{"id":7872,"date":"2012-03-01T20:53:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T00:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=7872"},"modified":"2012-03-01T20:53:15","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T00:53:15","slug":"finding-bayt-across-borders-of-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/finding-bayt-across-borders-of-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Bayt Across Borders of Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

A very moving tribute to Anthony Shadid (& simultaneously an excellent review of Shadid’s memoir House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East<\/em>) by Syrian writer\u00a0Amal Hanano<\/a>, published yesterday in\u00a0Jadaliyya<\/a>. <\/strong>Below the opening paragraphs. You could read the full article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"[Cover<\/div>\n
[Cover of House of Stone, by Anthony Shadid.]<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n

No roads, not a single one, lead to the place where we had gotten ourselves.*<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I \u201cmet\u201d Anthony Shadid the only way someone like me, a mere reader, can meet a journalist she admires: I emailed him a fan letter. I sent him my short note through the New York Times website and didn\u2019t expect an answer. The next day, he emailed me a brief but warm thank you.<\/p>\n

Two days later, on May 10th, I read Anthony\u2019s article on Rami Makhlouf\u2014Bashar al-Assad\u2019s cousin and the regime\u2019s crony-in-chief. In the interview, Makhlouf claimed,\u00a0\u201cIf there is no stability here, there\u2019s no way there will be stability in Israel.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0His confession embarrassed the regime which was forced to distance itself from Makhlouf. Soon after, he resigned from his position as vice chairman of the Cham Holding corporation and stated he was dedicating his life to \u201ccharity work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s interview was a significant blow to the Assad regime. That day he changed in my eyes from a journalist I had admired to a Syrian hero. So I emailed him again. He replied. And the rhythm of our relationship began.<\/p>\n

Anthony was the only person I didn\u2019t know in my real life who witnessed my transition to Amal. When I was writing from Aleppo, I sent him the links through my \u201creal\u201d email. I did it without explanation or requests for confidentiality\u2014it never occurred to me that I couldn\u2019t trust him completely. At first, our emails continued the same way: I would send praise for his latest article and attach a link to one of mine. He would respond by thanking me for my kind or sweet words. Then after my fourth journal entry, he sent an email: \u201cGreat piece, so nuanced.\u201d I was overjoyed. After my next one about the flag, he emailed: \u201cYour last piece was just gorgeous.\u201d Later, he said he found one of my portraits, \u201cso incredibly moving. Inspiring, in fact,\u201d and told me he was \u201cmy biggest fan.\u201d His generous words of encouragement are ones I reread every time I wonder if it\u2019s even worth writing any more in midst of Syria\u2019s endless bloodshed and devastating loss.<\/p>\n

Last July, I watched a\u00a0press conference<\/a>\u00a0with Makhlouf, the first since his encounter with Anthony. When asked about the interview, Makhlouf brushed it off as lies and inaccuracies that happened off the record, during adardasheh<\/em>, a casual chat, in an attempt to insult Anthony\u2019s impeccable journalistic integrity. Even worse \u2014for me at least\u2014 he added, \u201cI welcomed him in my office, treated him graciously, and gave him lunch.\u201d By cheaply mentioning a lunch invitation in public, Makhlouf had violated our core principle to always be generous to our guests, without calculation or malice. I was outraged. I asked Anthony, \u201cIf this is what you can do with only dardasheh, what would happen if you had a real conversation? I’m dying to know what you had for lunch, since he brought it up in the press conference! Ayeb.\u201d He answered my questions and ended the email with, \u201cWe had fish, by the way. :)\u201d I told him that when he was back in the States I would invite him to dinner to make up for the Makhlouf fish fiasco, not only because it would be an honor to cook for him but also a matter of restoring national pride. He replied, \u201cIt’s a deal. There’s nothing better in this world than Halabi cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0(…)
\nctd. here<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A very moving tribute to Anthony Shadid (& simultaneously an excellent review of Shadid’s memoir House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East) by Syrian writer\u00a0Amal Hanano, published yesterday...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1012,11,22,71,76],"tags":[1167],"class_list":["post-7872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-spring","category-arab-culture","category-book-review","category-middle-east","category-obituaries","tag-anthony-shadid-amal-hanano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7872"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7877,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7872\/revisions\/7877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}