On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -    Syrian women shop at Raqqa’s central market in May 2021. Under Islamic State rule,...

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -  Left : Shahad, center, 13, sought refuge in the Washokani refugee camp after fleeing the city of...
Left: Shahad, center, 13, sought refuge in the Washokani refugee camp after fleeing the city of Ras Al-Ain, a Syrian city on the Turkish border, with her two brothers—and without her parents—after a Turkish offensive in 2019. The Washokani camp, near Hasakah in the northeast corner of Syria, houses more than 10,000 people. Others in refugee camps also requested their full names not be published.

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -   Right : Halim, 35, with her daughter, was also a resident of the Washokani camp in 2019....
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -    Yasmine, a Belgian national photographed in 2019, is one of more than 70,000 people at the...

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -  Left : Hussein, 31, and son Ali, four months old, fled Ras-Al-Ain after the 2019 Turkish...
Left: Hussein, 31, and son Ali, four months old, fled Ras-Al-Ain after the 2019 Turkish offensive in northern Syria and found shelter some 25 miles away in Hasaka at a school converted into a refugee center for internally displaced people.

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -   Right : Abdel Aziz, 47, a Kurd living near the front line of the 2019 offensive at Tall Tamr in...
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -    Kurdish intelligence service members patrol the devastated city of Raqqa in May 2021. The fall...

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like - A mass grave is prepared in Qamishli, Syria’s largest Kurdish city, in 2019 for...
A mass grave is prepared in Qamishli, Syria’s largest Kurdish city, in 2019 for civilian victims of a car bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State. At least five people died and more than 20 were injured.
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like - Mourners stand alongside graves of civilians killed during a 2019 Turkish offensive in Qamishli,...
Mourners stand alongside graves of civilians killed during a 2019 Turkish offensive in Qamishli, Syria.
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -    Members of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepare to fight Turkish...

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like - YPG commander Hezat (center) speaks with his troops in Deir Ez-Zor in May 2021. The Kurdish...
YPG commander Hezat (center) speaks with his troops in Deir Ez-Zor in May 2021. The Kurdish fighter also commands anti-terrorist units of the SDF trained by U.S. Special Forces and the CIA.
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like - Members of the SDF, made up mostly of fighters from Kurdish People's Protection Units...
Members of the SDF, made up mostly of fighters from Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), arrest two suspected Islamic State members in Deir Ez-Zor in May 2021. Deir Ez-Zor remains one of the most dangerous areas in the region, with Islamic State forces present and active.
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -    Residents of Qamishli gather for ice cream during Eid in May 2021. The holiday, one of the...

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -  Left : Children play in Raqqa’s Naim Square, where the Islamic State once held public...
Left: Children play in Raqqa’s Naim Square, where the Islamic State once held public executions. Places that once served as symbols of unthinkable brutality can find new purpose, but the hard work of reconstruction may take generations.
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -   Right : Children play soccer in a school converted into a shelter for civilians displaced by...
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like -    People find respite from the heat beneath the shade of a tree in Raqqa in 2021. Russian...

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like - A man runs to avoid being targeted by snipers of the advanced Turkish forces.
A man runs to avoid being targeted by snipers of the advanced Turkish forces.

On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like

Profile photo of Maya Valentine
Maya Valentine
Photo Editor based in Washington, DC
Photographed by William Keo. Written and Text Edited by Kristen Romey. Photo Edit my Maya Valentine

William Keo is a French-Cambodian photographer and 2021 Magnum Photo Nominee based in Paris whose work focuses on his family’s refugee past: migration, social exclusion and inter-community intolerance. Since 2016, he has been documenting the Syrian refugee crisis in the Middle East before covering Syria after the fall of the Islamic State organization. See more on his website.
Public Story
On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like
Copyright Maya Valentine 2024
Updated Mar 2022
Location Syria
Topics Civil War, Civil Wars, Community, Corruption, Culture, Documentary, Journalism, Life, Media, Militias, Photography, Portraiture, Syria, War
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On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like by Maya Valentine On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like by Maya Valentine On National Geographic: 11 years into Syria's civil war, this is what life looks like by Maya Valentine
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