
In Damascus magnificence parlors, Syrian girls hope trying good will assist them really feel higher a few future they concern. (Story aired on ATC on Dec. 31, 2024.)
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In Syria’s capital, Damascus, there are hole-in-the-wall magnificence parlors on practically each road, locations for ladies to speak whereas getting blowouts and manicures. And when NPR’s Diaa Hadid visited a couple of, she discovered a clientele attempting to placed on a courageous face about life beneath Syria’s new conservative Muslim rulers. Whereas the Assad authorities has fallen, it is nonetheless not clear how a lot freedom there can be beneath the brand new regime. For that cause, a few of the individuals who spoke to us on this report requested that we use solely their first names.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Pounding music floods the salon, the place a girl will get a blowout.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAIR DRYER RUNNING)
HADID: Hairdresser Jacques dries the black tresses of a 28-year-old former actual property agent. She’s right here to brighten her temper.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: That is the primary time she’s been out to repair her hair for the reason that Islamic militants, led by a bunch often known as HTS, or Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, toppled the decades-old Assad regime.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She says, “if the state of affairs is dangerous exterior, it doesn’t suggest it’s a must to really feel that method inside, and getting your hair finished reveals that the whole lot is regular.”
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Sort of regular – she would not need to discuss what she calls the state of affairs, and he or she would not need to give her identify both. It is an unsure time. There’s been violent assaults on Syrian minorities, and it is not clear how tolerant the nation’s new rulers can be towards individuals like her – Muslim, not spiritual, likes to do up her hair and go to events. However she insists she’s optimistic concerning the future.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: “There isn’t any must even give it some thought – what is going on to vary, what is going on to occur sooner or later.” She says, like she’s repeating a mantra, “the whole lot can be fantastic.”
The hairdresser offers me his first identify, Jacques, and he tells me he is not frightened in any respect.
JACQUES: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: That is although Syria’s new conservative Muslim rulers could ban males from working in girls’s magnificence parlors. In different components of Syria beneath their management, males aren’t allowed to work in locations frequented by girls.
JACQUES: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: “A million and a half p.c,” he says, “I am positive it will be nice.”
(Non-English language spoken).
I say I am laughing, and Jacques interjects, “since you assume I am telling a lie.”
(Non-English language spoken).
JACQUES: (Non-English language spoken).
(LAUGHTER)
HADID: I go away the hair salon and swing by a nail and eyelash place down the street. The proprietor says clients are trickling in now after staying residence within the first days after the regime was toppled. The ladies prod 21-year-old Marah to talk to me.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken, laughing).
HADID: Like so many right here, she says, she’s ready to see what the brand new Syria can be like.
MARAH: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She wears a hijab, however that hardly means she’s conservative in at present’s Syria. She additionally has lengthy eyelashes. She bats them and insists they’re actual. And her nails are freshly finished in swirly pink and purple.
MARAH: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She says, “these nails have gotten to be seen at a celebration,” and that is what’s on her 21-year-old thoughts.
(LAUGHTER)
MARAH: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She waggles her nails. “Proper now,” she says, “I am not frightened about Syria. I am frightened about who will see my nails.”
Diaa Hadid, NPR Information, Damascus.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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