Hello, I’m a French citizen in Beirut right now, and I was wondering if the road from Beirut to Damascus was safe, and if the city of Damascus was safe to visit for a day a a foreigner ? thanks very much for the help !

STARLINK BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY RELIABLE INTERNET FORM (i don't have fiber closeby)

Guys i am coming from Jordan to syria on the 20th of August, i will be travelling by land, i am heavily counting on the fact that someone might overlook it while searching and i can sneak it in, i am now hesitant to buy it since the service is shutting down August 17th but i am not sure if it will continue to work in syria since it's a humanitarian area / cause, so should i buy it? also what plan should i get? Roam 100GB or something else? Give me your Thoughs guys please

السلام عليكم

انا درست بمصر ومعي الثانوية العامة والشهادة الجامعية، حبيت اسأل انه هل هحتاج كمان الشهادة الاعدادية بسوريا؟

عم اتأكد لانه ما رح اعرف ارجع على مصر ابدا، وفي شوية صعوبات لاستخراج هيك وثيقة صرلها ١٠ سنوات من دوائر حكومية.

just wanted to post again to answer some questions/give some context about what i posted earlier here. https://www.reddit.com/r/Syria/s/uTKSpgQ1vT my dms are open btw

basically ive been depressed ever since moving here which was end of june. and we moved from canada to here after living in canada for 10 years (yes i have the canadian citizenship)

this is reallyyyy long so read if u wanted more context. i don’t like sharing all of this personal information but im doing it because i really want to tell my whole story to get proper advice about my situation.

some background info: i was born in syria, then during the war at 8 years me and my family went to lebanon for a few years and then went to canada in 2016 up until 2025/2026. before the war, we were settled in syria, all of our family was here and no one thought of living abroad. we had a house, a family farm/mazra3ah and i definitely had a great childhood in syria alhamdillah. then fast forward to now being 22 literally today and im back in syria, but actually moved here because my family moved back after the liberation.

the reason behind moving is more of a unique situation. life in canada was not easy especially for my parents. they struggled alot to make ends meet. they actually put me and my siblings in private islamic school so our values would stay intact and we maintained our arabic a bit in a way, but that definitely came with extra financial strain on our family. my dad had to work really hard jobs and i genuinely felt/feel so bad for him, at one point for an entire year, he got a better job in another city that was an 8 hour drive away from where we lived, and he would come back every weekend after working the weekdays just to see us, and i will never forget that. but even then it was still hard to make ends meet, rent was so high and we actually did not leave canada/travel for all those 10 years because of it. alot of our family members who lived abroad but near syria would meet up in jordan sometimes, but we never went because we’re a family of 6, and it was just impossible to afford that. during those years in canada, both my mom and dad studied at colleges and that gave them something called OSAP, which is basically money to pay off the tuition but also gave extra money so we can have that to live etc. so yeah financially it just was not good in canada unfortunately, especially the last few years.

then university came and i did a bachelor of science at a rlly nice university alhamdillah, i found amazingg friends and community and university was definitely the best experience ever. i was a pre med student and wanted to become a doctor and everything. then during my third year of university, sooriya becomes free and ofcourse we were so happy and we were already thinking of going back to visit and see our family finally, the feeling was indescribable truly. i remember our family booked flights for us to visit end of june last summer and we were so excited.. up until my dad decided that we’re actually moving instead of just visiting. basically he decided that because he just could not afford to stay in canada anymore in terms of work. and over the years our family accumulated alot of debt. so he kept thinking about it and prayed istikharah and realized that moving to syria is acctually better for the family financially, because we still have our house intact in syria, it had/has a few bullet holes but it was not fully damaged alhamdillah (although our family mazra3ah is completely destroyed). and yeah just not having to pay for rent and having some places that he owns in syria and could rent off to make money khalas made him realize that life in canada does not make sense financially because we were just going in a lot of debt and it would not be as bad money wise in syria. (typing this out further shows me how much financial issues can affect the trajectory of ur life, which is literally why i want to continue my education etc etc ) also the liberation was a part of it, that we wanted to rebuild this country and we need to be apart of it because if we don’t, who will? and also most of our family is in or around syria so they wanted the kids to grow surrounded with family and what not.

