Here's a story about a man who had to leave Syria as a baby with his mother, and then later on had to flee Syria again. It is a good ending because he was reunited with his mother.
The special shoes
By Daniel Silas AdamsonBBC World Service
In 2009, two years before the start of the Syrian revolution, a young man called Huthaifah saw a pair of shoes at a shopping mall in Aleppo. He bought them, but suddenly decided not to put them on - he would only wear them when he saw his mother again.
Huthaifah had not seen his mother for six years. She'd been living in the UK since 2003, and there was no chance of Huthaifah getting a visa to visit.
For his mother to travel to Syria, though, was unthinkable. Thirty years earlier, she had fled the country carrying nothing but Huthaifah - then just a few months old - wrapped in a blanket.
The boy had been born in Aleppo in November 1979 - a city on the edge of civil war. Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria's current president, had been in power for almost a decade and was cracking down hard on opponents from the Muslim Brotherhood. The following spring soldiers sealed off the city's most troublesome neighbourhoods and began a house-by-house search for dissenters.
One of the people they arrested was Huthaifah's father, a 20-year-old student at Aleppo University. His wife, Fadua, was out with Huthaifah at the time, and as soon as she heard about the arrest, she knew she would be next. So she took a bus south with the baby on her lap and escaped into Jordan.
The special shoes - BBC News
The special shoes
By Daniel Silas AdamsonBBC World Service
- 1 hour ago
- From the sectionMagazine
In 2009, two years before the start of the Syrian revolution, a young man called Huthaifah saw a pair of shoes at a shopping mall in Aleppo. He bought them, but suddenly decided not to put them on - he would only wear them when he saw his mother again.
Huthaifah had not seen his mother for six years. She'd been living in the UK since 2003, and there was no chance of Huthaifah getting a visa to visit.
For his mother to travel to Syria, though, was unthinkable. Thirty years earlier, she had fled the country carrying nothing but Huthaifah - then just a few months old - wrapped in a blanket.
The boy had been born in Aleppo in November 1979 - a city on the edge of civil war. Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria's current president, had been in power for almost a decade and was cracking down hard on opponents from the Muslim Brotherhood. The following spring soldiers sealed off the city's most troublesome neighbourhoods and began a house-by-house search for dissenters.
One of the people they arrested was Huthaifah's father, a 20-year-old student at Aleppo University. His wife, Fadua, was out with Huthaifah at the time, and as soon as she heard about the arrest, she knew she would be next. So she took a bus south with the baby on her lap and escaped into Jordan.
The special shoes - BBC News
