Rebel fighter by day, artist by night – a young Syrian’s street art offers a sharp commentary on the country’s civil war.
As a suburb of Damascus faced near-constant bombardment and a chronic lack of food, water and power, an incongruous mural appeared on the wall of a bombed-out building.
It showed a young girl standing on a pile of skulls writing a single word on a wall: Hope.
The painting brought the artist Abu Malik al-Shami to international attention and earned him comparisons with Banksy. Like Banksy, he is a politically aware street artist whose paintings have often appeared suddenly and overnight, but his messages and images are adapted to Syria’s cataclysmic civil war.