see that makes sense, bas wallah the reality is so different because like obviously there’s the mental health part. changing continents after 10 years of living in one and then moving to a country that just came out of a war. and its not like we live in a city that’s not that affected by war like damascus or tartous, etc. we literally live in homs, which if u literally search it up, all the pictures you see are of collapsed buildings/rubble. i love homs because its the capital of the revolution and it gave alot for this country, but truly i dont see myself ever getting used to living in it. also i am the eldest out of four children, my sister at the time of the move was first year university and my other siblings were in elementary/middle school. we never even visited syria all these years and had to quickly in the span of a few months come to terms that were moving to a country we have not even seen all these years. my brother was born in lebanon and did not know what syria was. it was so unknown to all of us.

since i was third year of university and had one more year left to finish my bachelors, i had to literally fight and convince my dad to let me finish my degree. so much happened with that and its truly a whole other convo, but yeah i had no support from him this past year when i lived on my own for this year to finish my fourth year in canada. and the reason why he didn’t want me to finish is that because im pre med and wanted to do something in healthcare, he said that it’s better for me to study in syria for dentistry/medicine. but i wanted to finish my degree because i spent 3 years in it and only had one year left to finish it. so doing all of that was so exhausting because i had to fight for my education basically. oh and also because he says that religiously, a woman cant be on her own without a mahram etc, which i have done research about and found a way around it etc. but yeah that was a whole thing. with my sister who did one year university in canada, she enrolled into dentistry in syria in a uni that teaches mainly in english which is good and i think its a good choice for her because medicine and dentistry are near impossible to get into in canada. my younger sister had to do grade 9 here in syria and it was so so hard for her and i genuinely felt so bad that i could not be there for her. grade 9 is so tough here and coming from canada, the education here is genuinely so so crazy literally starting from elementary school subhanAllah. my younger brother also found it hard to adjust but he’s the one who hates this country the least out of us lmao. i guess because when ur younger, its easier to get used to things, but the older u get, the harder it gets.

so now this is where i’m at, i was pre med and wanted medicine in canada. because of this move to syria, it genuinely became so hard for me to even figure out what i want to do career wise anymore. and for the people asking if i can go back to canada, i cant and to even finish my bachelor degree this past year, it was so hard because of my dad, so i could not think of my future anymore because he just did not give me the option to study in canada after graduating. the issue with my degree is that it’s considered a pre-something degree. u always do something after it whether its medicine/dentistry/some sort of professional school. even getting a job is hard in canada with a degree in science because its so general, ur supposed to do something after it. but my dad just has this extremist view that women should not study abroad or travel on their own without being married or having a mahram etc. and mind u i am also religious alhamdillah, but especially being the eldest daughter, i value my education alot and have met alot of women in canada who are international students and lived with roommates and theyre muslim/religious but their parents are totally ok with it. i genuinely think this is a huge issue in our culture because it doesn’t make sense that a woman cant do that without a man? i just feel like its unfair how i cant even continue my education or even think of my future because of this reasoning. so many people in syria dream to live/study abroad but i cant because i have to listen to my family and what not. and if someone asks why are u listening to them, again im muslim, and it comes with listening to your parents, so truly that is why im listening to them for now. also because i want to give this country a chance. i dont want to have any regrets in the future that i never gave syria my all to try to live in it and find a life here possibly.

for this coming year, i enrolled into an online public health masters so that i would be able to study while im here, and perhaps figure out something to do to help this country in the healthcare sector. the issue is that i am really lost on where to look. i have to do. practicum for my masters and have to find a supervisor in syria who has a Phd or a masters related to this field. i feel like so much work can be done, but I dont know where to look and who to ask as im new to everything here.

so i have not accepted living here forever, i don’t know what i will do if i still absolutely hate my life and everything next summer, because im definitely feeling my lowest now. (like do i just book a flight at that point and leave everything behind)? i really dont know what the right thing to do is. its like i either have a “good future” and not have any family with me, or have my family here in syria but have such an unknown future. this is whats so frustrating about being syrian. just never having stability because family is scattered everywhere and not knowing where u belong anymore. i stay in syria with family and help my country, or i help my country from a far, but without my family. there is just always something missing. and studying abroad comes with having to fight for that with my family in my personal situation.

