Culture

4/13/2017 Deaf Syrians learn the language of war - Yahoo?

By some miracle, Bisher explained her situation to a passerby and was taken to safety, but she is now

so traumatised by the experience that she no longer dares to venture outside.

At home, her windowpanes rattle from bombardment outside as she recounts her experience.

In July 2012, rebels seized most of Midan before the army recaptured the district in a ferocious battle.

At the time, Bisher's mother told her to pack her things but did not explain that they were fleeing.

"Everyone was terribly nervous. They'd pull me in one direction then push me in another. No one

talked to me, no one explained. They just wouldn't let me near the window," she says.

Bisher packed slowly, not understanding the urgency and angering her panicking family.

"My mother was treating me like I was stupid. I'm not stupid, but no one explains anything to me," she

says.

The Ekreim family sought refuge in Lebanon for two years, coming back to what they say is a different

Damascus.

The divisive sectarian rhetoric that has coloured much of Syria's war reached even the deaf

association, and many of its Christians have left.

"The war blew everything apart," Bisher says sadly, describing the waves of emigration and saying

even her friends had become "aggressive" towards one another.

"I hope one day we'll meet again, and that the deaf can find a shared language once more."

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