The short life of a brave Syrian young man

Since childhood, Zouhair al-Shaher was a distinguished kid among his peers and classmates. He was known by his smartness, kindness and courage. Zouhair always achieved outstanding results in school so his school mates elected him as member of Children’s Parliament representing his city Deir ez-Zor the position which he kept occupying until he was 18 years old. 

Activist Saqar al-Homsi who was a close friend of Zouhair remembers how Zouhair’s ideas were brilliant and unconventional. The idea of Children’s Parliament spread widely and attracted many admirers among them was Asma al-Assad who was pretending then to be caring and sponsoring child-related issues and activities. The wife of the dictator met with Zouhair when she visited the long-neglected city of Deir ez-Zor. Zouhair met with Assad himself during the latter’s visit to the city in 2007. Zouhair spoke courageously before the ruthless dictator about the absence of the basic needs of the city. 

After Zouhair left the Children’s Parliament he worked on establishing another pioneering project which he called “Miracle”.  The project included many activities such as encouraging youth to reading and helping the least advantaged sector in the Syrian society. 

After the start of the revolution in 2011 Zouhair wasn’t reluctant to join it. He joined the peaceful protests in Homs since it’s his mother’s hometown. However he didn’t forget his first hometown in the east where he invited his friends who were members in the Children’s Parliament. After the regime’s offensive in the city Zouhair took his camera and started taking photos and shooting videos to tell the truth about what is going on in Deir ez- Zor. He launched a Facebook page named “The lens of a youth from Deir ez-Zor” and posted all the photos and videos he managed to take. 

With the growth of regime’s violence and the death of many of Zouhair’s friends he wrote on his page a short sentence in Arabic which says “I am waiting for my turn.” 

Few days later Zouhair was near of the buildings where regime’s thugs were located. They started shooting at the building. Zouhair hid but was shot in his chest. He fell on the ground while holding his camera. Zouhair died aged 21 years old only. In the morning of that day Zouhair wrote on his page: “I don’t need to invent stories or fabricate anything about Syria to tell them to my children and grandchildren in the future one day in the future. I have many real stories about our revolution in my memory which need a lot of time to be narrated.” 

Despite his short life, the story of Zouhair sums up the new Syrian generation of who wasn’t deceived by regime’s slogans or propaganda and presented their lives to defend their freedom and dignity. 

Translated from Arabic by Orient Net English