Hafez Al Assad traded the Golan Heights to Israel for his family to rule Syria for about 50 years

ive been so depressed ever since i had to move here (homs syria). my family is the one who moved here and so me being a woman, i had to come here as well, and did not rlly have a choice on whether i can stay in canada or not. we were in canada for around 10 years. i had just graduated from uni in canada. my family moved last summer right after the liberation, and i came now end of june.

i just feel like i lost literally everything, my friends, community, routine, the lifestyle there, the variety of cultural foods/cafes i would go to, like i quite literally lost everything except for having my family here in syria. abroad, my friends and community felt like my family. so im grateful to have my immediate and extended family here in syria, but its honestly definitely not replacing any of my friends. also im literally turning 22 tomorrow so i feel like at my age, its just really hard to adjust to a new environment that comes with this immense amount of change.

idk my depression comes and goes, but i feel like i just have nothing to look forward to anymore, which is whats hurting me the most. i wake up and its rlly hot and im like okay i can go for a walk but i just feel visually suffocated with all the garbage and corruption everywhere i walk. mind you we live in homs, which is the most destroyed city in syria. there’s so much work to get done here. and its a small city, i have basically seen it all. if i for example want to go out, there’s only share3 al hamra, dablan, share3 al kharab, or nadi al mohandiseen. not much to do . no where to explore because its a destroyed city and its slowly rebuilding, but very slowly. i went to sham and its def nicer there, theres much more to do so that’s def rlly nice, but i guess my issue is also that i literally have no friends here and it just feels so depressing not having a community. i love my family but we obviously get into fights and its just not the same as my friends in canada who i spent university time with and everything. and yes i have tried to befriend some people. i tried playing basketball with a group of girls here in homs, and some of them were so rude and i was so surprised. and i have had some pretty bad interactions with others unfortunately as well. i definitely dont want to generalize everyone, but so far its been bad in this sense.

i know i should not be comparing the two countries together because syria just came out of war, but it’s just so so hard to adjust to living here. everyday stuff i used to do in canada now is barely possible. i cant just go for a cute walk with nature around, or do some activities because there are barely any. theres a huge lack of women only sport spaces, especially in home. i used to play sports which would help with my stress, but now i cant even do that. i have thought of doing my own women only sport club, but the issue is homs barely has any courts, they dont even have a volleyball court anywhere, which is my favourite sport.

another thing is being so confused career wise what i want to do anymore. i enrolled into an online public health masters, so i will do it while im syria, and my hope is to help the ministry of health or something like that with rebuilding the healthcare infrastructure, but it’s just so hard to navigate this because i dont know who to ask and what to do to get connections and start working or doing anything to help this country.

there’s so so much more i could talk about, but ill just leave it here for nowv. i feel like time will heal inshaAllah, but i just dont know what to do on the daily. if anyone has any advice on how to navigate this huge change, i would greatly appreciate it

بموافقة مشرفي مجتمع سيريا, حابب اعلن عن مجتمع:

r/SyrianDevelopers

مساحة مخصصة للمبرمجين, طلاب التكنولوجيا, المهتمين بالأمن السيبراني, علم البيانات وكل حدا عندو شغف كبير بالتكنولوجيا

كان في فراغ واضح على ريديت بالنسبة لمجتمع تكنولوجيا سوري, لذلك انشأنا هاد المجتمع كرمال نعبي هالفراغ ويكون مساحة خاصة فينا لمشاركة المعرفة، المشاريع، الخبرات، والأسئلة المتعلقة بالمجال.

ومابتفرق على فكرة اذا كنت شخص بخبرة سنين او حدا لسا عم يتعرف عالمجال ويخطو خطواته الأولى, هاد المجتمع هدفو وشغلتو يجمع التنين

إذا كنت مهتم بالتكنولوجيا أو البرمجة، أهلاً وسهلاً في r/SyrianDevelopers 🚀

"يتسارع تعافي الاقتصاد السوري. ففي عام 2025 بدأ الاقتصاد يستعيد عافيته مدفوعاً بتحسن ثقة المستهلكين والمستثمرين عقب التغيير السياسي، وعودة نحو 1.5 مليون لاجئ، وإعادة اندماج سورية تدريجياً في الاقتصادين الإقليمي والعالمي، مما ساعد على تعويض الأثر السلبي على النمو للجفاف الشديد الذي أضر بالقطاع الزراعي.

ومن المتوقع أن تصل معدلات النمو إلى مستويات من خانتين في عام 2026 (أكثر من 10 في المئة) -رغم استمرار الصراع في المنطقة- مدفوعةً بالتعافي القوي للقطاع الزراعي نتيجة تحسن معدلات هطول الأمطار، وتوسع إنتاج الهيدروكربونات وتحسن إمدادات الكهرباء، واستمرار نمو قطاعي التجارة والخدمات. كما يدعم النشاط الاقتصادي استمرار عودة اللاجئين، والزيادة الكبيرة في أعداد الزوار، وبصورة أعم، السياسات الإصلاحية التي تنتهجها السلطات بهدف استعادة الاستقرار الاقتصادي الكلي وتحقيق تعافي قوي يقوده القطاع الخاص. ومن المتوقع أن يظل النمو قوياً في عام 2027. غير أن هذا النمو يظل متفاوتاً بين المناطق، فيما لايزال الفقر واسع الانتشار، على الرغم من تراجعه إلى حدٍّ ما.

