Articles from Volume 19 Issue 11

Skinema

Baristas

I started taking steroids yesterday as an act of thanks and joyous celebration. I felt it was my duty as a native of New Jersey. Full story

Combover

The October War

I’m working on a little personal film about the October War. I need to say something about my people’s persecution. What a mess it is over there. Such a happy little place surrounded by nothing but enemies. Haven’t we gone through enough already?! Full story

Solo Piano Music

Before reading the official report, the investigator announced his intention to use every tool at his disposal to protect Fateh. He kicked out everyone who had gathered—the journalists, political activists, civil-society organizations, and curious onlookers—and forbade them from… Full story

Prelude to 'Solo Piano Music'

Why the World Should Read Syria’s Fawwaz Haddad

Like much of the literary elite in Syria, Fawwaz Haddad has watched his country disintegrate over the past 20 months. His stories explore the limits placed on Syrian society, zig-zagging between high-minded principles and the dirty business of everyday life. Full story

Displaced Verse

A Controversial Syrian Poet Finds Asylum in Mexico City

In Syria, controversial poet Mohamad Alaaedin Abdul Moulawas earned a reputation as a sort of Arabic Henry Miller. Mohamad now lives in Mexico. He fled Syria just before the Free Syrian Army and Assad’s forces decided to turn his country into a pile of rubble. Full story

Interviews with an FSA Media-Center Coordinator and a Doctor in Aleppo

Today, we're serving up two interviews Robert King conducted in the field with Ahmed Al-Hajji, an FSA media-center coordinator in Aleppo, and Dr. Osman, a doctor at a hospital in Aleppo. Full story

The Man Who Was There

Interviews with Syrian Army Defectors

Today, we're serving up two interviews Robert King conducted in the field with Abu Ahmad, a civil engineer and defector from the Syrian Army, and Akhi Muhammad, a defected Free Syrian Army officer from Damascus. Full story

Interviews with a Commander and a Rebel Soldier in the FSA

VICE reached out to Robert King in an attempt to arrive at the twisted core of the matter in Syria. Today, we're serving up two interviews he conducted with the commander of the largest FSA brigade in Aleppo and a carpenter turned FSA rebel. Full story

I Left My Family for the Free Syrian Army

When civil war broke out last March, Loubna Mrie was persuaded by friends to smuggle bullets for the rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Damascus. Full story

The Man Who Was There

Robert King Is the Bulletproof Ghost of Conflict Reporting

He's Been Covering the FSA So Long They Named Him “Haji Memphis”

The situation in Syria is like many others throughout history—the eventual fallout of a religious minority ruling and oppressing the majority. I’m just trying to record it all, and I’ll be back soon. That’s the best I can do. Full story

Not All Syrians Side With the Rebels

I spoke to a group of Syrian expats in Paris about how Assad might not be the only one to blame in this war. Full story

Mandaean Refugees Are Stuck Between Iraq and a Hard Place

There's a whole generation of Mandaean refugees in Syria that will never be given the opportunity to go to school. Full story

Can Films Right the "Conspiracy Against Syria"?

Najdat Anzour is a leading Syrian director who made news in 2007, when it was announced that he was slated to direct a film based on a screenplay by Muammar Gaddafi. I dialed up Najdat to talk about the conflict in Syria. Full story

Bob Odenkirk’s Page

Syria: Bombs Away

To Investment and Development!

President Bashar al-Assad and the remaining Syrian leaders want to invite your investment, commerce, and tourism as we say BOMBS AWAY to speculation and development in Syria—"A country exploding with opportunity... and bombs!!" Full story

All in the Family

At Home with Syrian Jewish Brooklynites

As we were putting together this issue, we realized that coordinating a fashion shoot inside Syria would void our insurance. Luckily, we tracked down a Syrian Jewish family living in nearby Sheepshead Bay who were willing to participate. Full story

On the Lam in Lebanon

Syria’s Violence Bleeds Over the Border

It’s dusk when the rebels move into position within a cluster of lemon and olive groves about 300 feet from the Syrian border post north of the bleak and dusty Lebanese farming village of al-Qaa. I’m watching the operation from behind the troops with their commander. Full story

The Magic Kingdom of Syria

Here’s a fun idea for Syria: Disneyland. Just because your government has oppressed you for generations and your country is in the midst of a full-scale civil war doesn’t mean you don’t want to get soaked on Splash Mountain, right? Full story

Comics

Who Wants to Kill a Million!

