Violence comes to Seydnaya

Fadia is Syrian, 25 and very very lucky: she managed to escape the country and the war.

Fadia and I met in 2006—during the year my children and I lived in Syria—and have remained friends over the intervening years. We kept in touch as she graduated from the university, as she commuted the long bus ride to Damascus every day for a job, as she took classes in Chinese and French and Spanish to try to make herself marketable in the economic stagnation under Assad. Fadia’s brothers Nicholas and Fadi emigrated to France to find better prospects for work, and Fadia tried repeatedly to get a visa to follow them, to no avail.

Fadia is a Christian from Seydnaya, a lovely mountain town about 20 miles north of Damascus. The predominantly Christian town is known for its monasteries, convents and churches, including the Convent of the Lady of Seydnaya, a pilgrimage site revered by both Muslims and Christians.  Over the centuries, because of its location and its place in the religious tradition of both religions, Seydnaya has been spared from violence.