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The Door That Arrived Before the Truth:

When Evidence Becomes an Exhibit
By Naomi Pham
 
“Everything became visible. The prisons were opened. People entered them. Cells were photographed. Papers, clothes, remnants of beds, doors, and instruments of torture were collected. What had once been hidden was now placed before everyone’s eyes,” writes Sally Ali in her essay, “Should We ‘Eat Each Other’s Worries’?”, published in Al Modon.* Yet visibility does not necessarily constitute remembrance, nor does displaying the material remains of suffering mean that those who suffered have been cared for in the aftermath. The 63rd Damascus International Fair held in late August brought the horrors of Assad’s prisons out under open air for all to see. The exhibition “When the Walls Speak” was presented in the Interior Ministry’s pavilion. The exhibit included a reconstruction of a cell using real cell doors, detainees’ clothing, handcuffs and other restraints, and a chair used for torture — all items collected from the various prisons and security branches, including Military Security Branch 248, which operated under the Assad regime.
Essays and Features

What Lies Beyond the Safe Story:

Algeria and the Courage to Look
By Elie Chalala
 
A healthy literature cannot be entirely free of crime fiction, or, more broadly, of literature that confronts crime, violence, and human conflict. No society is free of conflicts, whether visible or hidden. A brief look at Algeria’s history before and after independence reveals a long record of political upheaval, repression, and violence. The question, then, is not whether such realities exist, but whether literature is willing to confront them.
Essays and Features

Two Approaches to Death, One Crisis of Governance:

Rethinking the Death Penalty in Syria and Lebanon
By Naomi Pham
 
“A state is not tested when it tries someone who is widely loved. It is tested when it tries someone whom most of the country despises,” writes Sally Ali in her essay, “On One Day, Beirut Abolishes and Damascus Executes.” This observation is particularly relevant to the recent death penalty decisions in Syria and Lebanon, where the question of punishment has become inseparable from the question of state governance. On August 11, the Damascus Criminal Court sentenced former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, cousin Atef Najib, former Defense Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij, and five other former regime officials to death, a ruling that raises broader questions about what kind of government Syria will establish in the aftermath of the Assad regime. On the same day, Lebanon’s parliament approved the abolition of the death penalty, a decision that Marwan Harb argues may carry little meaning for Lebanese citizens unless the state can also address its political and social failures. Together, the contrasting decisions in Syria and Lebanon demonstrate how the death penalty can serve not merely as a form of punishment, but as a measure of a state’s commitment to justice, accountability, and legitimate governance.
Essays and Features

When Delay Becomes Part of the Crime:

August 4 and the Collapse of Lebanon's Last Illusion
By Elie Chalala
 
The Beirut Port explosion was not simply a tragic accident, but a catastrophe enabled by years of political negligence and institutional complacency. On August 4, 2020, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in Hangar 12 alongside fireworks exploded, killing at least 218 people, injuring roughly 7,000, and displacing approximately 300,000 more. Yet in the six years since the blast, efforts to hold those responsible accountable have been repeatedly obstructed, leaving justice suspended and the victims without closure. Rather than focusing solely on the explosion itself, Sally Ali in her essay, “August 4 and the Insolence of Crime,” examines the political structure that allowed such dangerous conditions to persist and, more importantly, the system that has survived largely unchanged in its aftermath. The question is not simply whether justice has yet to arrive, but whether the greater danger lies in the state’s ability to endure six entire years after a crime that should have fundamentally transformed it.
Essays and Features

Between Languages and Legacies:

French, Historical Memory, and Algeria's Linguistic Future
By Naomi Pham
 
In Algeria, the debate over whether French should be replaced by English has become increasingly entangled with broader geopolitical and ideological tensions, often overshadowing the country’s actual linguistic and educational needs. In his discussion of Algeria’s “language question,” Algerian novelist and author Waciny Laredj rejects both the demonization of French and the uncritical glorification of English, arguing instead for a pragmatic, historically informed, and educationally sound approach to multilingualism.* French remains deeply embedded in Algerian society, from everyday communication to education and professional life, making its complete removal an enormous and potentially disruptive undertaking. At the same time, Laredj challenges narratives that portray French solely as a colonial legacy, pointing to moments in which the language played an important role in intellectual, political, and liberation movements. The question facing Algeria is not simply whether French should be replaced by English, but whether such a transition is practical, historically conscious, and genuinely beneficial to the country and future generations.
Essays and Features

A Neighbor Turned Other:

The Arab in the Turkish Imagination
By 
Naomi Pham
 
When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the Turkish Republic in 1923, he embarked on an ambitious project to redefine what it meant to be Turkish. The new republic sought to reshape society at nearly every level, from language and clothing to its relationship with religion in public life. This reimagining of Turkish identity was constructed not only through ideals of the “new Turk,” but also through images of those who represented what the new Turk was not.

The Voice They Blamed for the 1967 Defeat:

Oum Kulthoum and the Search for a Cultural Scapegoat
By 
Elie Chalala
 
Oum Kulthoum was more than a singer; she stood as a cultural institution whose voice defined Egyptian and Arab identity, making her an emblem of a national cultural conception. After the June 1967 defeat, she became a prime target not just for criticism of an individual artist but for an attack on the broader cultural vision she symbolized.

The Wounds That Cross the Mediterranean:

The Inheritance of Displacement
By 
Naomi Pham
 
Lilia Hassaine’s “The Bitterness of Migration” (Mararat al-Hijra) brings a novel to Arabic readers that explores the complexities of migration and belonging. Translated from Hassaine’s original French novel “Soleil amer” (Bitter Sun, 2021) and published in Arabic by Al-Arabi Publishing House in Cairo in 2024, the novel spans generations and the two shores of the Mediterranean, examining the hopes and disappointments of Algerian migration to France while focusing on family relationships and dual identities.

The Villages That Refused to Disappear:

Southern Lebanon’s Christian Villages and the Fragile Politics of Neutrality
By 
Elie Chalala
 
Witnessing the displacement of hundreds of thousands from their homes in Southern Lebanon, one cannot help but wonder what has steeled the resolve of those who choose to remain — why do the residents of Southern Lebanon’s Christian villages choose to stay, in spite of the looming dangers, rather than leave their homes for safety, as most Shiite civilians have done?

When Silence Becomes Complicity:

The Unspoken Crisis of Syrian Abductions
By 
Naomi Pham
 
The Syrian Ministry of Interior is reportedly following the case of a woman identifying herself as Walaa al-Mahmoud, whose story recently sparked media attention after she posted a video online accusing a security official in Jableh of abducting and assaulting her. She alleges that the security apparatus had colluded with the official by detaining her and facilitating the assault, as cited by Omar Qaddour in Al Modon*.

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