Syria, an ''Axis of Evil''

Syria was more what I expected the middle east to be like, a high portion if not all the women I saw were wearing the traditional long black cloak and were either out with their husband or a group of other women. In a private home, the women can wear what they like, among other women, it is only when they go outside or are around other men they wear a version of a headscarf. The BBC has a good slides on different types of headscarves worn by Muslim women. Going up a short escalator towards the Damascuan souqs, both times I walked past it, it had to be stopped as someone’s black cloak was caught in the escalator teeth. The black cloaks looked like they are made of polyester, not cotton and must be extremely hot in the sun.

I defiantly noticed being a woman in Syria, or being in a place where they are no women. When we were in a restaurant or trying to get a hotel, any time Paul and I had to speak to someone, they would look at and talk to Paul. The men would not look/speak to me, unless I was trying to buy something from them. I didn’t see many women at work, apart from the tour guides and one meet/greet lady in a restaurant, the jobs seemed to be predominately men.

Translator on the left; Syria's answer to X-Factor on the right.

With all the photos I’d been taking of ancient ruins, I needed to put my photos onto a CD, which I thought would be a fairly straight forward task. The one computer shop we found in Damascua took two guys over an hour trying to put my photos on to a CD disc. They said my SD card had a virus on it, which was why it was taking so long; I didn’t know SD cards could get a virus. While we waiting we were entertained by one of the guys singing us a little song he had written himself. 

Bush added Syria to Ameria's Axis of Evil list in 2002, along with Cuba and Libya. My experience of Syria has been a good one, people are friendly and do seem to go out of their way to help you, whether this was because I was with Paul or not, I can't really by sure.

More photos from Damascus...

Damascus