HOF —
People look at me and assume I’ve lived a privileged life.
And in some ways — they’re not wrong.
My father comes from one of the most famous families in Damascus.
My mother, from one of the most powerful in Ghouta.
I have relatives scattered across the globe.
Wherever I land, there’s always someone who can help pull a string.
This is a personal story for those born into the spaces between worlds. These are the children of intermarriages—the outsiders who never belonged to any tribe. To those who’ve felt like mistakes, like intrusions, enduring the weight of invisible exclusion and the quiet violence of not fitting in.
Continue reading “The Thread That Holds Us in the Power of Love”
Adapted from my 2009 diary, originally written as a letter in Arabic to the woman who deeply shaped my life journey. The text was revised and translated into English in December 2025. The original Arabic version is included below.
Eastern Ghouta –
There is no escape from leaving—
this love has thrown us down
into the deep, uncharted unknown.
From you, I’ve worn my hoping thin;
from your impossible love,
I am undone.
Author’s Note
This text is an English adaptation by AI of a poem originally written in Arabic in December 2008, in response to the war on Gaza.
While the poem criticizes the State of Israel for actions widely regarded as violations of human rights and international law, its central condemnation is directed at neighboring Arab regimes—for their complicity, political opportunism, and repeated failure of the Palestinian people. The poem rejects the use of Palestine as a proxy or symbol for regional power games that have little to do with justice, liberation, or genuine solidarity.
All criticism in this text is aimed at states, systems, doctrines, and political conduct, never at peoples, religions, or identities.
Image by Ömer Faruk Yıldız
Eastern Ghouta —
The parting stretched, the nights grew long,
My thoughts in your eyes wandered on.
From where does patience come to meet?
I lost my question at your feet.
Roumani Line 