The highlight of this year's Valentine's Day in Syria is undoubtedly the forty-something man who was lynched in the streets of Aleppo and who turned down the murderers' offer for him to bid his children farewell in exchange for letting them rape his wife. “She is my cousin and my jewel," answered the dying man who was being pulled in all directions by the thugs - or the soldiers - by the hands, in preparation for his killing. He said this in response to their impudent offer to bid his children farewell in exchange for relinquishing his honor and whatever was left of his human dignity, after he was stripped of most of it when he was lynched naked, bloodied and broken over the garbage on the street. There is no doubt that the man suffered throughout his life, like any Syrian (Lebanese or Palestinian who ever encountered the Al-Assad regime apparatuses) who is familiar with all sorts of common daily humiliation and tyranny practiced by the security riffraff over all aspects of life, thus increasing its hardships and fueling destitution. In the videotape, which was the latest Syrian horror film to have reached us, the man refused to allow the monsters into his home, even if to bid his children farewell, as he was being pulled away to certain death. Indeed, he knew in advance that by letting such people into his home, they will not settle for raping his wife, and that their criminal nature will push them to finish the job and kill his children. Whoever leaked the tape thought that by doing so he would terrorize the Syrian citizens who are intuitively protective over their families, honor and dignity. But the future martyr responded with simple and honest emotion to the amateurs of death and fear, replying as a true enamored lover and sacrificing his life to protect his wife, their children and their home. This home might have been small – as we can imagine – but its owners were trying to provide education and decent living to their children who yearn for a future in which they would be treated fairly and would enjoy their right to dignity and happiness. We do not know if this honorable man brought his wife, his “jewel," red flowers and expensive chocolate on Valentine's Day, or how he expressed his feelings to his “cousin" in their small home in one of Aleppo's poor neighborhoods. This is due to the fact that living in a country where the people are stepped on with the boots of soldiers and resounding slogans might have prevented the expression of honest and deep feelings for a long time. But these feelings reached their peak when the moment of truth came, pushing the man to sacrifice his life to spare his wife from humiliation. We will never know the rest of the story and his children might never learn what their father did – i.e. the man who was lynched, tortured and murdered at the hands of the thugs – or how he realized during the last minutes of his life what only necessitates a sound and sane mind: Not to trade with the monster and not to relinquish his honor in exchange for a moment to bid his children farewell. This martyr of love, and during this one time on which he appeared on television and on the internet, offered an important lesson to many of those who deal with love as a slogan of consumption and a product that brings happiness. He practically put forward what does not require any posters, gifts, songs and tears: a love that resides in the heart and does not exit it, even while taking one's last breath. It is a noble love felt towards the woman he described as his “jewel," i.e. an expression which might not be to the liking of those who favor sophisticated love and the writers of silly poems featuring silicon and Botox sentiments. Valentine's Day ended this year and the vendors will start removing the soft teddy bears (the alleged symbol of a lovers' embrace) from display. Soon, the cakes shaped like red hearts will be removed from the stores, but among us, and without us knowing or paying any attention, there will still be millions of people like this dedicated and loyal Syrian lover. They are the ones on which hope is placed to ensure the victory of the revolution, whether in Syria or elsewhere, despite the hatred of the haters.
