BY: MARIA LEICHTY, STAFF REPORTER

Junior Aliah Ajamoughli collaborated with Syrian pianist and composer Malek Jandali last month to raise awareness for the people affected by the Syrian revolution. Her father, Ghaith Ajamoughli, was a Syrian medical student in Homs, Syria.

He fled the country in the 1980s because he had been accused by the Bashar al-Assad regime of being associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, simply because he had a beard similar to those worn by the group’s members. He has not been able to return since.

His story is not the only one of oppression from the Middle Eastern country.

Marie Colvin was an American journalist for Britain’s The Sunday Times. She died covering the revolution in Homs. Jandali attended her funeral in New York and spoke with her mother.

“She was so content and calm because she believed in her daughter’s journey,” Jandali said. “I told her that she had just gained 20 million Syrian daughters.”

Ali Forzat was a Syrian political cartoonist. He was captured in Damascus and tortured.

Regime forces broke his fingers so he couldn’t draw anymore. He fled the country and still draws for freedom.

Jandali and Forzat put on a combined concert with piano and cartoons in Kuwait.

“The more difficult the regime becomes, the more productive we become,” Jandali said.

Hamza Al-Khateeb died at age 14 while bringing bread to the town of Daraa after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad cut off the food supplies to the area.

Jandali has celebrated all of these people in performances across the world.

“The Voice of the Free Syrian Children” concert in Detroit, which Ajamoughli played in, was dedicated to Al-Khateeb.