In a sleek white kitchen in the heart of London, guests are arriving with bottles, kisses and apologies about the various ways in which work has kept them late.
Amid them, a woman is chopping herbs and chatting to her host. An Arabic ringtone interrupts. “It’s my sons,” she explains. “I had to leave them in Syria. They are just teenagers and it breaks my heart, so I speak to them many times every day.”
In January last year, Majeda was faced with a dilemma worthy of any parent’s nightmares. Repeated detentions, connected to her work as a campaigner for women’s rights, left her fearful for her family’s safety if she remained in Damascus, while uncertainty about the conditions she would find in Lebanon made her too afraid to take her children with her.