Ramadan meals served at Syrian ruins
DOUMA, SYRIA — The scene in Syria's besieged rebel-held town of Douma is almost surreal — tables laden with food to break the Ramadan fast are surrounded by the crumbling carcasses of bombed-out buildings.
The open-air meals are a rare treat in the town in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus, made possible only by the relative calm that has followed an international deal to reduce violence.
In recent years, such communal "iftars" or fast-breaking meals have been organized rarely and always inside buildings that provided some protection from the constant threat of government bombardment.
But this Ramadan the meals are being held outside, on long tables covered in festive red cloth.
They are topped first with orange juice and dates ready for residents to break their day-long fast as soon as the sun sets and the call to prayer begins.
Main dishes quickly follow, filling the six tables that each seat around 40 people, with others in an overflow section on the street.
Bowls of fava beans topped with tomato, olive oil and parsley, and platters of peas in tomato stew with rice arrive among the offerings.
There is also locally produced yoghurt, as well as bowls of fresh apricots.
"After six years of war in Syria and in Ghouta in particular, we wanted to take advantage of the relative calm to bring people happiness," said Muayyed Muhieddine, a spokesman for the local Adalah (Justice) NGO organizing the meals.
"We wanted to remind them of the time before the war, when the meals looked like marriage banquets," he told AFP.
In May, regime backers Russia and Iran, and rebel supporter Turkey, signed a deal to set up "deescalation zones" in several parts of Syria after fighting that has killed over 320,000 people.
Though the zones have yet to be formally delineated and implemented, there has been a major reduction in violence in most of the areas included in the plan.
Among them is Douma, the largest city in the rebelheld Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus and a regular target of heavy government bombardment.
The city has been under siege since 2013, though residents have been able to cultivate food locally and other items are smuggled in through tunnels and across checkpoints.
Adalah has held the communal iftars in recent years despite the siege and bombardment, but until now always inside, in mosques or underground, though even those locations have not always proved safe.
Last year, "we organized an iftar for 900 people in a mosque, but two mortars landed nearby," said Muhieddine.
This year, the relative calm encouraged the NGO to begin holding the meals outside, and so far it has organized six outdoor iftars.
The meals are prepared in a makeshift street kitchen largely hidden from view by a swathe of red-and-green striped cloth hung around three sides of the cooking stations from a metal frame, like curtains.
The head cook ladles food onto plastic plates that volunteer servers ferry out to the waiting diners.
"These meals remind us of the old days," said Abu Hashim Minyasa, as he waited to break his fast.