The Syrian Civil War Pt.5: The Siege of Southern Damascus

Conflicted returns with another episode in our series on the Syrian
Civil War, this time with a new contributor, who begins today a two
episode arc where we’ll be looking at the Siege of Southern
Damascus… Thomas Small has invited on Matar Ismaeel, a documentary
filmmaker and political activist from Masyaf, Syria. Now back in
his homeland after years of exile, Matar speaks to us from Masyaf
itself, relaying an extraordinary story of resilience and courage
in the Syrian capital. Matar tells us about his family's political
background, and his early involvement in documenting protests on
his digital camera in 2011. He recounts the dangers he faced as a
media activist, including arrests and torture in Syrian prisons.
Matar's commitment to the revolution led him to southern Damascus,
where he witnessed the brutal siege by the Assad regime and the
rise of jihadist groups, including ISIS. The conversation
highlights the complexities of the conflict, the humanitarian
crisis, and the personal toll of war. New Conflicted Season 5
episodes will be coming every two weeks, but if you want to have
your Conflicted fix every single week, then you’ll have to join our
Conflicted Community. Subscribers will get bonus episodes every
other week, and can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom,
where you can interact with fellow dearest listeners, discuss
episodes past and future, get exclusive messages from Thomas and
Aimen, ask future Q&A questions and so much more. All the
information you need to sign up to the Conflicted Community is on
this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Conflicted
is proudly made by Message Heard, a full-stack podcast production
agency which uses its extensive expertise to make its own shows
such as Conflicted, shows for commissioners such as the BBC,
Spotify and Al Jazeera, and powerfully effective podcasts for other
companies too. If you’d like to find out how we can help get your
organisation’s message heard, visit messageheard.com or drop an
email to hello@messageheard.com! Find us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad
choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad
choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices