The News Minute | March 28, 2015 | 10.15 am IST
A little girl’s photograph is doing the rounds on the twitter since March 24 “surrendering” to a photojournalist.
It does not sound so strange if one considers the impact the conflict in the region has had on its people. In the last four years over two lakh Syrians have died and over 1.10 crore people displaced due to conflict that began after the pro-democracy protests in 2011.
On March 24, Gaza-based journalists Nadia AbuShaban tweeted a photograph that has since been re-tweeted over 1,400 times. AbuShaban has written for Al Jazeera. There is no indication of where in Syria it was taken, who the girl is, or even who the photographer is.
In the image, a chubby-cheeked little girl with brown hair stopping just short of her eyebrows, can be seen holding her arms over her head, her hands balled into joined fists.
The caption accompanying the image said: “photojournalist took this photo 4 Syrian child, thought he has a weapon not a camera so she Gave up ! #Surrended”
photojournalist took this photo 4 Syrian child, thought he has a weapon not a camera so she Gave up ! #Surrended pic.twitter.com/bm1hOWQWJY
— Nadia AbuShaban (@NadiaAbuShaban) March 24, 2015Pro-democracy protests that demanded an end to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad in the southern city of Deraa turned violent in March 2011 after security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several people. This prompted more people to join the protests which spread across the country, according to Syria's country profile on BBC.
Gradually, those who opposed al-Assad began to take up arms as security forces became violent. This degenerated into a civil war which is now being fought by Syrian security forces, sectarian (Sunni and Alawite) militias, and the ISIS and other extremist groups. According to UN estimates, 2,20,000 people had been killed since the conflict began.