Diana Darke talks about My House In Damascus

Diana Darke is an authority on the Middle East and Syria in particular. She has written a number of travel books about the area and also writes on Syrian and Middle Eastern current affairs and society for the Guardian and the BBC.

‘My House in Damascus – An Inside View of the Syrian Revolution’ is a must read for anyone interested in the Syrian conflict, the history behind the conflict and the very real people who live and work in Syria now.

The subject matter is fascinating and alternately hopeful and hopeless and some may say over-reported, what compelled you to write your book?

“I was very angry at the way the Syrian conflict was being reported in the mainstream media and at the endless clinical analyses coming out of think-tanks thousands of miles away from the country. I wanted to write a completely different kind of book, not the usual journalistic approach of flying in with a fixer for a set of pre-arranged interviews, but a book written from the inside, explaining first hand how Syrian society works and how the Revolution evolved.”

The book shows your deep understanding of Syrian politics, society, history and philosophy, do you believe that Westerners are essentially uninformed about Syria and lump it in with all Middle Eastern states?

Yes, I’m afraid there are many misconceptions in the West about Syria and about the Syrian style of Islam. This is another reason I wanted to write the book, so I have woven into the story of the house and its restoration, many reflections on Islamic philosophy, literature, art and architecture, to illustrate the depth and complexity of Syria’s cultural heritage and traditional openness to outside influences. To that extent, you could say the book is my ‘life’s work’, the distillation of my 30 years’ experience of Syria, the Middle East and the Arab world.”

“The longer the war goes on, the harder it will be for Syria to survive and to be re-built. Under the Assad regime everybody knew how the corruption in the system worked and had developed methods of getting round it. Under ISIS there is actually less conventional corruption in the sense of bribes and methods of extortion, but they terrorise the populations under their rule in different ways, giving them public lashes for smoking or punishing women for not wearing correct full Islamic dress or for not being accompanied by a male guardian. This is a very alien form of harsh Islamic rule to the average Syrian. Only once both the Assad regime and ISIS have been removed from the country will Syria have any chance of becoming the tolerant inclusive society most Syrians want it to become in future.

Many people believe Western intervention will save Syria, is this likely or possible?

Not any more. The moment for Western intervention has passed. It could have made a difference very early on in my view, in the summer of 2011 when the moderate opposition was calling for the West to create a no-fly zone and safe haven along the Turkish border. But now that Russia has taken the initiative on the ground with its air strikes, at the direct invitation of the Assad regime, the West can only watch from the sidelines as the war takes on a new dynamic. The West has become an irrelevance in the Syrian war. We are impotent.

That’s a depressing thought, what organisations do you consider are or can effect positive change in Syria?

The only organisations that can and are effecting positive change inside Syria are Syrian-run charities like Syria Relief who run schools and hospitals in the rebel-held areas in the north. By paying salaries to Syrian doctors and teachers they are also enabling qualified Syrians to stay inside the country and thereby reducing the exodus of refugees to Europe.

Diana Darke will be reading from and discussing ‘My House in Damascus – An Inside View Of the Syrian Revolution’ at St Georges on Tuesday November 10.  www.ideasfestival.co.uk/events/diana-darke/

Anyone wishing to donate to Syria Relief can do so via their website https://www.syriarelief.org.uk