“Syria is a country of 23 million people under martial law since 1963, when the Baath Party, whose ideology combined secular Arab nationalism with socialism, installed a police state,” writes Mohja Kahf, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas. She teaches in the English department and is a faculty member of the UA’s King Fahd Center for Middle East and Religious Studies. She last year authored “Then and Now: The Syrian Revolution to Date” for the Friends for a Nonviolent World. Kahf was born in Syria, comingto the United States when she was 3½ years old.
“Every generation needs to defend itself every week in Syria,” Kahf said in a phone interview. “Three generations have grown up under the regime.”
Recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt gave hope of change to the young people of Syria, who formed localized nonviolent protests against the current regime of Bashar Assad. The fi rst peaceful protest came in April 2011.
“The younger generations began to ask, ‘Why was there no hope of ever changing?” Kahf continued. “But there were so many factions that it wasin their interest to stay in.
“Fear prevailed, but something just changed. Those in their 20s and 30s all came together despite the fear and took the leap.”
So the young people - those younger than 40 comprise 60 percent of Syria’s population - began the uprising. Theywere not seasoned oppositionists and protested only through nonviolent rallies and publicity beginning in the spring of 2001.
“They share - rather than a particular ideology - a generational experience of disenfranchisementand brutalization by a corrupt, repressive and massively armed ruling elite in Syria,” Kahf wrote.
“The only context most people have is a religious jihadist, but they’re crossface, cross-secular representatives in the nonviolent revolution,” Kahf said.
But, by autumn of that year, armed resistance had developed, and political groups outside of Syria - pushing their own agendas - got involved.
“Most outside of the country know only the armed movement,” Kahf said.
Assad’s military responded with violence, attacking protesters - both armed and nonviolent - bombing the “grass roots” where the revolution started.
“Towns are decimated,” said Hamsa Newmark, a Fayetteville activist. “Parts of Damascus (the capital city) look like Dresden (Germany, after World War II bombings),” added Newmark, who was an infant in Berlin during the war, then spent nine years living in the rubble of East Germany.
In addition, the military set up blockades in towns with protesters. “There is not food or medicine going in or out,” said Natalie Brown, another local activist.
“There are trucks filled with food outside of the towns,” Newmark insisted.
On Nov. 26, Qusai Zakarya in the town of Moadamiya began a hunger strike to demand the Assad regime’s siege on his town and other towns be lifted. Local interests follow his blog, which records his eff ort.
“That is the worst town,” Kahf said. “Everyone is hungry. They eat a type of soup or what can be gleaned from trees.”
She noted that Zakarya also fights the government forces at the front of his town when he is called, but he (and other nonviolent protesters) consider it self-defense.
Zakarya ended his hunger strike Dec. 28 - his 33rd day - when health issues arose. He passed the baton to the international community.
Hamsa Newmark picked up that baton. She organized local activists to join her in the international hunger strike in solidarity with Zakarya and the Syrian people. This “relay” strike began Dec. 20, with at least one person fasting each day before handing off to anotherfor the next 24 hours. Participants make signs stating their support and post them on Zakarya’s blog page.
“I fasted yesterday,” said Moshe Newmark, Hamsa’s husband.
Hamsa Newmark said the situation in Syria became personal to her when a Syrian man visited Kahf and spoke of his experiences. He was a doctor in Syria, helping those in the street injured by the bombings. He was imprisoned and tortured, she explained. She declined to give his name to protect him from any consequences of this article.
“By doing this (fast), we have connected to so many Syrian people by Facebook, and they are so inspired by this,” Newmark said. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to think your government tried to get rid of you and the world seemed to have forgotten about you. People are dying and starving, wondering if anybody is out there.”
“Thousands are saying they joined the fast. I’ve found it’s like the ‘seven degrees of Kevin Bacon,’” Brown said. “I decided to take part because I wanted to realize better what was going on.
“Fasting for two days doesn’t compare,” she said.
Dawn Newman also joined the fast after Hamsa talked about it in a yoga class she leads. The Newmarks have been involved in activism for 20 years with peaceful protests during Nicaragua’s and Central America’s periods of strife.
“During the Contra war, the solidarity brought so much energy,” Hamsa Newmark said. “Sure, it was just a drop in the bucket. Then there’s another drop in the bucket. Drop by drop the bucket fi lls up. Then the bottom falls out and change happens.”
Each person participating in the international hunger strike was asked to fast for just 24 hours. Brown said she went two days because no one relieved her, but Hamsa made it into an eighth day. “When you are doing something for the larger cause, it’s so much easier.”
“I could feel the pain of the hunger, the disorientation and the hopelessness that comes when you don’t eat,” she continued. “I became really angry, too. I became less than human.
“It makes you so mindful of your environment, your world,” Newmark said. “After the fast, I find myself more mindful of my habits.”
“You don’t realize how much time we spend with thinking about food, preparing food, eating food, cleaning the kitchen after you eat the food,” Hamsa said.
But both agreed they were inspired to kindness closer to home, too.
“She made supper for me on her seventh day,” Moshe Newmark said of his wife.
“This type of activity is open to anyone,” he continued. “You don’t have to have a degree or a certifi cation. You don’t have to know the history … You just have to care.”
Hamsa Newmark and the others said they would be willing to give more days of fasting. The international effort ended the strike Jan. 22, when the Geneva Conference of Syria convened.
“But there’s no deadline (for a peace agreement to be reached), so we need to continue,” she said.
Fear of the future often paralyzes people from action, Kahf said.
“What might come next must be pretty awful, but we’ll fight that struggle, too,” she said. “But first, we have to fight this one.”
Religion, Pages 6 on 02/08/2014