‘We want to escape but we fear the sea’: Exile in Egypt

The lemons here are not as large and sweet, the olive oil not as fragrant, the parsley not as fresh as that plucked from herb gardens at home in Syria. But they will do what they can with it, they concede at last. Another day of cooking together unfurls like a sail before them, and from this moment, the hands of these six women are never at rest.

The sharp perfume of diced mint fills the air. There is comfort in the familiar rituals — chopping tomatoes, mincing garlic, pinching pastry. But the sense of loss rises to the surface like bubbles in the vat of aromatic stew that is soon set to simmering on the stove.

Ghazwa and Zoukaa, Ihklass and Mona, Kamar and Fatih: Their culinary sisterhood came together in this ancient city on the shores of the Mediterranean, a gathering after a scattering from a war seemingly without end.

Though they lived within a few miles of one another around the Syrian capital, Damascus, their paths never crossed. Now, aside from immediate family, the women, all of them mothers in their 30s or 40s, are one another’s closest companions as they try to start a catering business, Lady of Damascus, featuring home-cooked Syrian dishes.