Heading North to the Syrian border - Jordan
At the edge of the Jordanian desert, Al-Mafraq lives in the shadow of the Syrian war.
AL-MAFRAQ, BETWEEN WARS AND SILENCES
Each morning, I rushed to the bus station, sharing the ride with Syrian refugees returning home to their tents or container houses in Zaatari camp after a night’s work in the city. In the rising
heat, they always offered tea and a seat, telling fragments of their journeys — how they had fled the Syrian army, how life continued in the dust.
Al-Mafraq itself bears quiet scars. Once a vital crossroads for trade between Iraq and Syria, the city now feels suspended — noisy markets echoing in empty streets, vast shopping malls with little to sell. It’s as if the war never arrived, yet never left.
When will normal life return? Perhaps when Syria finds peace, and Iraq heals.
Until then, Al-Mafraq waits, caught in a long pause between hope and history.
