Tamara Nahar, 26, artist: “Some refugees don’t even get the chance to speak to Germans.”
Tamara Nahar smiled as she stood in front of the painting that decided her fate.
It was of a shirt hanging upside down, with blood appearing to drip toward the lower end of the frame. She painted it in 2013 when she was still living in Syria, after a friend told her that soldiers had hung him upside down and beaten him.
Tamara paid a price for turning those memories into art: She was arrested and briefly detained.
But standing next to that painting this spring in Berlin, Tamara said she had no regrets.
When Syria tumbled into civil war, her work started to become more political — and that brought more risks. Her professors at Damascus University, where she was pursuing a master’s degree, grew hostile toward her. But Tamara continued to organize art exhibitions.
We’ll be sharing more profiles of Syrian refugees throughout the coming week. Read more here: These Syrians found refuge in Germany, but they’re still seeking peace.