What governs our relationships with our nations? Are they based on sentiments of belonging and love, or are they based on what our nations can provide for us? What if misery is all that it can provide? Could love alone sustain our relationship with it?
I’ve almost made peace with the idea that everyone I know is going to die soon, I started to calculate: would I rather die with my parents in Syria? Or would I rather die with my partner and friends here? What if my parents die? Would I rather be there or hear about it from here?
The COVID-19 Pandemic has cast its dark shadow on Mariam Hammado’s life, a Syrian woman who is extremely concerned that one of her four siblings might get infected with the virus. All of her siblings suffer from a mental disability, which causes them to be unable to figure out what’s going on.
Within the tremendous amount of fear Syrians have been through, it is just routine to them, so they go out and talk about a viral infection that attacks behind closed doors, and about a war they’ve witnessed with their own eyes. In a battle between war and virus, war is always the victor.
