Reports | 25 05 2020
Dima and her young daughter live at her parents' house in the Mezzeh neighborhood [of Damascus], while her husband Samer had taken a long, circuituous, and tortured smuggling trip to Sweden two years ago, in an attempt to secure asylum, then reunite with his family.
Samer WhatsApps Dima loving "smilys," texting her many hearts and intimate embraces that Dima understands well. She in turn replies with nostalgic, tear drenched voice messages.
The young woman tells us how she walks the city streets and sees shop windows adorned in red, and young male and female lovers looking for Valentine's Day gifts; only to go home and look at her smartphone for a dose of "virtual" emotions and her husband's heart=shaped emoticons on her tiny glass screen.
The Impossible Gift
Samar intently stares at the Damascene storefronts Damascene, sifting for a suitable Valentine's gift at an affordable price. But it is "Mission: Impossible," she says.
Samar, a civil engineering student at the University of Damascus, has been in love with one of her colleagues for three years now. She tells Rozana "we are living love in the time of war, and war is difficult."
Samar wishes she could have a romantic relationship like the one that her older sisters had. She wishes she could accompany her boyfriend to Dummar [district, west of Damascus], al-Hameh, Zabadani, and Bludan on the outskirts of Damascus; and share gifts and passions quietly and safely. A simple wish, that has now become unattainable in the Syrian capital.
Cheap Flowers!
Imad, a florist in the Shaalan district center of the capital Damascus, used to prepare more than a thousand red roses to be sold on Valentine's Day. But during the past two years, this number declined to reach a mere few dozen that he only reluctantly procures, greatly fearing that they will wither away in his shop. "People barely have enough to eat... Who will buy a rose for one thousand [Syrian] Pounds??" the man complains.
The man excuses himself and closes this conversation, to continue his Valentine's Day preparations. He packs more cheap flowers that he now sells instead of the higher-priced red roses he used to sell.
Red Clothes!
Female university freshmen used to dress up in red, or adorn their hair with red ribbons for Valentine's Day every year. Some used to go a little farther, even dyeing their hair and painting their nails in an attempt to complete their "Valentine's Look."