Rif Dimashq-SANA

Over the years of work, support and follow-up, the Shami rose has moved from being a rose staffed by a gathering of people in the village of Al-Marah in Damascus countryside to a cultural and social heritage and a strategic economic crop for its farmers, and they were able with continuous effort to develop its production and everything associated with it until it reached all over the world.

The people of the village of Al-Marah, while reaping their most important crop, explained to SANA correspondent that what binds them to the rose is a story that is decades old, during which they lived various types of rituals and were raised to love it, so their memory and future became a symbol of their heritage, the basis of their livelihood and the title of their culture and customs, which required them to double efforts to protect it as an economic crop and increase its production so that its name remains a symbol of culture and beauty.

Farmer Ghada Al-Bitar, who is bent on the rose bushes to pick their petals, pointed out that it is enough for her to be proud that the rose has become on the World Heritage List, in addition to that it has risen and moved their lives to other places that were not before.

Mahmoud Khoja said: "He has been cultivating roses for more than thirty years and has been raised to love it, and was able during the last period to increase the cultivated areas because it has become one of the most important economic crops for the people of Al-Marah, while farmer Shakib Al-Bitar pointed out that its products have reached all over the world and have become one of the most important roses, so the village's farmers have doubled their efforts to protect it, expand its cultivation and production, and educate future generations to love it.

From the Syria Trust for Development, Yara Barhoum indicated that the municipality works with the community to develop and promote the culture of this heritage and preserve it, and this is what it does in the village of Al-Marah, whose name is associated with the Shami rose to preserve it and expand its cultivation and production.

Al-Bitar Foundation for the Revival and Development of the Shami Rose was present at the Harvest Festival through a device for distilling rose water to introduce visitors to how the distillation process and extraction of a hundred percent natural product is carried out, according to Fahd Al-Bitar, one of the members of the Foundation, indicating that the Foundation has been working for years in coordination and cooperation with the Syria Trust for Development and other parties to spread the culture of expansion of the cultivation of the Levantine rose.

One of the marketers of rose products, Ali Al-Bitar, works through the kiosks scattered in the fields to introduce visitors to its benefits and importance, explaining how the rose has moved from an ordinary crop to a product that has reached various communities and is now requested by name, and work is underway to develop its products to reach the world.

The guests of the Qitaf Festival, who varied between artists, diplomats, and civil society and civil society actors, came from different governorates to participate with the people of Al-Marah in harvesting the rose and express their love for it and get to know it closely.

The artist Sulaf Fawakherji indicated in a statement to SANA correspondent that the importance of the rose stems from the fact that it has become a Syrian symbol of beauty and culture and its status has risen after its registration on the list of intangible world heritage, which requires us as artists to work to consolidate its importance within dramas that talk about its location and the society in which it works, and the social rituals associated with it and introducing people to this important heritage.

From the Embassy of Palestine, Hala Al-Akyouk, a member of the Syrian Diplomatic Club, pointed out that her participation with the people of Al-Marah in harvesting their roses is one of the most beautiful and wonderful experiences, as she learned about the goodness and simplicity of the people of that beautiful dreamy village that embraces in its lands a rose that has reached all over the world.

The Shami Rose Harvest Festival was launched in the village of Al-Marah on the twenty-fifth of this month with wide popular and official participation.

Safira Ismail

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