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True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Writing the Syrian Revolution

Syrian writer Samar Yazbek

03/01/2013

Writing the Syrian Revolution

BBC World Service - Outlook, Writing the Syrian Revolution

The Syrian writer who defied her background to report on rebel torture victims

Matthew Bannister meets the Syrian Alawite writer Samar Yazbek whose diaries of the revolution in her country won an award.

Samar Yazbek is a Syrian opposition activist who escaped the country earlier this year. She is a member of the Alawite elite in Syria, who's regarded as a traitor by some of her family because she took part in a number of demonstrations against President Assad's regime. Samar won a PEN Writer of Courage Award for her diaries of the revolution in her country. 

Portfilio Padilla Perez grew up in Iquitos, one of the remotest cities on earth, in the Peruvian Amazon. Porfilio has spent a lifetime earning a living from the rain forest and now works as a jungle tour guide. Reporter Mattia Cabitza travelled to meet him in the isolated lodge where he works. 

Victoria Webster's birth was very difficult.  Her brain was starved of oxygen, leaving her with cerebral palsy. Victoria was the daughter of two British academics who were teaching at Helsinki University in Finland. They were very supportive of her, but even they believed that her condition would limit what she could achieve in life.  But Victoria was determined to become a doctor. There were many obstacles to overcome, but eventually Victoria became the first Accident and Emergency Consultant in Scandinavia. 

Picture: Samar Yazbek
Picture credit: Manaf Azzam

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