Article
Exile is not a singular moment but often rooted in the past, connected to experiences with gender, sexuality, migration, and beyond. “The Words: On Memory, Temporalities, and Exile” is a project exploring stories of political imprisonment and exile in Syria and the diaspora. It will create a multimedia essay featuring audio interviews, written accounts, and visuals, building a vivid digital archive. This narrative emerges as a continuum of stories from the SWANA region, rather than isolated events.
Assaad begins with their family, expanding to broader exile narratives that challenge romanticized or overlooked portrayals and their erasure from collective memory. This approach explores the complexities of exiled memory, examining the nuanced meanings of social and political exile for individuals and their families, and confronting idealized or ignored depictions of these experiences.
Using an auto-ethnographic lens, this project questions how perspectives shift over time and across places, interacting with Eurocentric narratives that often cast exiles as mere victims and victims as mere objects. This way, it seeks to move beyond the rigid binary discourse of good versus evil and avoid exploiting individual stories. The challenge is to decenter one’s own thoughts and experiences, even when starting within one’s own family circle.
Assaad’s initiative targets politically engaged individuals aged 22-35 and those with personal migration experiences, while also appealing to a broader, intergenerational audience. It collaborates with advocacy groups, educational institutions, and media organizations to reach these communities.
The project will conclude with an event in March 2025, where Assaad will showcase their findings and works developed through the fellowship. This event will feature a short film, an artistic and discursive program, and other related works. This project aims to amplify the voices of those who have shaped history but are seldom acknowledged—the ordinary lives shaped by prison and exile.
Project Updates
In November 2024, Zain wrote an article for ITEM magazine titled Artige Migrant*innen haben kein Gedächtnis (Good Migrants Have No Memory). The release party or Ausgabe #6 -artig would take place in December 2024 with the possibility to get a copy. Here’s a short excerpt:
„Wenn Menschen über Deutschland als Einwanderungsland sprechen, wird selten die Vergangenheit diasporischer Gruppen als Hauptaspekt der Migrationserfahrungen thematisiert. Wenn überhaupt, wird das entweder bemitleidet oder als importiertes Gewaltpotenzial geframed. Die Vergangenheit, sei es im Krieg, auf der Flucht oder anderweitig, wird zu einer kleinen Nebensache. Ein lineares Verständnis von Erinnerungspolitik dominiert und ignoriert die Schicksale und Kontexte aller anderen Erinnerungen, die Menschen mitbringen.“
English translation: “When people talk about Germany as a country of immigration, the histories of diasporic groups are rarely considered central to the narrative of migration experiences. When mentioned at all, they are either framed as objects of pity or as imported sources of violence. The past—whether shaped by war, displacement, or other circumstances—is relegated to a minor detail. A linear understanding of memory politics dominates, ignoring the complexities and contexts of the diverse memories that people bring with them.
In December 2024, Zain called their father, sharing that “the [Syrian] dictator’s gone.” In the upcoming weeks, Zain shared about the changes in Syrian government more publicly – for example through Freitag, a German digital newspaper. The article (in German) is available here.
Updated January 2025
