Autorentext

Tobi Dahmen is a graphic artist and illustrator, and the author of the graphic novels Fahrradmod and Columbusstraße. His work has received numerous honours, including the ICOM Award for Best Short Comic and the Red Dot Design Award.

Akram Al Saud was born in Deir ez-Zor and raised in Damascus. From a young age, he stood against the Syrian regime, which led to his first arrest while studying architecture in Aleppo. When the revolution began, he joined in its early days, facing three more arrests and having to abandon his studies. He has lived in the Netherlands since 2016, where he resumed studying architecture and continues his commitment to freedom and dignity.

Klappentext

Based on personal interviews between political prisoner Akram Al Saud and graphic artist Tobi Dahmen, Al-Faẓia’: The Horror vividly depicts the life of a man who found the courage to resist in the face of unfathomable terror.

Al-Faẓia’: The Horror follows the harrowing journey of Akram Al Saud, a nineteen-year-old architecture student in Aleppo whose life was upended by an unjust arrest in 2010. After nine months in Assad’s prisons, he joined the revolution, endured further arrests, and was finally forced to flee to Europe in 2016. Restoring agency to Al Saud’s experiences as a survivor, this graphic novel portrays his life with authenticity and sensitivity. A rich appendix offers historical context and a behind-the-scenes look at the project’s creation.

Created as part of the international Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives (SCVN) project, this book offers an impactful, arts-based way to share the experiences of those who have suffered at the hands of human rights abuses. This unique work resulting from the collaboration between Al Saud and Dahmen serves as an example of how the unspeakable can find expression in art.

Inhalt

1. Al Fazia الفظیع – The Horror; Surviving Syria’s Prisons
   Tobi Dahmen and Akram Al Saud

2. Glossary

3. Map

4. The Syrian Gulag: a System of Detention, Repression, and Torture
   Uğur Ümit Üngör

5. I Will Not Stay Silent
   Akram Al Saud

6. Conversations with Akram
   Tobi Dahmen

7. To Draw Darkness: Editors’ Notes
   Uğur Ümit Üngör and Charlotte Schallié

8. Acknowledgements
   Tobi Dahmen, Akram Al Saud. Uğur Ümit Üngör and Charlotte Schallié

9. Biographies