This conversation explores the evolving meanings of prison and exile within the Syrian experience and their impact on both individual lives and collective struggles. Prison and exile have been central to Syria's modern history of oppression and displacement, yet their significance continues to shift. The prison regime – that its guardians propagated to last until eternity – fell in December 2024. Exile no longer is solely a condition of rupture but also one of transformation, shaped by political and social realities that are difficult to asses or predict. While displacement has reshaped identities and possibilities of people, incarceration remains a defining reference in the search for justice. As the conditions change, so do probably also the meanings of these notions and the experiences related to them. The end of the prison regime re-opens the historical process and raises questions about political agency, the meaning, means and ends of memory and justice. The possibility of return or to re-connect changes the relation to time and place, but how? By engaging with these critical aspects, the conversation will reflect on the historical legacies of prison and exile, their limits and significance for the Syrian realities both within and outside the country.
Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a Syrian writer. He was in jail between 1980 and 1996 for his leftist activism, and in exile since 2013. He is the author of nine books about Syria, prison, contemporary Islam, intellectual life, the Syrian revolution and war, and the experience of the atrocious. He was awarded the Prince Claus Award in 2012 and the Swedish PEN Tucholsky Prize in 2017. During the academic years 2017/18 and 2018/19, he was a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and a EUME Fellow in 2019. In 2014, the Forum published his essay Freiheit: Heimat, Gefängnis, Exil und die Welt.
Rasha Abbas is a Syrian journalist and short story writer. She is working recently as the culture editor at Aljumhuriya. Born in Latakia and brought up in Damascus, she studied journalism at Damascus University. While working as an editor for television, she published her first short story collection entitled Adam hates TV (2008). After joining the anti-government protests in 2011, she had to leave her country, moving first to Beirut and later to Germany. She is currently based in Berlin. She has held a number of fellowships and writing residencies across Europe and North America, and takes part in cultural festivals. She co-wrote the script for a short film, Happiness and Bliss (2013), produced by Bedayat, and contributed, both as a writer and as a translator, to Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline (2014), published by Saqi Books. She has published two short story collections (The Invention of German Grammar, 2016 and The Gist of It, 2017) and is currently working on her first novel. A theatre play based on her book the gist of it, was presented on Maxim Gorki theatre stage in Berlin (2022-23).Her publishers are Al Mutawassit and Mikrotext.
Rashof Salih studied Social and Cultural Anthropology and Political Science and is currently pursuing an MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on the intersection of psychological and political anthropology, exploring themes of collective memory, the narration of violence, and politics. She is currently part of the EUME team at the Forum Transregionale Studien.
This event will be held in a hybrid format. For in-person attendance, please register in via eume(at)trafo-berlin.de. For online participation, please note the login details for Zoom:
https://zoom.us/j/99515806410?pwd=I1hSjbcvgcSpgj1FPgtxBc7BOeAaJQ.1
Meeting-ID: 995 1580 6410
Passcode: 412738
This seminar is part of the open lecture series “Syria at a Crossroads”, organized jointly by the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Philipps-Universität Marburg, the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) in Tunis, and Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME).