Kifah Zainie, 34, co -owner and manages Sugar Man, a popular nightclub in Damascus on March 27. Zainie says he is uncertain about the future of the alcohol industry, under the new conservative Muslim leaders of Syria.
Hasan Belal for NPR
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Hasan Belal for NPR
Damass – Naveen Mahmoud did races when an alarmed neighbor called: the conservative Muslim rebels who ousted the Syria dictator at the end of last year had arrived to close the fashionable cocktail bar that Mahmoud talks in the old town of Damascus.
Two government agents placed an iron rod through the front door of the Mahmoud bar, called Cosette, and sealed it on Thursday with red wax – a method that dates back to Antiquity.
“We were very worried when they took power for the first time (in December), but they came and said:` `Everything will be the same (as underestimated by President Bashar al-Assad), no worries ” said Mahmoud, 42, who worked in Cyprus and Turkey before returning to his native Syria to open Cosette five years ago. That! They gave us no reason or any warning. “
His was one of the 60 Damascus bars that were forcibly closed last week, or received opinions from the government that they would soon be, for having served as a license alcohol, Mahmoud and three other people who work in the alcohol industry in Syria at the NPR.
But after an outcry of social media and called on the mayor of Damascus, the 60 closures were lifted – after less than a day.
This is an example of the way in which the new leaders of Syria – who once had links with Al -Qaida – always find their way, fight with the way of grasping their conservative Islamic values with the secular lifestyle of many of their fellow citizens and urbanites in particular.
Party with Islamist veterans
The night Assad fled, Kifah Zainie organized a party at the popular Damascus water hole that he is co -owner and short, called Sugar Man. Cocktails flowed. It was like a carnival, he recalls.
But Zainie, 34, who wears a washed denim jacket with a reversed collar, had a worried concern: the new leaders of Syria had prohibited alcohol in Idlib, in northwestern Syria, where they were governed for the first time in 2017. And Zainie earns her life in alcohol service.
Ten days later, around mid-December, two bearded guys with rifles hit his door. They asked if he had an alcohol license. Zainie does not do so.
To obtain one, a law of 1952 stipulates, you must be located more than 100 meters (yards) from a school or a religious site – which excludes most of the locations in the center of Damascus. The authorities have not issued new licenses for its region since 1960 anyway, says Zainie.
As part of the Assad regime, while alcohol consumption was legal, most bars were not allowed. The owners would pay a fine for this – about $ 2, every few months, remembers Zainie – and the authorities left them alone.
Under the new diet, he fears that it is not as easy. On an lark, he invited the bearded guys to his bar that evening – provided they put their weapons. (Zainie was not sure if they were official government agents or militiamen close to the regime.)
“They said ok yes, and entered, and – I have a video – they danced!” Zainie remembers laughing. “It was very strange, just like the art of performance, as Bin Laden danced with us!”
He showed an NPR video on his phone of two bearded men in camouflage, dancing and smiling, surrounded by secular hipsters.
“At that time, we had the impression that we could connect with these people, if we just shake hands,” said Zainie. “They are Syrians!”
Strange bed companions in the new Syria
International sanctions still in place, many multinational companies cannot do business in Syria. It is therefore difficult for Syrian suppliers to import foreign brands.
A secular and alcohol tattooed wholesaler called Abbudi says that a way to get around the sanctions is to buy loose alcohol from Islamist fighters in the mountains between Lebanon and Syria. They have a warehouse, he said, lots of confiscated things.
“We pay $ 2,000 for an opening hour, (during which time) we take everything we can! Cent boxes, 200 boxes, 500 – you have an hour!” he explains.
Abbudi did not want NPR to publish his last name, because what he describes is illegal.
He calls for his Daesh suppliers – the Arabic name of the Islamic State – but recognizes that he does not know their exact affiliation. He does not visit them alone and ensures that he carries a gun.
Recoil of drinkers
Mahmoud says that she tried to meet the conservative leaders of Syria halfway: she voluntarily closed Cosette during the hours of fasting in the sacred month of Ramadan and put curtains on the windows so that people cannot see from the outside.
When they closed it, she said that it looked like a betrayal – of her business, as well as the coexistence that made Damascus famous for noisy nightlife, even in wartime.
“People here, they respect each other. They respect religions, traditions of the other,” she said.
She points to her staff’s room: two are Christian, some are Muslim. It is from the circus minority of the Syrian capital, an ethnic group with roots in the Caucasus.
NPR asked the Ministry of the Interior of Syria and the Governor’s office of Damascus on bars closures and why they were quickly reversed. The Ministry of the Interior said he was not aware of the measures taken by the local police. The governor’s office confirmed the reversal but would not provide more details.
Mahmoud thinks it’s a lesson for them.
“What worked in Idlib will not work in Damascus,” she said.
NPR producer Jawad Rizkallah has contributed to this Damascus story.
