‘We wanted to reclaim a space for Syrians to share their stories; we wanted to provide a platform to the voices that the war had taken away’

You  mentioned the anxiety of writers not wanting their stories to affect families back home. What kind of measures do you put in place to avoid possible ramifications of the storytelling?

A large number of those sharing stories with Qisetna have fled a war zone, yet this does not negate those they may have left back home can also be in danger. So we often change any names to pseudonyms or change the names of places to avoid identification. If requested, we refrain from publishing photos of the writer. This is something which we give much importance: confidentiality and respect are two core principles in our work.

You are a Spanish filmmaker working on an initiative to preserve the memory of Syria. Can you tell us a bit about that experience? What are some things you have learnt from the project? 

For many of us who are not Syrians, the war seems something distant and even obscure. I am one of the grandchildren of those who lived through the Spanish civil war in the late 30s. My hometown, Cartagena, was the second most important industrial city in the Republican zone. All this made it a principal target for air attack by Italian and German planes supporting the Nationalists under General Franco. They had to endure constant air raids. Although they survived, my grandparents were left traumatised, their homes destroyed by planes of the German Condor Legion dropping incendiary bombs on the city. Years later, I enquired my granddad about what happened; he could not talk, and I understood this trauma had a huge impact in the generation of my parents, those who live through the post-war of hunger and poverty. My mother never went to school and started to work at the age of thirteen and my father suffered from alcoholism as many other of his generation. I believe this experience was what drove me to start Qisetna:Talking Syria, in an attempt to find an explanation to what is seen as indescribable narrative.

Can you tell us a bit about the rest of your staff? How did they join the initiative? How would people describe your team?

Qisetna team are almost all working voluntarily. They do this out of passion for the oral word, the collation of human experience, a recording of a people’s history. They do this to preserve people’s memories, their language, culture and heritage.  Something that has been scattered across the continent and over time could be irrevocably lost through the process of trying to ‘assimilate’ people. The team, mostly Syrians, have either joined through their own initiative having come across Qisetna or I have approached them. What they all have in common their dedication and commitment to preserving our message and conveying it to more and more people.  People would describe my team as a group of selfless people, giving their time to a cause that they genuinely believe in. This is a team across countries, our members are in Sweden, Canada, Malaysia, Syria, France, Dubai, and across the UK.

What are some long-term objectives you have as a team for Qisetna?

To continue recording stories, whether through performance, visual art, recording, music or the written word. To build bridges between communities through making these as accessible as possible.  To implement working in partnership with a wide range of educational and art institutions in order to broaden exposure. We are constantly working on our objectives, and my team is encouraged to always contribute in this by sharing ideas. We are lucky to have a diverse team of workers that are talented in their own special ways and are all adding to the success of Qisetna and its continuing evolution.