the silence and the roar by nihad sirees

In Syria, if you want to continue living, it means you have to remain silent. You cannot say names or exactly what happened. What should we – or they, since I am not there – talk about? They will talk about what they heard about the war, what they witnessed.Īlso, it is not safe at all to talk clearly, openly, and directly. What should we talk about? Now, to talk about literature or art, this is fantasy. It is difficult now to meet.Īnd there are other problems. I hear from them that every week, or at least month, they have to change their places. This already started before I left in 2012, but now it happens frequently. But, for some of us, the road from one's apartment to our meeting was not safe. For example, we were ten writers, and we had to change the café where we met. 'We have troubles in Syria – shooting, shelling, destruction – and every fiction you will write will be like fantasy, like perfume,' he says The primacy of violence: Syrian writers are not occupied with fiction now, says Nihad Sirees. So we'd have to think about some other places. When I was still there, we would sit and meet, and after a while – after days or weeks or months – we would feel that this place wasn't safe any longer. Nihad Sirees: The minimum number of writers and intellectuals still meet.

Is there still a community of writers meeting in Syria? But for TV, it depends on the production company to work. If I write a novel, I can print it anywhere. For me, writing for television is connected to the stability in Syria and this is impossible now.

Nihad Sirees: No, I don't write for TV any more. What will you work on in Egypt? A new novel? A TV series? And second, Egypt gives us Syrians the opportunity to stay, to go, to come – any time we need. First of all, I love Egypt, and I love Cairo especially. Nihad Sirees: Let's say that Egypt will be my middle stop – not permanent, and not for a short time. You are staying in Egypt for the foreseeable future?

The silence and the roar by nihad sirees