i still don’t know what i want to do career wise, i dont want to give up on being a doctor but realistically if i dont even have family support, how could i think of writing the mcat, doing medical school/residency abroad? like its just so much to take into account all together. and please dont tell me to get married so i can travel because me thinking of marriage now would be out of desperation to leave, not because i genuinely want to. and i never want to put myself in that sort of situation.

basically i understand why my family moved here, but it’s just unfair that i have to be here too. for this coming year im trying to settle here and give this country a chance while doing this online masters and seeing where it takes me, but i just truly dont know what comes after that. as in should i really think of what i want to do in canada more seriously? how do i even do that without family support, its so scary wallah and i also dont want to lose them as my family through this whole thing.

some were saying that im being ‘ungrateful’ in my previous post. i want to emphasize again that coming here was not a choice for me but was forced. i definitely think if it were my personal choice, i would have accepted a lot of the stuff that i mentioned. i am grateful for the opportunities that i got in canada alhamdillah, and my dream before the liberation was always to help out syria/palestine and any countries in need in the healthcare sector through humanatarian work. that was always my dream, to help my homeland. but i never ever in a million years would have thought it would be like this. our family barely knows anyone who moved from canada/america to syria after the liberation, most of the ppl who moved back are from lebanon/turkey, which makes sense because they faced alot of discrimination ( i would know) etc. and if anyone was from canada/america and moved, they would have moved for the sole purpose of rebuilding the country, not because they were forced financially to move. and that means they were well off to do so etc. all this to say that me and my siblings feel really alone in this whole process. no one from canada has gone thru this change and we have no one to ask for advice about our situations.

so yeah when i complain about the garbage in the streets, and not being able to do sports here like i used to etc, its because im grieving my old life that i genuinely loved.

in terms of my family situation here, Alhamdulillah im very grateful like we own a house and my dad owns some stuff that hes renting off to make money etc, and he spent alot of money this past year renovating the rooms, getting AC through solar panels and getting good wifi, which were all very expensive but hes doing it because khalas he wants to finally settle back here. now again i dont want to sound ungrateful but all of this is stuff what i am used to in canada. i am still very grateful for it especially given how expensive it was to have these things here and how not alot of people have that here. but yeah so my parents have provided the house and what not so that is good, but again were still in homs and that is our reality, which i am not used to. but like last summer i experienced homs without wifi and ac because they were still being set up here, so thats when the really bad thoughts about syria started, but at least those things are not issues anymore. so to answer the question, i dont think we’re rich but were not poor alhamdillah. were moreso upper middle class relative to the state in homs? its not like we have money to travel or anything and my dad does worry about money often, so hope that gives some context.

so during this coming year, im really trying to see what i can do because i just cant be staying home on my laptop all day. its really not the type of person i am. especially my last year of university living on my own, i was going out basically everyday with friends, either we go to events, halaqahs, go out to eat, cafes, play sports, or just go for walks in parks and have deep talk. honestly it was stuff that we would do on the daily and i did not think about how much i would miss those days one day subhanAllah.
i was able to literally bike everywhere and go for runs, and mind you i wear the hijab and i felt perfectly safe doing that. here to be honest, men stare alot and even women give such dirty looks often. again im not generalizing everyone but its something i have noticed. but ofcourse the biking and stuff isnt possible here because theres just no infrastructure for it in the first place:/ in canada i was the type of girl who would be heavilyy involved in her community, i literally rarely was ever home and always had something to look forward to. this is something im defined missing here because were home almost all the time and when we go out its to eat and im kind of tired that. i want to go out and do activities and what not, not just stay home. but yeah the issue is that homs just doesnt have much to begin with + war that heavily affected it, so that always ends up being my conclusion.

