I have always viewed the word “disability” as a physical impairment only. I used to think that it is just another word for people who are wheel chair dependent or are handicapped in some way. But after the unit on Disabling Bodies, I have seen that “disability” is something that is created by the society or by someone who is superior to others. It can apply to people, animals, nations, etc. Keeping that concept of disability in mind, I have come to see just how disabled the nation of Syria is.
The current Syria, is the product of series of conflicts that have occurred since 2011. Majority of the issues revolved around the differences between people who were against al-Assad and the people who were for al-Assad. The conflicts split the nation in two and ever since then a war has broken out and millions of innocent people have been disabled from living a safe, humane, and healthy life.
Forwarding to late 2016, Aleppo, a city in Syria has been under heavy fire by the Russian and al-Assad’s forces. Innocent children and men have been killed in masses, and women have been raped and killed. The people of Aleppo know their faith but they can’t do anything about it. They do not have the weapons, support, or anything to fight back and defend themselves. They don’t have anywhere to run because al-Assad’s forces have pretty much surrounded the city and overall they are extremely disabled.
Behind all of this chaos and an obvious brutal and disgusting situation, no major nation has stood up or spoken up for the people of Aleppo. There is no medical or food aid that is being given out to them. Instead, they are being viewed and treated as bowling ball pins who are being shot down one by one and the whole world is just silently watching and “praying” for them.
This disability has been enforced by the Syrian government and it will continue to be enforced unless the nations, “who do have a voice”, decide to speak up and act upon this disability. More action needs to be taken in order to stop this brutality rather than just requesting it to stop. It relates to a situation of a bully. If a bully is beating up a smaller kid, and someone asks him/her to stop, do you really think the bully will stop? No, instead the people who are watching the situation need to physically do something to end it. That is the same situation Syria and ,more specifically, Aleppo is in. In order to stop this brutality other nations have to forcefully call for a settlement and able the innocent people of Siriya to, once again, live a safe and humane life.
Unruly Bodies 
What’s going on in Syria now is truly heartbreaking and shows the genuine inhumanity and lack of shame that our world has unfortunately had since the beginning of time. I find it impossible to understand how someone could bring such pain on one another. Of course what I’m envisioning is a utopia which may never exist, but what’s going on in Syria is far worse than a dystopia and shouldn’t be happening. I find it interesting how you connect what’s going on oversees with a concept we learned in class and how they co relate with one another. I too had the same perspective on disability as you did but that was better the unit we had in class. But now that you mention it I feel that it would make sense to combine the concept of disability with the reality of Syria.
I appreciate you statement that disability is often constructed by a superior entity. I feel like we’ve touched on this concept in class, but I specifically liked how you worded it. It makes a lot of sense, and it immediately made me think, “Yeah, you’re absolutely right.” Also, I think this concept ties really well into when we discussed how “disability” as a label is often used oppress (and often FURTHER oppress) a specific group of people. I feel like that discussion applies really well to the current conflict in Syria, and specifically Aleppo.