Cultural 'anti-regime' week in Doha

The message of freedom of Syrian anti-regime activists has reached Doha, Qatar, where around a hundred artists are telling the story of the tragedy in progress in their country. The event started last Saturday and will continue until June 8, with photo exhibitions, live music, poetry readings and other performance. The art event coincides with the meeting of Arab League representatives in Doha, focusing on the Syrian question. The Syrian regime has accused Qatar that the country, together with Saudi Arabia, is the main sponsor of the ''conspiracy against Syria, meant to weaken its role of resistance against Israel." Many of the artists who perform in the Katara district in the capital of Qatar fled from Syria in the past months or even years ago. They want to ''show their solidarity with those still fighting in Syria." Others want to ''make it clear to the outside world that the Syrian citizens who have been protesting against the regime for more than a year are no terrorists or religious fundamentalists, but peaceful people who want to see their rights recognised." ''The time has come to come out in the open. We stand 100% behind the Syrian citizens, who only want to live a real life without divisions and repression. Change has come in Syria as well and I feel a duty to contribute to this transformation,'' Suhair Sibai told ANSA. Sibai is a Syrian artist who fled the country 20 year ago headed for the United States. She said that she is ready to return to Syria, where her family still lives. A few kilometres from Katara, in the West Bay district, the Arab League is discussing their future, at least officially: ''We expect them to show real initiative and a will to do the right thing,'' Sibai commented, disappointed in the result obtained so far by the UN initiative. An exhibition of stamps of the Syrian revolution has opened in Katara. Fuad Hashem, responsible for the exhibition and its works, has asked eyewitnesses of the Syrian tragedy to post photos and documents in the Facebook group ''The Syrian people know their way''. The artist has used the images to transform them into stamps. They show the smiling face of Gilles Jacquier, the French journalist who was killed early this year in Homs, but also blood, crying women, bodies on the ground. Each stamp carries a name. One of them, showing an injured man, carries the name ''Ali Ferzat'', a famous Syrian cartoonist who was severely beaten in Damascus in August last year. His cartoons can now be seen in Doha, particularly those that had been censored by the regime for criticising President Bashar al Assad.(ANSAmed).