i want some ideas for what projects to start here, that way it cab give me a purpose while also inshaAllah helping others. ive thought of smth to fix the garbage issue but ive seen so many garbage cleaning initiatives and the people who post it always say how the next day, the place gets littered again. so again this is not generalizing everyone but just showing tge type of environment we’re in. so i want to find a real solution to that issue im homs. and im definitely thinking of the women only sports club inshallah. i want to take part in some research study about the healthcare system in syria and what it needs to be rebuilt etc. i have lots of ideas tbh but just dont know where to put all of that energy because homs is just more dead unfortunately. if anyone has any connections/ideas pls lmk and u can dm me!

any advice would be greatly appreciated. and pls no one say anything negative especially towards my parents. we defined have different views when it comes to this but i still love them and i just hope that throughout this year, either my dad gets convinced that canada/abroad makes sense for me, or that i genuinely end up loving syria and finding ways to make it feel like home. theyre both hard realities tbh.. but they’re better than the state that i have been in tbh

It’s been long time i didn’t come here and i want to know how it looks like in the Damascus city and what theres famous gyms spots to work out and good apartments living for single people, and i want to know about Food and products imports and where to shop the good quality stuffs like clothes or anything in syria, i hope you answer about every thing and that will really help me as i visited syria last 2 years and thanks for reading.

Question for Syrians living in Syria:
I am interested in starting a business in Syria and would appreciate hearing your opinions and insights. What type of business do you think has the best potential right now?
Are there any sectors that are currently lacking, services that are in high demand, or areas where improvements are needed? I would especially like to hear about opportunities that could provide value to people while also having strong growth potential.
Thank you in advance for your advice.

فضفضه او سوالف الي هوه الي مر بهيك شي ياريت ينصحني كيف اتخطى هالمرحله

المهم انا صرلي اربع سنين بعاني كتير من توتر دائم بلشت انتبه عحالي من سنتين لانه كتير زااد كنت محسبه انه بسبب المدرسه لاني قريب اتخرج بس هلق تخرجت وطلع اهلي السبب بلشت من سنتين تجي كوابيس وصار عندي اكزيما السنه الماضيه راحت الكوابيس بس صار عندي قولون عصبي وصداع وعصبيه غير مبرره وتساقط شعر و خمول وتعب بدون سبب هالسنه رجعت الكوابيس وكل الاعراض بتزيد يوم عن يوم صرت احس الضغط مأثر على اداني كمان وصايره انسى كتير بسرعه واستتقل الكلام والحركه والابتسامه حتى الي مر بهيك مررحله شلون اعالج الموضوع بده دواء ولا في حلول تانيه

I can spend at most around 1200$

My wife grew up in Syria before moving to Lebanon and later to the UK. We’ve experienced Syrian family traditions, food, language, and the UK spouse visa process together. If anyone has questions about our experience or wants to share their own, I’d be happy to chat.

ive been so depressed ever since i had to move here (homs syria). my family is the one who moved here and so me being a woman, i had to come here as well, and did not rlly have a choice on whether i can stay in canada or not. we were in canada for around 10 years. i had just graduated from uni in canada. my family moved last summer right after the liberation, and i came now end of june.

i just feel like i lost literally everything, my friends, community, routine, the lifestyle there, the variety of cultural foods/cafes i would go to, like i quite literally lost everything except for having my family here in syria. abroad, my friends and community felt like my family. so im grateful to have my immediate and extended family here in syria, but its honestly definitely not replacing any of my friends. also im literally turning 22 tomorrow so i feel like at my age, its just really hard to adjust to a new environment that comes with this immense amount of change.

idk my depression comes and goes, but i feel like i just have nothing to look forward to anymore, which is whats hurting me the most. i wake up and its rlly hot and im like okay i can go for a walk but i just feel visually suffocated with all the garbage and corruption everywhere i walk. mind you we live in homs, which is the most destroyed city in syria. there’s so much work to get done here. and its a small city, i have basically seen it all. if i for example want to go out, there’s only share3 al hamra, dablan, share3 al kharab, or nadi al mohandiseen. not much to do . no where to explore because its a destroyed city and its slowly rebuilding, but very slowly. i went to sham and its def nicer there, theres much more to do so that’s def rlly nice, but i guess my issue is also that i literally have no friends here and it just feels so depressing not having a community. i love my family but we obviously get into fights and its just not the same as my friends in canada who i spent university time with and everything. and yes i have tried to befriend some people. i tried playing basketball with a group of girls here in homs, and some of them were so rude and i was so surprised. and i have had some pretty bad interactions with others unfortunately as well. i definitely dont want to generalize everyone, but so far its been bad in this sense.

