heritage of the Christian community in Aleppo is of course important to the importance of the Christian presence in Syria.
But what can be done about all this information stored in this group? In April, Suhann attended the annual Culture Summit in Abu Dhabi, a four-day gathering of important figures from the arts and museums. The focus of this year's summit was on preserving heritage in conflict and crisis areas.
When I heard the archaeologist at the Boston Museum Christine Parker about the efforts to collect all this information, she was surprised. "This relationship that connects us to the homeland allows people to imagine a world far beyond what they live in their current circumstances," she said.
Parker is now working on creating a reliable digital repository where Syrians can store their stories, which can help them link projects made by citizens like Facebook.
"You can not imagine how important these things are," Shamsi said of stories shared by the Syrians. Someone might say, for example, do you know where that man used to sell fruit? Then many people start telling stories about it, a way to retrieve the old days.
Laura McKenzie is an American journalist
After years of bitter fighting that made Aleppo divided into two parts: western by the government, and Oriental by the opposition, Aleppo became a mere fantasy of what it was before.