The Rooftop of Damascus
Read the storySyrian Slow-Burn Romance”}An 18-year-old Syrian Muslim girl and a 20-year-old Syrian boy come from families who have been best friends for over ten years. After his family moves away, they don’t see each other for five years. She secretly falls for him, eventually confessing her feelings online, only to be rejected. The following summer, she returns to Syria and unexpectedly reunites with him at a family gathering. Hurt and embarrassed, she avoids him, but her cousin notices the tension between them. When she leaves the crowded rooftop for some air, he follows her. “Stay away from me. I don’t want to see you,” she snaps. He begs her to hear him out, but she refuses, asking who he thinks he is to tell her what to do. She walks away faster, and he catches up, gently grabbing her arm and turning her toward him, desperate to explain himself. She’s determined to protect her heart and uphold her Islamic boundaries, but their complicated history, jealousy, misunderstandings, and unresolved feelings threaten to unravel everything. Neither knows what this summer in Syria will bring—or whether their story could ever have a halal ending.