Chords From Behind Bars: How Music Helped Four Syrian Men Survive Sednaya Prison

Replica of makeshift oud instrument created by the Syrian musicians in Sednaya prison.
A replica of makeshift oud instrument created by the Syrian musicians in Sednaya prison.

The music was provided by an oud: The base was a cooking pot, the neck created out of wood from a box of fruit, the strings made from sock threads and the pegs from fruit stems. The musicians were four Syrian men who had been through hell and survived because of their music. 

Their 10-song concert recently held in the Ruby Lounge of the Rubenstein Arts Center was one of the most inspiring performances of the year at Duke.

Sponsored by the and the , the four Syrian men were former prisoners of the notorious Sednaya prison, dubbed in a 2017 Amnesty International report.

Asaad Shlash, Hassan Abd Alrahman, Faraj Birkdar and Haitham Alkatreb served long jail terms in the 1990s. Students and professors at Syrian universities with an interest in music, the four were also members of non-violent leftist political groups that were subject to a crackdown on political opponents by the Assad regime in the 80s and 90s.

The four were jailed at Sednaya, a prison north of Damascus and under the supervision of the Department of Defense and operated by military police. It was infamous for its brutal torture methods; executions on an industrial scale; stuffed, overcrowded cells; and inhumane solitary confinement rooms three stories underground.

The musicians performed songs of pain and hope written while in detention.
The musicians performed songs of pain and hope written while in detention.

When Bashar Assad鈥檚 government fell in 2024, Sednaya was in the headlines when thousands of prisoners were released; photographs showed lines of stunned, scrawny prisoners staggering out of the prison. The United Nations and human rights groups estimate there are still about 100,000 people known to have been detained in Syrian jails who are still missing.

Now living in various European countries, the four were brought to the United States by Davidson College Professor , who arranged for several lectures and performances in the United States to allow the men to tell their story and how their passion for music helped them survive Sednaya.

Speaking in Arabic with translations from Bader Eddin and two Duke postdoctoral fellows (Hanan Jasim Khammas and Ibrahim Gemeah), the men showed replicas of the instruments they made from whatever was available in prison. The cooking pot was useful as a body, but usually the guitar-like ouds were made from whatever wood the prisoners could find.

Flutes were made out of extraneous material: water pipes, hoses or electrical tubes worked best, they said.

A cooking pot sometimes served as a guitar body.
A cooking pot sometimes served as a guitar body.

The songs described their longing for freedom, despair for their family members and determination to survive. Faraj Bayrakdar read one of his poems 鈥淥 Mother,鈥 written in solitary confinement. He sent this poem to his mother when he was in Tadmor Prison: His mother received it years after he was moved to Sednaya. 

No tears, O Mother, will mend, nor sighs

May your eyes remain shores for my drifting longing.

Prison and death are burdens light

So long as head remain unbowed.

How can the sky be called a sky

If heads no longer rise to meet it?

Performing the music could be dangerous. If caught, some of the military guards would smash the instruments and send the musician underground to solitary confinement.

The musicians adapted, they said, by creating instruments that could be taken apart and the pieces hidden.

Following the concert, the musicians answered questions about Sednaya and the stories they want to tell to others.

鈥淢usic is an international language,鈥 said Asaad Shlash. 鈥淲e find we can communicate with others wherever we go.鈥