Free A Woman in the Crossfire by Samar Yazbek

high school, forbidding the mixing of the sexes as in every other Syrian governorate, complete freedoms, the replacement of the head of the port of Baniyas because he behaved like a security officer and imposed taxes on poor fishermen who could barely make ends meet…”
    At this point I.H. stops talking and I receive a news bulletin from Damascus about more killings:
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    Internal source in the army: Under a total media blackout an army hearse delivered the bodies of at least 42 civilians from the village of Tafas outside Dar‘a who were killed near the housing bloc of the Fifth Division as well as the body of a soldier from the Fifth Division Housing Bloc who is believed to hail from the coastal region. The bodies were delivered to the Tishreen military hospital at approximately 3 p.m. The 43 bodies had been shot in the head or in the chest by a single sniper firing from a great distance (the sniper’s bullet was small both upon entry and exit). Another bit of news to add to the chain of news stories about killing. My friend stops talking and his wife remains silent, frightened. I am stunned. It takes a few minutes for the conversation to start up once again. We flip through channels as night starts to fall. My daughter starts to call. She is scared. I tell her I will be home soon, that she should lock the door well and not open it for anyone. Then I ask I.H. quickly to finish his story.
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    â€œAfter these events,” he says, “and with both direct and indirect orders from the security, rumours started whipping around the Alawite street to the effect that those who came out to demonstrate were sectarians and Islamic fundamentalists who had no other goal than to strike at the Alawites. The proof was what they had said about the women in niqabs and the shari‘a colleges, or even the issue of gender mixing, all of that helped to exacerbate the sectarian mood between Sunnis and Alawites, and caused the Alawite sect in Baniyas to further cling to and wrap themselves around the regime and the security.
    â€œThe next Friday,” I.H. continues, “there was a demonstration of approximately one thousand people, and a group of Alawite individuals were there. A young Alawite woman named A.I. got up and made a politically pointed speech in front of the demonstrators that confronted the regime head-on, and she received a warm welcome from the demonstrators as all the slogans were patriotic and decried sectarianism. Until that moment there hadn’t been any slogans calling for the fall of the regime. It was 15 March.”
    Exhaustion written all over his face, I.H. says, “Maybe we can pick this up again some other time.”
    â€œFirst I want some news about al-Baida,” I respond. “State television is reporting a massacre never took place there.”
    â€œBut it did,” he says, “and what you saw on that video is real. They completely occupied al-Baida, they killed and arrested and insulted people, and what appeared on that video is just one small fraction of what actually happened.”
    â€œWhat about you?” I ask.
    â€œEvery person who isn’t sectarian at this point is accused of treason. I know that the Sunni neighbourhoods in Baniyas were shelled for more than four hours, while relief supplies were smuggled into the mosques without anyone knowing who was shooting. There were snipers.”
    â€œDo you know who the snipers were?” I ask.
    â€œEverybody knows that the snipers are drawn from the regime’s shabbiha . It did turn out that some Sunnis brought weapons to defend themselves, but they were never aimed at the chest of a single Alawite. They were only for self-defence. We should bear in mind that the worst sectarian rancour in Syria is centred in Baniyas, the situation there is dangerous, but not a single sectarian incident has taken place yet. The Sunnis in Baniyas later insisted upon announcing that Baniyas has no Salafis, that