'It's Not Normal': Syrian War Transforms Lives
In November, Razan Shalab Al-Sham, the daughter of a wealthy Syrian family, led the way to the Syrian farming village of Khirbet al-Joz to deliver an unusual kind of aid: police uniforms. A cold winter rain turned the frontier forest between southern Turkey and Syria into a muddy march up a mountain ridge along a smugglers' trail. She climbed the mountain to make the delivery herself.
Delivering police uniforms was a critical mission for Al-Sham— a symbol of what she wants Syria to become: a democratic country, with a civilian police force. At the police station, she handed out blue jackets and trousers to local rebels.
"The most important thing is, he will change from a soldier to civil police uniform," she said as the rebels shed their camouflage and donned the new uniforms.
The war in Syria has destroyed towns and villages, torn families apart, driven millions out of the country and displaced millions more. But the revolt has also transformed some Syrians, propelling them into roles they never imagined. For Al-Sham, 26, the revolt has become a personal revolution.
Her journey began in the city of Homs, where she planned on teaching English literature, to southern Turkey, where she now distributes aid, promotes democracy and advises governments, including the U.S.
The one thing the war has not changed is her dress sense. Even on a muddy mountain trail, she's got bling: jingly jewelry, knee-high leather boots; her hair is covered with a stylish scarf. Her laugh is still girlish, but she delivers — and that counts with the war-hardened rebels in this devastated village.
A Return Visit
Al-Sham recently returned to the same area after convincing the Italian government to donate more police uniforms and fund a field hospital.
On her aid mission to Khirbet al-Joz, the rebels have been transformed. Dressed in police blue, they invite Al-Sham to stand with them for pictures.
It's unusual for a young, unmarried woman to hang out with rebels in a conservative farming village. It's even more unusual for Al-Sham, who is from one of the wealthiest families in Syria.
"In all my life, I didn't feel that I should care about poor people, or help them, or stay in their villages," she says. "This is the first time for me. When the revolution started, I entered [a] village."
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