Karam Storyteller Nour Al Ghraowi interviews photojournalist Bassam Khabieh as he talks about his book Witnesses to War, and the importance of documenting the children during the conflict in Syria. The book tells the story of the children in Ghouta through a series of images. Purchase his book Witnesses to War on the Karam store. All proceeds will support Syrian refugees.

Nour: How would you describe the book “Witnesses to War?”

Bassam: When we started making this book, we thought of how we could create a historical documentary as a witness to what I’ve seen during the five years I was in Ghouta. It was during the time when Ghouta was isolated from the world, and there was no access to it. This book tries to document what happened during these dark times. 

In this book, you will find photos from 2011-2013, during the beginning of the revolution. Then it shifts to the presence of weapons, then the switch from weapons to a war. I focus on the idea that the war did not start in 2011–it started at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013. The siege began in 2013 and ended in 2018. During those five years, there were sieges, starvation, and bombing. We were basically a testing field where there were weapons that havent been used before, used on us. It felt that we were lab rats. 

Nour: When did you leave Syria? 

Bassam: I left at the end of April, 2018. 

Nour: Why is it important for people to get this book? 

Bassam: We are in the age of social media and flowing information that drowns the viewer, until war photos become normal for people to see and skip through with a click. We tried making this book because books give value to visual content without it being on a post on Facebook, where you can skip it with a click. We want to give importance to what happened. Now there is so much information flowing that people get to choose what to follow and what to see and read. 

What we want to say is that this is happening now, and if people looked the other way in a certain place in the world, it is still possible for it to happen in your country. If you don’t react or give your opinion, it won’t spread. I am not saying people need to do something major like stop the war, but something as simple as speaking up and telling the stories is important because that makes a huge impact in your community, and these communities might then make a bigger impact. This book is mainly talking about children, how they are being slaughtered and killed, and buried under their own homes while sleeping. And this is something unexcused and unforgettable and we can’t sleep on this and ignore it, because it could happen to any of us. Nothing is easier than starting a war. That’s why we made this book. 

Nour: How does it feel to see your photos out in the world? 

Bassam: I feel that I still have a huge responsibility and that I need to do more to show the people. I was there, I was a witness and I was taking evidence and this needs to reach the people. I was definitely happy that the book is a way to tell those people’s stories to a wider audience. There are a lot more people now who are more aware of what’s happening. We try to follow those who are stepping away from social media, those who do not get their information and news from social media and instead read books, those who look for trusted sources to receive information. I am really happy that there is a photo journal that tells Syrian’s stories and it is being sold in Europe, United States, and parts of Asia. Yeah, I am really happy. 

Nour: In general, how important is it for people to see the reality of wars? 

Bassam: It doesn’t necessarily have to be about war, it is about loss of life. For example, what happened with George Floyd, it shows how just like that someone’s life is taken and that is not okay. This is something that needs to be condemned and people should not accept it. We saw what happened after his murder—people were protesting and angry. I wasn’t there, but that’s what I saw on the news. There was basically an uprising. 

So, the book is not just warning about wars, it is mostly saying how sensitive it is to take someone’s life. This is what should be a red line. Wars have other dimensions such as the political and military sides. It seems that wars are part of the life cycle in any society. But just like how we condemned the killing of George Floyd, we should condemn the loss of innocent people, innocent children, and women who were trying to buy food for their own kids when they were killed. Everyone should know that this is happening to some people. 

Nour: What do you say to people who refuse to see those images because “it is hard to see” or “it is too much to handle”? 

Bassam: If people did not see it, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Usually when people refuse to see things like this, it means they are escaping reality. Escape of reality is escape of responsibility. Maybe some people have trauma or some sensitivity to seeing images like this, but we tried our best to be careful with which photos we include in the book. There aren’t any harmful photos in the book. Bloody images in this book are very few, maybe five or six photos, and they are still not that explicit. There are a lot of photos that are definitely harsh, but we don’t tend to share them, they are just to document what happened. We try to include photos that don’t harm the victim, nor the viewer. And at the same time give justice to what happened. What happened in Syria is something very big, and there is no lens that could ever describe it. But in this book, we tried to tell the story without hiding anything or make it less important. I do understand the people who experienced the trauma and can’t view images of war, but I also hope this is not an excuse to escape facing what actually happened. There are a lot of Syrians who refuse to see what is happening in their own country, so I wouldn’t blame other people 

Nour: Which one is your favorite photo and why? 

Bassam: There are few photos that I get happy when I see. The cover photo is for sure one of my favorites and that is because when I took it, I was walking around a destroyed area and suddenly saw children playing in the streets while their parents were sitting on the side drinking tea, so I felt that there is still life. This girl was blowing bubbles forgetting that there is war and destruction around her. So I loved taking this photo. I was just staring and admiring the scene before I took the photo because it was strange. Then I asked for permission to take the photo. There is also a photo of the one month old baby, who was raised by strangers. There was a huge bombing which targeted a residential building and the White Helmets came to rescue people. They were pulling bodies from under rubble. People assumed that the baby pulled out was going to be dead, but he wasn’t. He was still alive, wrapped in his own blanket. They celebrated him in victory, it was victory against death. This was a gift to the people who came to help. This photo will always be on my mind.

Nour: As someone who perhaps forgot about what’s happening in Syria, or who thinks everything is fine right now. What do you say to them?  

Bassam: To be honest, it is hard to talk to people nowadays when there is so much pressure from the pandemic, the economic crash, and lack of jobs. People are under a lot of pressure and they don’t want to add more. Just how I view what is happening in various countries in Africa. There are a lot of civil wars. I know about it, but because of the pressure I am under, I don’t have time to follow up step by step on what is happening. There are crises everywhere, so I don’t blame the viewers for not following up. I focus more on us, as media, how we can produce material to get people’s attention, even for a minute, to see what is happening in Syria. What happened to this child that I’ve seen in his photo? Does he live with his parents? Is he safe? We can’t blame human beings, we each have our worries. I hope, as journalists and photojournalists, we are able to make something else that gets people’s attention because the war is still going, and it has so many faces. 

Nour: What is your next project? 

Bassam: Now that I live in Istanbul and have some free time, I am thinking about a new project which is covering Syrian’s stories of Syrians who live in Turkey. Now, there are an estimated 3-4 million Syrian refugees in Syria, but there are very few stories being told about them. But they need to be shared how people are living, and what they are feeling being so close to Syria. Would they go back to Syria? What is their relationship with Syria now after many years? Some people have been here [Turkey] since 2012, so how do they look at the country? How did they learn a new language? I want to try during this period, to come up with new stories about Syria. 

 

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