In March 2011, Syrian citizens peacefully took to the streets to stand against a regime that had terrorized them for more than forty years. Even for those who were aware of the risks of manifesting dissent it was difficult to imagine the extent of violence and repression used by the regime in the past three years. However, perhaps the most painful thing for Syrian citizens to acknowledge was the international indifference to the suffering of the Syrian people and the lack of solidarity regarding what has unavoidably become a global issue.
This is why SyriaUntold welcomes initiatives such as the UNdelivered campaign, aimed at raising international awareness on the tragic humanitarian situation unfolding in Syria, and at building a grassroots action in order to push the United Nations to deliver aid to the country even without Assad’s consent.
SyriaUntold joins this international effort to push the UN to break the humanitarian siege in Syria, and supports the UNdelivered campaign by highlighting Syrian creative resistance, which lies at the core of our editorial project. By featuring defiant and creative Syrian voices, SyriaUntold calls upon the international community to fulfill its responsibility to protect and deliver aid to civilians living under siege; a siege that has forced many Syrians to eat cats, dogs, turtles and insects in order to survive.
To support the UNdelivered campaign, SyriaUntold asked several Syrian artists to produce original artwork with the aim of denouncing the humanitarian siege through creative means.
In the near future we hope to host music, banners, drawings and cartoons originally produced by Syrian creators to help us support the campaign, and hopefully mobilize people internationally in order to push the UN to deliver food and aid to Syrian citizens.
The first artist to join our call for creative action is renowned Syrian painter Hamid Sulaiman, who has produced some powerful cartoons to support UNdelivered.
Sulaiman, born in 1986, obtained a degree in architecture from Damascus University. He currently lives in exile in Paris, where he has joined several art exhibitions. He has devoted himself and his artistic work to the Syrian uprising since its outbreak in spring 2011.
When asked by SyriaUntold about his favorite revolutionary painting, Sulaiman replied: “‘Love and Revolution’. I drew my two friends, who loved each other, but did not admit it until one of them was detained and then released. They are now engaged.”
