They joined Syria’s revolution hoping for a better future. Ten years on it has driven them far from home

Tahani and Ahmed joined the uprising against Assad. Ten years on their lives, like millions of other Syrians, have been changed for ever, reports Bel Trew

A Syrian child looks on as people arrive at a checkpoint in the village of Anab, northern Syria, (AFP/Getty)

Please don’t go, darling, come straight home, was the panicked plea from Tahani’s mother when she found out about the Facebook invite to a rare protest in central Damascus.

Determined, the fourth-year psychology student, went anyway scrambling to get to the rallying point after her last lecture.

It was early March, 2011, the early days of Syria’s Arab Spring uprising.