This is what Sister Mona told Alessandra De Poli in an interview for Asianews on May 6, 2025. Sister Mona lives in the community of the Sisters of Charity in Khabab, a Christian village about 60 kilometers south of the capital Damascus. In recent days, the entire area has been at the center of clashes between Druze militias and Islamist groups. And the situation has not yet stabilized.
Armed clashes in the Khabab area
Although the clashes between Druze militias and armed groups supporting the new Syrian government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa have not reached this area, the nun admits that there has been an increase in tension, complicated by Israeli air intervention, justified by the desire to “protect” the religious minority. “No, it’s not over yet,” Sister Mona reiterates to AsiaNews. “It’s not over just because the regime has been overthrown. In December, Israeli planes bombed our entire region for two or three days, hitting weapons depots. Now we hear the planes sometimes at night and in the evening, and sometimes during the day. We don’t know what the future holds for us. We always hope, but our hope is in the Lord, not in men.”
The factions that fought each other last week in the province of Suweida, causing the deaths of about 100 people, and which were joined by some Bedouin groups in support of the Islamist fanatics, have tried in recent days to implement the peace agreements signed between Druze religious leaders and the local government; but these truces – supported, by Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who met with Sharaa in recent days – have so far proved precarious.
The roads to and from the town of Jaramana, where violence erupted between April 28 and 30, for example, although reopened, continue to be used only by buses carrying students to school and a few cars belonging to local residents, who nevertheless fear that the situation could deteriorate again at any moment, as local sources told AsiaNews.
The unpredictability of the climate and the socio-economic situation
Part of the Archdiocese of Bosra, within the governorate of Daraa and the wider Hauran region that extends to Jordan, the village of Khabab, known for its distinctive black basalt buildings, some of which date back to ancient times, is located in a large agricultural area where Christian and Bedouin families cultivate the land for cereal production.
But this year there has been no rainfall and access to water is increasingly threatened by the presence of the Israeli army near important water basins. In the last two days, Tel Aviv soldiers have tripled their presence in the Golan Heights and established nine new positions within Syrian territory.
“We were unable to sow this year because of the drought,” says the nun, who grew up in Khabab. ”Irrigation depends on wells and therefore on rainfall. The harvest should be in June-July.” But how will you manage if you haven’t sown? ‘Only God knows,’ replies Sister Mona, who, together with two other sisters—the Sisters of Charity arrived in Khabab for the first time in 1958—is now mainly involved in catechesis.
The unpredictability of the climate adds to an already extremely precarious economic situation. In a short time, food and rent prices (also due to the return of Syrians who had been abroad in recent weeks) have skyrocketed, bringing many families to their knees: “The price of bread has gone from 400 to 4,000 lire,” says the sister. “Just to raise a child, you need a million lire, which is about $100 a month. A father, on the other hand, earns about $20. How is this possible? It’s not easy, but these are also the consequences of more than a decade of war.” In addition, to prevent further inflation, the new authorities have imposed a maximum limit of $50 per week on bank withdrawals, further restricting consumption.
Good relations between minorities
In Khabab, however, at least relations between local minorities are still good: “Every now and then there are disputes with the Bedouins: thefts and minor clashes over ownership of agricultural land. In general, however, we have a good relationship with Muslims because before the war, educated girls from our village went to work as teachers in Muslim villages. They were very respected, to tell the truth, and very happy.” But things vary from region to region and from city to city.
The precarious future of Christians
“In some areas further south, Christians have abandoned villages also inhabited by Muslims because they were afraid, but nothing has happened, at least for now.”
After the clashes between militias supporting the reconquest of Syria by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), first with the Alawites and then with the Druze, many are wondering which ethnic or religious group will be targeted next by Islamic fanatics.
The still open wounds of war
Many Syrians actually left the country during the war (Khabab’s population fell from 7,500 to around 3,000 today), a very painful period to remember even for Sister Mona, who worked in a primary school for two years.
Because of the conflict, hundreds of pupils were transferred from Jaramana to the premises of the Greek Catholic Patriarchate in Damascus: “Once, bombs hit a school near ours belonging to the Armenian Church. Several children were killed. We immediately went to the other school to support the families and staff and try to be with them. We were very united, really.
War is terrible. It is terrible. Then we went to the hospital to visit the children who had been admitted, to find out if they needed blood donations. Even though I was afraid, I didn’t care. If there were bombs above our heads, I didn’t care. We didn’t think about ourselves, we lived for the children, for the people, really.”
“Today,” Sister Mona continues, ”we just want to live, that’s all. We want to live with dignity. Whoever is in government, we don’t care. It’s all the same to us. As long as we’re alive, that’s all that matters to us now.”
Source: https://www.asianews.it/notizie-it/La-guerra-infinita-a-sud-di-Damasco.-Suor-Mona:-Vogliamo-solo-vivere-con-dignit%C3%A0-63030.html
