July 18, 2016

With her homeland in conflict, Syrian student seeks solace in the written word

Werklund School of Education's Ghada Alatrash pens book on lives of Syrian women

July 18, 2016 - We’ve all seen the pictures online and on television of the crisis in Syria. The bombings of cities and towns, the lines of people fleeing the conflict, the thousands of people washing up on the shores of distant lands, some alive, some not.

For Ghada Alatrash, those images and the reports of the horrors taking place half a world away are deeply personal.

“These are images of fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, like yours and mine. That’s all I am able to say, for words and pleas for the violence to stop have made very little or no difference.”

Alatrash, a doctoral student in the Werklund School of Education, spent her early years in Damascus. When her father, a retired Syrian diplomat, took a teaching post at an American university, Alatrash attended high school and earned her undergraduate degree in Texas. She then got her master’s degree in English literature in Oklahoma before heading north to Canada in 2004.

Alatrash has a genuine love and passion for language and the written word, and she says that for Syrians, poetry allows for the expression of emotion. She’s co-ordinated events during which she reads the work of Syrian poets accompanied by music. “For me, the combination is intoxicating.”

Alatrash’s work was recently featured on the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in a series on how Syrians, both at home and abroad, find the means to express what they’re feeling through their art. And now she’s taken another personal step in sharing the plight of her homeland with others.

Stripped to the Bone: Portraits of Syrian Women is the title of a new book written by Alatrash. It features seven stories of Syrian women and deals with a range of topics — from religion to homosexuality, to the lives of children of immigrants, and the experiences of the people living through the conflict and bitterness of war themselves.

While the book is a work of fiction, the characters imagined by Alatrash, many of the experiences are very real. They’ve been plucked from Alatrash’s own life.

“We all have our stories. I have simply put mine on paper to tell them and to get others to think about and discuss them. I write for the same reason that drives (professor of native studies) Thomas King to write: "so that ‘… [you] don’t say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story.’”

Alatrash will share portions of her work at a Calgary debut on July 23 from 2 to 5 p.m. at 80th & Ivy Modern Kitchen. Anyone wishing to attend can RSVP to Ghada Alatrash directly.