Syria’s wealthy find fun despite bomb blasts and threats of violence

Amid a conflict lapping at the edge of Damascus, Syria’s wealthy spend their time in cafes and at parties, strolling a gleaming new mall and enjoying the controlled adrenalin of amusement park rides overlooking a city skyline of buildings and columns of smoke from bombings—striving to deny war its miserable monotony. Yet as the Syrian conflict grinds on, well into its fourth year, almost no family has been left untouched by death, injury, poverty, homelessness or missing relatives.

We want to change our boring routine. Every day we live a horror show [in Syria] but this one is a comedy,

Naja, a woman dressed as a she-vampire at a Halloween party

For the middle and lower class people of Damascus, people have to settle for the less-indulgent luxuries, perhaps an ice cream cone from a local parlor. “We want to live our lives to the fullest, we want to overcome what has happened to us. If we didn’t, we’d become depressed,” said one woman while eating ice cream. For the less-fortunate, they find simple solace and relief in the grand Umayyad mosque of Damascus, a light-filled soaring space.

We have so many worries. I come so that maybe my heart will rest a little.

Fayza, a 44-year-old woman

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