What Parents in Aleppo Tell their Children about War

August 25th, 2016 - by admin

CNN – 2016-08-25 01:05:25


(August 19, 2016) — Note:This commentary was written by a man who lives in the Shaar district of Aleppo with his wife and six children. It was written with the help of Aleppo journalist Mahmud Abdur-Rahman and has been translated from Arabic and edited for clarity.

The family fled the fighting and privations of war in 2012, first to the north and then the west of the country, but could not escape the violence and so returned to the ruins of Aleppo where they continue to face grave danger and hardship. The views expressed in this commentary are solely his.

I try very hard to explain to my kids, especially those who were born after the war began, what is going on around them, but it’s not easy.



A boy walks a hand truck through a heavily damaged area in Aleppo.






So she sat, puzzled, and asked, “Then how did he die?” It was difficult to explain to her how people normally die.


To this day he fears every strange sound or loud noise, whether it’s a plane or a motorcycle or a speeding car. Every sound for him appears to be caused by the bombing he was exposed to. He once jumped from the motorcycle I was driving when he heard a loud sound and thought he was being bombed again.


We Tried to Console Him


He was crying and repeating unintelligible sentences. We tried to console him, to tell him it’s OK and tell him he’s a hero to overcome this ordeal.

When he woke up totally he did not ask me who bombed him — he knows quite well that it was the Assad regime. He did not know why and did not care. He had seen many children before in his same situation. He was only concerned with the fate of his leg because he could not feel it.

He didn’t dare ask the question because he was scared we would answer, “Yes, they amputated your leg.”

We tried to convince him this was not true, that he would not lose his leg, that it was fine. He wouldn’t accept it. The only solution was to take a picture of his leg on my mobile and show it to him so that he could be sure it was OK.
