At the end of November, Hamza Hourani’s phone rang. It was a cloudy morning in Damascus, and some Syrians were quietly stocking their cupboards as rebel fighters marched south toward the city after seizing much of the rest of the country. But the government of Bashar al-Assad still controlled the capital.
On the other end of the line was an official from the Ministry of Communications, summoning the 26-year-old Hourani and his co-founder, Bashar Saaduddin Al Jbawi, to its offices to discuss their startup: an education app called Quizat.
The communications ministry, located in a traditional Damascene marble building next to the Parliament, was viewed by many Syrians as an extension of the feared Mukhabarat, the country’s sprawling intelligence apparatus. Hourani stayed at the office, waiting nervously as Al Jbawi attended the meeting, where the ministry official, with a polite smile, grilled him about their business.
Quizat founder Hamza Hourani.
Quizat helped high-schoolers learn with games and quizzes. Officially running for over a year, it had been downloaded by around 15,000 students. But despite months of visits to the relevant government departments, the company had struggled to obtain an operating licence.
