She lives day to day under the cloud of claustrophobia and menace that dominates the Syrian capital, where her presence poses a significant risk both to herself and to her Syrian family. “That’s what they will do,” she tells Malek. Some have survived unspeakable horrors in the basement of the nearby office of the security forces. In her neighborhood, as elsewhere, she realizes, the proximity of the mukhabarat, as the security forces are called, has a double purpose. “After living in a tent, she was amazed by the real walls and real floors,” Bushra tells Pearlman.

Source: New York Times July 19, 2017 09:00 UTC