Photographer Sameer al-Doumy never dreamed he would be able to return to the hometown in Syria that he escaped through a tunnel seven years ago after it was besieged by Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Douma, near the country’s capital, Damascus, was once a rebel stronghold, and suffered terribly for its defiance of the former regime. It was subjected to a particularly horrific chemical weapons attack in 2018.
“It is like a dream for me today to find myself back here,” he says.
“The revolution was a dream, getting out of a besieged town and of Syria was a dream, as it is now being able to go back.
“We didn’t dare to imagine that Assad could fall because his presence was so anchored in us,” the 26-year-old says.
