Yassin al-Haj Saleh ( ar, ياسين الحاج صالح; born 1961)Filmed Conversations
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2008 is a Syrian writer and political dissident. He writes on political, social and cultural subjects relating to Syria and the Arab world. From 1980 until 1996, he spent time in prison in Syria for his membership in the left-wing opposition group Syrian Communist Party (Political Bureau),Conscience of Syria
Danny Postel Nader Hashemi and Yassif al-ham Saleh, "

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

", 12 March 2014 which he calls a "communist pro-democracy group". However, he has also stated that his time in prison allowed him to break out of the "internal prisons fnarrow political affiliation ndrigid ideology" and has called the Syrian revolution an "open-ended and multi-leveled struggle", while remaining supportive of aspects of

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

. He was arrested while he was studying medicine in Aleppo and spent sixteen years in prison, the last in Tadmur Prison. He took his final examination as a general medical practitioner in 2000, but never practiced. In addition to being known for his own published books and articles, he also helped launch the bilingual publication '' AlJumhuriya.net'' (est. 2012), lauded by journalist Kim Ghattas as "an online Arabic news platform that is one of the best sources of information and analysis in the region." He has been granted a Prince Claus Award for 2012 as "actually a tribute to the Syrian people and the Syrian revolution. He was unable to collect the award as he was then hiding among the Syrian underground. He was awarded Swedish Tucholsky Prize in 2017. He was one of the talkers in a two-day anti-capitalist forum, which was held in Ankara, Turkey, on Nov 23-24, 2013. Additionally, he was speaking at the event 'Reporting Change - Stories from the Arab region' in Amsterdam on 15 June 2014, an event jointly organized by

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

and

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...

. Al-Haj Saleh is married to Samira Khalil, a communist dissident, former political detainee and a revolutionary activist who was abducted in Douma in December 2013. After 21 months of hiding in Damascus and whole Syria, for being wanted by both the government and radical Islamist militants, he fled to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

and lived in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

until 2017. Al-Haj Saleh is now a fellow at Berlin Institute for Advanced Study (''Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin'').

Works

One of the most influential Arab writers and dissidents as well as a prominent intellectual voice of the Syrian revolution, Yassin Al-Haj Saleh writes on political, social and cultural subjects relating to Syria and the Arab world for several Arab newspapers and journals outside of Syria, and regularly contributes to the London-based

Al-Hayat newspaper Al-Hayat ( ar, الحياة meaning "Life") was a London-based, pan-Arab newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan, that had a circulation estimated over 200,000. It was the newspaper of record for the Arab diaspora and the preferred v ...

, the Egyptian leftist magazine Al-Bosla, and the Syrian online periodical The Republic. Among his books (the majority in Arabic): * ''Syria in the Shadow: Glimpses Inside the Black Box'' (2009, Dar Jidar); * ''Walking on One Foot'' (2011, Dar al-Adab, Beirut), a collection of 52 essays about Syrian affairs, written between 2006 and 2010; * ''Salvation O Boys: 16 Years in Syrian Prisons'' (2012, Dar al-Saqi, Beirut); * ''The Myths of the Latters: A Critique of Contemporary Islam and a Critique of its Critique'' (2012, Dar al-Saqi, Beirut); * ''Deliverance or Destruction? Syria at a Crossroads'' (2014, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies); * ''The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy'' (2017, Hurst Publishers, London) n English

References

External links

Column archive (2004-2005)
'' The Daily Star''
Column archive (2006)
''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

''
Column archive (2010-2011)
at ''

Jadaliyya ''Jadaliyya'' ("dialectic") is an independent ezine founded in 2010 by the Arab Studies Institute (ASI) to cover the Arab World and the broader Middle East. It publishes articles in Arabic, French, English and Turkish, and is run primarily on a ...

''
Drivers of U.S. Syrian Relations Under the Obama Administration
Yassin Al-Haj Saleh,

Carnegie Endowment The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded i ...

, June 2009
The Political Culture Of Modern Syria: Its Formation, Structure & Interactions
Yasin Al-Haj Saleh, "Political Culture Case Studies", Conflict Studies Research Centre, published in ''Mafhoum'', 2003
A General Socio-Political View of Contemporary Syrian Society
Yassin al-Haj Saleh, ''Ahewar'', 22 October 2010

Yassin al-Haj Saleh, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 10 April 2011 ;Interviews
Assad's Forgotten Man
Michael Young, ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

'', 5 May 2005
On Syria: Interview with Yassin Al Haj Saleh
Sinan Antoon, ''

'', 4 April 2011
The Conscience of Syria, March 2014 in the boston review
;Articles

As'ad AbuKhalil As'ad AbuKhalil ( ar, أسعد أبو خليل) (born 16 March 1960) is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. AbuKhalil is the author of ''Historical Dictionary of Lebanon'' (1998), ''Bi ...

, '' MRZine'', 12 April 2011
Free Syrian Translators: a collection of articles by Yassin al-Haj Saleh translated into English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saleh, Yassin al-Haj 1961 births Living people People from Damascus People of the Syrian civil war Prisoners and detainees of Syria Syrian bloggers Syrian communists Syrian democracy activists Syrian dissidents Syrian Marxists Syrian prisoners and detainees University of Aleppo alumni

Works

See also

References

External links