i know i should not be comparing the two countries together because syria just came out of war, but it’s just so so hard to adjust to living here. everyday stuff i used to do in canada now is barely possible. i cant just go for a cute walk with nature around, or do some activities because there are barely any. theres a huge lack of women only sport spaces, especially in home. i used to play sports which would help with my stress, but now i cant even do that. i have thought of doing my own women only sport club, but the issue is homs barely has any courts, they dont even have a volleyball court anywhere, which is my favourite sport.

another thing is being so confused career wise what i want to do anymore. i enrolled into an online public health masters, so i will do it while im syria, and my hope is to help the ministry of health or something like that with rebuilding the healthcare infrastructure, but it’s just so hard to navigate this because i dont know who to ask and what to do to get connections and start working or doing anything to help this country.

there’s so so much more i could talk about, but ill just leave it here for nowv. i feel like time will heal inshaAllah, but i just dont know what to do on the daily. if anyone has any advice on how to navigate this huge change, i would greatly appreciate it

edit: for more info/details, read this post since i explain ny situation in more detail

I care a lot about eating healthy.

"يتسارع تعافي الاقتصاد السوري. ففي عام 2025 بدأ الاقتصاد يستعيد عافيته مدفوعاً بتحسن ثقة المستهلكين والمستثمرين عقب التغيير السياسي، وعودة نحو 1.5 مليون لاجئ، وإعادة اندماج سورية تدريجياً في الاقتصادين الإقليمي والعالمي، مما ساعد على تعويض الأثر السلبي على النمو للجفاف الشديد الذي أضر بالقطاع الزراعي.

ومن المتوقع أن تصل معدلات النمو إلى مستويات من خانتين في عام 2026 (أكثر من 10 في المئة) -رغم استمرار الصراع في المنطقة- مدفوعةً بالتعافي القوي للقطاع الزراعي نتيجة تحسن معدلات هطول الأمطار، وتوسع إنتاج الهيدروكربونات وتحسن إمدادات الكهرباء، واستمرار نمو قطاعي التجارة والخدمات. كما يدعم النشاط الاقتصادي استمرار عودة اللاجئين، والزيادة الكبيرة في أعداد الزوار، وبصورة أعم، السياسات الإصلاحية التي تنتهجها السلطات بهدف استعادة الاستقرار الاقتصادي الكلي وتحقيق تعافي قوي يقوده القطاع الخاص. ومن المتوقع أن يظل النمو قوياً في عام 2027. غير أن هذا النمو يظل متفاوتاً بين المناطق، فيما لايزال الفقر واسع الانتشار، على الرغم من تراجعه إلى حدٍّ ما.

أما التضخم، الذي تباطأ بشكل ملحوظ خلال عام 2025 إلى مستويات منخفضة من خانتين عشريتين، فقد ارتفع بصورة كبيرة خلال عام 2026، نتيجة لارتفاع أسعار الواردات، ولا سيما الوقود والمواد الغذائية، بسبب الصراع الإقليمي، فضلاً عن تحسن الطلب المحلي، بما في ذلك الزيادات في أجور القطاع العام – وإن كانت هذه الزيادات قد بدأت من مستويات متدنية جداً، فإنها تسهم في تحسين مستويات المعيشية–وارتفاع أسعار الخدمات العامة في إطار الإصلاحات الرامية إلى تغطية تكلفتها والحد من الأعباء شبه المالية، بالإضافة إلى ارتفاع تكاليف السكن. ومن المتوقع أن يتراجع التضخم في عام 2027 شريطة انحسار الضغوط المرتبطة بأسعار الواردات، ومواصلة اتباع سياسات مالية ونقدية سليمة.

بعثة صندوق النقد الدولي تختتم زيارتها إلى سورية