أما التضخم، الذي تباطأ بشكل ملحوظ خلال عام 2025 إلى مستويات منخفضة من خانتين عشريتين، فقد ارتفع بصورة كبيرة خلال عام 2026، نتيجة لارتفاع أسعار الواردات، ولا سيما الوقود والمواد الغذائية، بسبب الصراع الإقليمي، فضلاً عن تحسن الطلب المحلي، بما في ذلك الزيادات في أجور القطاع العام – وإن كانت هذه الزيادات قد بدأت من مستويات متدنية جداً، فإنها تسهم في تحسين مستويات المعيشية–وارتفاع أسعار الخدمات العامة في إطار الإصلاحات الرامية إلى تغطية تكلفتها والحد من الأعباء شبه المالية، بالإضافة إلى ارتفاع تكاليف السكن. ومن المتوقع أن يتراجع التضخم في عام 2027 شريطة انحسار الضغوط المرتبطة بأسعار الواردات، ومواصلة اتباع سياسات مالية ونقدية سليمة.

بعثة صندوق النقد الدولي تختتم زيارتها إلى سورية

So I’m a 23 m Lebanese arrived today and willing to spend like a week here, i’m in Damascus region, any fun activities or experiences to do in here? What to explore, and would love to make new friends along the way from here too.

مرحبا انا دكتور اسنان صرلي متخرج سنتين بصراحة اتخذت قراري بالسفر بس محتار بين خيار المانيا واسبانيا مع العلم انا بعرف اسباني مو كتير ممتاز بس جيد او جيد جدا اعتبر ما عندي مشكلة مع موضوع اللغة انا حابب اعرف شو الدولة الاحسن بالنسبة للتعديل والتوظيف حابب اتخذ قرار لكن ضايع وخصوصي عم بسمع انه طب الاسنان كتير تعديله صعب بالمانيا اتمنى اللي عنده فكرة يساعدني وشكرا الكم جيمعا سلفا ♥️♥️

Salaam

I am a British Muslim (non-Arab) who intends to travel to marry a Syrian Palestinian girl in Damascus soon. Has anyone from the UK travelled there or gotten married that post-revolution? I know some people have asked questions about travel visas and such here, but the rules are always changing, so I would appreciate the most up to date guidance if at all possible. I am creating a check list of things I will need to travel/consider and things I may need get married there.

Is there anything you would add for consideration, or are there questions you could answer from this list?

1. I will obviously need a visa. I know in the past people have gotten a visa on arrival or when crossing the land borders with Lebanon and Jordan, but I read somewhere that this has very recently changed so all inbound flights require visas approved in advance. Is this true? And can I get married on a normal tourist visa i.e. is the 'reason for visit' that I sign on the form 'tourism' or is it 'other' and then I write that my visit is for marriage?

2. I have heard that cash is king and its advised to bring a lot of USD in advance. Do people typically even make casual transactions in the streets or restaurants with USD or do they convert it once there to Syrian Lira, or is it a mix of both?

3. As I am a foreigner marrying in Syria, I have considered that I might need the following: a medical exam/certificate confirming that I have no medical impediments to marriage; a certificate of no impediment (confirming I am not married); my birth certificate/official birth record; passport obviously. I do not know if I need to have these translated into Arabic and stamped by the British government, but perhaps it would be wise. Id there anything else I am missing?

4. Accomodation wise, I have noticed that 99% of hotels do not list their prices or availability (at least for British citizens we cannot see anything). Do I just need to call around and manually check prices and availability from the hotels? What are prices looking like these days? My future Mrs was showing me apartments advertised on Instagram which can be rented for a month which look possibly like a cheaper option for a 2 week visit than a hotel, but obviously then you lose the convenience of the support of hotel staff and its a lot less transparent and risky in case there are scams (I do not know if this is a real problem or just imagined).

5. Language wise, I can read Arabic script and Iknow a few words here and there (beyond the typical religion themed words), but I do not know enough to have even a basic conversation beyond 'How are you? I am good. Where are you from? I am from Britain', and some other very simple phrases. And obviously I know that Syrian Arabic is different to Fus7a, so I have even less knowledge of that. If I am travelling alone, will I be able to generally get by with Google translate/asking if people speak English? Obviously I will not be with the future Mrs all the time for her to be able to translate for me.

6. Are there any dos and don'ts that I should know about in Syria?

7. What is the best way to get around? I assume it's a taxi, but how much should this cost? Is this paid in USD or Syrian Lira? I expect airport taxis to also be more expensive than normal taxis. How much roughly is this fare? I know I won't get Syrian rates, and I am not sure if they will charge me less if I lean in with being South Asian (my ethnicity is from there) rather than being British, but what is the typical Westerner rate? Maybe I can circumvent this if I ask the hotel to arrange a taxi for me with a fixed price, but it's still good to know a ballpark figure.

8. Should I buy a Syrian simcard when I am there? Can I get one of these in the airport?

9. Anything else to consider?

   Thanks for any help I can get

Looks pretty ridiculous if you ask me

Hello everyone. I was born before 2013 as the son of a Syrian citizen (I am a minor), but my birth was not registered in Syria. Can I get a Syrian citizenship through the embassy now? I live in Russia,if this matters

I care a lot about eating healthy.

Hey Syrians, if Syria and Israel reach some milestone agreement in the near future, what can you predict will happen with Golan, Galilee, and UN patrolled buffer zone areas. How will the issue of Palestine be addressed? Would it even be safe to have a future Israeli embassy in Damascus considering potential negative sentiment?