±«Óãtv

Against the backdrop of the war in Syria ±«Óãtv Media Action produced and broadcast 150 episodes of the radio drama Hay el Matar (Airport District) between 2015 and 2017. Funded by the European Commission as part of a broader project aiming to help build an open and inclusive society in Syria, the drama and an accompanying weekly discussion programme was available online and on ±«Óãtv Arabic.

Set in a fictional Damascus suburb, Hay el Matar followed the daily lives of residents and featured love affairs, family feuds and tragedies . Each episode was scripted by a team of Syrian writers and touched on a different issue - from violence, radicalisation and migration, to economic insecurity and forced marriage.

To understand how listeners engaged with Hay El Matar, ±«Óãtv Media Action commissioned and trained local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to conduct focus group discussions with listeners in Syria and Lebanon. We found that the drama prompted listeners to think about topical issues, challenges stereotypes and have a view of the Syrian conflict that extended beyond their own personal experience. It also challenged their assumptions and prompted them to talk about and reflect on other people’s multi-faceted experiences of the conflict .