Children housed at the SOS Children's Villages orphanage in Saboura, on Aug. 14, 2025. (Credit: Clara Hage/L’Orient Today.)
Hadi Faraa thought that with the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, 2024, he would finally be able to mourn his first wife, Kaoussar, and their three children, Youssef, Islam and Mohammad. He had fervently hoped the dictator’s departure would give him answers to twelve years of haunting questions. On the surface, Hadi rebuilt his life: A new wife, three new children, a daily shuffle between his printing job and home. But a permanent unrest persists in this ordinary life. It dwells in his too-long silences, in the way his eyes search the void. As if nothing is truly in its place. In truth, Hadi never stopped searching.His wife and children were taken from him before his eyes at a regime checkpoint in 2013, in the rebel stronghold of Babila, a suburb of Damascus. "Why them and not me?" Hadi pleaded. The officer didn't bother...
Hadi Faraa thought that with the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, 2024, he would finally be able to mourn his first wife, Kaoussar, and their three children, Youssef, Islam and Mohammad. He had fervently hoped the dictator’s departure would give him answers to twelve years of haunting questions. On the surface, Hadi rebuilt his life: A new wife, three new children, a daily shuffle between his printing job and home. But a permanent unrest persists in this ordinary life. It dwells in his too-long silences, in the way his eyes search the void. As if nothing is truly in its place. In truth, Hadi never stopped searching.His wife and children were taken from him before his eyes at a regime checkpoint in 2013, in the rebel stronghold of Babila, a suburb of Damascus. "Why them and not me?" Hadi pleaded. The officer didn't...