Bashar al-Assad follows fellow murderous dictators Mubarak and Gaddafi in the hot seat. "If you were to commit a massacre in Damascus, who would you put in charge?" A comic from the Syria issue drawn by Johnny Ryan. Full story

The Cute Show Page!

Syrian Hamsters

These furry bags of joy love desert climates and stuffing as much food into their cheek pouches as possible—in fact, their Arabic name roughly translates as “Mr. Saddlebags.” Not joking. Full story

Hey, United Nations!

What the Hell Are You Doing About Syria?

In an attempt to find out how the world’s premier bastion of peace, international cooperation, and social progress has internally reacted to the conflict in Syria since its withdrawal, VICE bureaus from around the world reached out to their respective UN branches in October. Full story

Thousands Are Losing Their Limbs in Assad’s War

While His Wife Pretends to Care About Syria’s Disabled

Attempting to uphold humanitarian rights in Syria under Assad is risky business—especially for Chavia Ali, the wheelchair-bound Kurdish chairwoman of the Cultural Forum for People with Special Needs. Full story

Gunrunning with the Free Syrian Army

They Said I’d Be Yelling “Allahu Akhbar” in No Time

Blindfolded, I fidgeted nervously in the back of an unmarked car, squished between a gunrunner and a young Free Syrian Army soldier. It had been at least an hour since we left the border town of Kilis, Turkey, and we were now off-roading across the Syria-Turkey border. Full story

Beats, Rhymes, and Death

Hip-Hop in Syria Is Seriously Dangerous Business

The extreme levels of censorship and sensitivity clash with the traditionally rebellious nature of hip-hop, and to violate them by recording a hip-hop track with incendiary lyrics can be a deadly decision. Full story

I Went to Syria to Learn How to Be a Journalist

And Failed Miserably at It While Almost Dying a Bunch of Times

Sunil Patel had never been published before he decided to go to Syria in August 2012 to become a war correspondent. It was a foolish idea for sure, and he almost died several times during his trip, but we still think his story was worth the risk. Full story

Serious Syrian Memes

Like the rest of the internet, the Syrian memeverse is messy, argumentative, and prone to stupidity and hyperbole. Full story

Nothing Stops Syrian Basketball

Coaching a youth sports team is a tough task as it is, but it gets much, much harder when the families of the players are dying in a civil war. Full story

Records

Everyone loves a good tan on a great chest. Pecs or boobs, it doesn’t matter—they both look better slightly exposed, glistening, and darkened. Full story

Who Loves Ya, Bashar?

Assad Regime Boosters Show Their True Colors in Paris

In the Gardens of the Trocadéro in Paris, around 40 protestors with signs and whistles gathered around an enormous Syrian flag to show their support for the country’s president. In the photographs affixed to the signs, Bashar al-Assad wears a gray suit and a shit-eating grin. Full story

The Writing Is on the Wall

Anti-Regime Activist Tarek Algorhani Talks About Fighting Guns with Cans and Tags

Tarek Algorhani launched a human-rights internet project centered around tagging anti-regime graffiti throughout the streets of Syria. In mid-October I called him up to ask how the fight was going. Full story

The VICE Guide to Syria

We have put together this guide in an attempt to condense the facts gleaned from thousands of pages of reference books, biographies, religious texts, firsthand accounts, reports, and other information that have informed "The Syria Issue." We could’ve included dozens of additional… Full story

Road to Ruin

The roots of the conflict in Syria stretch back centuries—namely to the battle between the Sunni Muslim majority and a mystical-Shia sect known as the Alawites. This timeline provides some context to the recent bloodletting and its supremely convoluted backstory. Full story

Employees of the Month

Born and raised in Tennessee, Robert “Haji Memphis” King is a photographer and videographer who has documented almost every major conflict since the Bosnian War in the early 90s. Full story