North-Press Agency
Dr. Moheeb Salha
Despite the deteriorating security and living conditions in the Syrian southern governorate of As-Suwayda, which are mostly organized and intentional, with the presence of the state with its entire dominance and authority, the most prominent title of all times remains the culture. The belief of the people here in culture is as their belief in God and the homeland, which is unwavering and isn't broken in front of all sins, which are intended to disrupt the fabric of the society, to mesmerize its components, and to sabotage its relationship, which was always intimate with its neighbor, the southern governorate of Daraa and its well educated people. From this deteriorating security situation, it seems that, there is a hidden territorial conflict on the southern region backed by international understandings between ebb and flow, until the entire Syrian issue is placed on the track.
Culture in As-Suwayda governorate is no longer exclusive in cultural centers of the Ministry of Culture, but cultural forums and civil society organizations have spread, such as Juzour Organization, al-Cinema Club, Friends of Music Association, Sheer, Tulip, Ma'en, Bayti Ana Baytuk, Thoraya for Development and Civil Work, al-Jabal Cultural Forum, and the Cultural Forum in As-Suwayda… Despite its modest capabilities and legal and security obstacles, their cultural experience takes confident and promising steps.
Also, the Guest House in the governorate of As-Suwayda was always a home for all to handle culture, knowledge, concerns, and sorrows. Culture, with its meanings of knowledge, arts, lifestyles, relationships, ties and options was never transient nor temporary, and was never for social groups with affairs and sorrows of culture without others, but it was characterized by generality and originality.
Culture in the governorate of As-Suwayda was never tended to one direction, or scooped from one source, but it was and is still characterized by diversity and multiplicity, mixing between patriotism and humanity, and it isn't locked up and doesn't fall into an incessant passion or trap. Not only was the interest of this southern governorate in culture such as follow-up, pursuit, representation and simulation, but it also contributed effectively and fruitfully to valuable and rich cultural productions, and in all fields of knowledge, philosophy and aesthetics. It also presented names and symbols, men and women on the national culture field, who left an engraved imprint on the Syrian culture stage, such as Adel Arslan, Farid al-Atrash, Asmahan (Amal al-Atrash), Fahd Ballan, Sayah Juhaym, Issa Asfour, Salama Obayd, Qasem Wahb, Kamal al-Qentar, Ziyad al-Awda, Ghaziya Hamza, Najat Abdel Samad, and dozens and hundreds of plastic artists, sculptors, writers, poets, socialists, economists, university professors and outstanding politicians who have enriched the Arab library and strengthened culture values and their human ethics.
The security chaos during the past eight years hasn't been able to discourage the local community from its cultural concerns, nor has it been able to discourage it from its national flesh and taking it to the unforgiving place. The community of As-Suwayda, with all its components has remained coherent and has faced risks on its own without assistance from the Syrian government nor from abroad, and it originally didn't ask anyone for help except for its adherence to the state and holding it fully responsible for this chaos as it is the only entrusted entity, legally and morally, to preserve the security of citizens and their properties, and any failure or coverage by it, in whole or in part, of the state of security chaos and its consequences of life problems in all aspects make the local community of As-Suwayda with its collective consciousness, which crystallized through its cultural consciousness to move away from the centralized state.
Unless the state takes the initiative to end the state of chaos and quits its decisions and actions by its government towards As-Suwayda governorate, which further complicates its position within the geopolitical maps which are drawn abroad for Syria, the deteriorating security situation portends a coming danger that contributes to the dismantling of the community’s cohesion, and the dismantling of its collective consciousness which is based on the same national cultural identity which invariably calls for the unity of the Syrian state, and it becomes possible, then, to accept other constitutional options, or within the framework of an international-regional understanding, centered on the decentralized state.
It is no longer a secret to anyone that the options for decentralization have become part of the Syrian culture in the length and breadth of the country, it is reprehensible that all the active forces in the south, Russia and Iran or those who come from power to deal with As-Suwayda governorate as a traditional society led by traditional leaders, whether religious (Sheikhs Aqels) or princes, pashas, elders of families and tribes, and to neglect the cultural community.
Perhaps this neglect is intended on the part of these forces to neutralize modern civil forces from determining the fate of the south, and to be unique in its political agendas. However, despite its cultural dynamism, the political failure of the cultural community cannot be overlooked, which gives a deviant impression on the local community, especially those who interact and communicate of the traditional leaders and authorities are military or security and don't have political skills and expertise.
The persistence in this stupid policy may cause the cultural community in As-Suwayda governorate to turn the table on everyone's heads, because the lessons of history since the Great Syrian Revolution in 1925, led by Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, indicate the main role of the cultural community at every stage in making the final national event in Jabal al-Arab (As-Suwayda governorate), and the traditional leaders were nothing but a weak partner and affiliated to a party in the conflict.
The cultural community in As-Suwayda is easily reunited via a lecture, a literary evening, a movie, a theater show, an art gallery, a carving festival, a folk poetry, signing a book or cultural dialogue, but nothing unifies it on a public attitude or an affair, and perhaps this is very natural in politics due to the different affiliations. However, it isn't normal that it doesn't meet to face security chaos which annoy everyone or face societal fragmentation towards it, or at the minimum, the participation of a traditional society that is intended to be unique in the affairs of As-Suwayda governorate with external and internal actors.
The poor security situation didn't prevent the cultural community in As-Swayda from revitalizing its cultural activities, which witness an intense presence of all ages, and in both genders and different social segments, thus, this became the connecting link for the social fabric of life in all of its colors.
Among these activities, the Arab Cultural Center will bid farewell in 2019 with a multi-cultural and diverse cultural month: the opening of a theatrical show: "To whom I complain", and then a seminar entitled: "Violence against women between reality and law", within a campaign of 16 days to combat violence against women, and a college graduation party of Economy Department in cooperation with the National Union of Syrian Students, two poetry evenings, an artistic ceremony on the occasion of the International Day of the Disabled, a ceremony honoring volunteers for community health for the Red Crescent branch, a musical and lyrical evening in cooperation with the Friends of Music Society, a forum for culture and literature, a seminar on the life of the late writer Qasem Wahb, and a lecture: "Between Modernity and identity", as it ends with the celebration of childhood event hosted by the National Theater in As-Suwayda.
However, the most prominent question in this critical historical moment is that: Is the momentum of the cultural community alone enough to constitute an adequate national response to all those who tamper with the security and the lives of the people in the governorate of As-Suwayda?!
*Dr. Moheeb Salha, is a Syrian academic and researcher