Child Bride Marriages Increase In Syrian Refugee Camps: Christiane Amanpour Investigates

Child Bride Marriages Increase In Syrian Refugee Camps: Christiane Amanpour Investigates

While Trump assures Americans that he will be tough on letting any Syrian refugees into America, more than half a million Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring Jordan. CNN's Christiane Amanpour visits the Zaatari refugee camp outside Mafraq, Jordan, asking the key question about why our hearts have gone cold. Vanity Fair shares her investigation. 

More than 80,000 Syrians live in Zaatari, a sizable number of the more than 600,000 Syrians who have poured into Jordan since 2011. Amanpour introduces a topic not discussed about the worst side effects of the Syrian war: the rise of early marriage for girls, victims of poverty-stricken parents who often truly believe their daughters will be safer with a husband. 

Amanpour's Vanity Fair article is not fully available online, but she shares her thoughts in this February 2017 piece for CNN. 

Dr. Annie Sparrow & Dr. Rola Hallam Speak For Syria At 2017 Women In The World Summit

R. ANNIE SPARROW AND DR. ROLA HALLAM AT THE 2017 WOMEN IN THE WORLD SUMMIT IN NEW YORK CITY.

Dr. Annie Sparrow & Dr. Rola Hallam Speak For Syria At 2017 Women In The World Summit

Two women doctors -- Dr. Annie Sparrow and Dr. Rola Hallam -- shared their Syria experiences in a moving discussion from last night's  April 5, 2017 Women in the World Summit in New York. Dr. Hallam tells a gut-wrenching story about a severely burned child whose flesh was so singed that she knew he would not live, although he said he was doing okay. She gave him a drug -- "so he would slip away."

My heart stopped when she said that -- for fear that the Trump administration would stop all her funding, as they are to all the women's health clinics around the world, even if they have nothing to do with abortion. The pro-life contingent believes that Dr. Hallam is a murderer . . . that she should have let the child suffer until he died naturally -- the flesh singed off his precious body. It's a very sad world on multiple fronts that we are living in, that this thought would pop into my mind. ~ Anne

Netflix's 'The White Helmets' About Syrian Crisis Takes Home First Oscar Win

Netflix's 'The White Helmets' About Syrian Crisis Takes Home First Oscar Win

Netflix's film 'The White Helmets', the story of volunteer rescue workers in Syria, took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Sunday.  The victory was a wonderful first win for Netflix, distributor of the film. 

The 40-minute film follows three rescue workers with the White Helmets -- also known as the Syrian Civil Defense -- who train in Turkey to provide emergency medical assistance to civilians caught in Syria's civil war.

AOC has tracked in the month of Feb. efforts to bring cinematographer and press officer for the White Helmets Khaled Khatib to the US.  The leader of the White Helmets Raed Saleh was also unable to obtain the necessary travel documents. There is no doubt that the two men were originally caught up in the Trump administration's Muslim ban.  The situation appeared to be on the verge of resolution but fell apart again days before the Oscars. 

Updated Encouraging News :Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize, Syria's White Helmets MAY Arrive For Oscars

"They are not yet on US soil, and we await their arrival with tense anticipation," said the filmmakers of Raed Saleh and Khaled Khateeb. "In these uncertain times, their story is one of the most moving of our generation. We stand ready to welcome them."

On Wednesday, the outlook was grim that the key figures in the Netflix film 'The White Helmets' would obtain the necessary paperwork to gain US visas in time for the Oscars. In 48 hours since Hollywood Reporter and websites far and wide rallied around the issue, the situation has improved dramatically. 

“We are eagerly looking forward to coming to the Oscars," said Saleh in a statement. "It will give us an important platform for the voices of Syrian children and women trapped under the rubble as a result of the airstrikes and artillery shelling, and for the voices of thousands of displaced Syrians who have been forced from their homes.”

“It is so important that people see the film. It is important that people understand that Syria has people who want the same things they want: peace, jobs, family and to live without the fear of bombs," added Khateeb. "If we win this award, it will show people across Syria that people around the world support them. It will give courage to every volunteer who wakes up every morning to run towards bombs."

Previously Wed. Feb. 15, 2017: There is deep concern in Hollywood that key international talents will not be present for the Academy Awards due to President Trump's executive order banning Syrians and others from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. 

Director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara's  Netflix film 'The White Helmets' is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. But it appears that the real heroes of the documentary will not be present at the Oscars. 

Every day in Syria, a group of ordinary, unarmed civilian volunteers known as the White Helmets risk their lives to help rescue men, women, and children injured by the incessant air raids destroying the country. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, the apolitical White Helmets are credited with saving more than 75,000 people since 2012. 

Now it appears unlikely that Raed Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, and Khaled Khateeb, the photographer who filmed all of the documentary's footage inside Aleppo, will get the necessary travel documents to attend the Oscars. Vogue interviews Einsiedel and Natasegara about their relationship with the White Helmets, and why we must watch their documentary in today's political climate.