Arabic → English transcript

I grew up and kept waiting for news about my father, and Victory Day came. I ran to the mosque.

I prayed and cried. But the joy was incomplete, because I found out that my father

was martyred. The joy was incomplete, because I found out my father was martyred in prison.

I learned how to protect my sisters, yes I did. But I did not learn how to write

my name. And one night I saw the gas canisters when I was seven years old.

And the body parts of the kids from my neighborhood and my friends. And one night I woke up to the sound of bullets that were

piercing the house, and my mother’s voice outside saying, “Do not go out, my son,

do not go out.” And I wish I had not gone out. I saw our neighbor on the ground, wounded,

and covered in blood. And I kept asking myself, “Why are they doing this to us? What

did we do to him? We, Bashar al-Assad killed us, looted us. What did we

do to him? We are sitting here. What did we do to him? We are filling water,

we drink here. What did we do to him? We did not… I am

sorry, I apologize. But ten minutes before this video, my mother was injured,

and to this day she is disabled. We are a people who suffered for fourteen years. From a country

From country to country, and from tent to tent, but praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, they were

tears of sadness and fear, and today they are tears of joy. We suffered for fourteen

years, and we no longer had any future.

For you, Syria. For you, Sham. I left my village and my town, and I left

my home and my childhood, and I left the country. When I heard the news of the criminal’s escape, I came

back and rejoiced, and I started crying and said, “Oh Lord, do not let the blood of those who were lost be in vain.”

I am Ali Mustafa Al-Mohammad. I dream of a Syria that can breathe again and can again embrace

her children anew.

Art has a space in our celebration today, for art is the mirror of the soul and the voice of memory

and the message of generations. We now leave you with the theatrical performance entitled…