Our Story | Veg's Life

Veg’s Life started in 2009 with small groups of friends in Sweida, Syria, with a simple goal: to spread veganism and animal rights and to share information and our own experiences. Over time, that small idea grew into a community of tens of thousands of Arabic speakers around the world.

Our vision of change comes from a simple principle: change yourself and the world changes with you. Our power as individuals may be limited, but each of us can choose what we put on our plate today and influence our families and friends. Choosing plant-based food means reducing animal suffering, supporting our health, and reducing our impact on the environment.

Most importantly, our experience proved that change is possible even in very difficult conditions. If we were able to spread veganism and build an active community in Syria during years of war, we can carry that experience to Arabic-speaking communities across the Middle East, North Africa and beyond, and help more people create real change.

Our Mission

Make vegan living easier and more accessible for Arabic speakers in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond, through reliable science and practical experience that helps people make better choices for their health and the planet. We also expose the exploitation and suffering animals face, raise awareness of their rights, and encourage people to turn compassion from an idea into a daily practice.

Our Vision

Peace starts on our plates. We cannot ask for a more compassionate and just world without living those values in our daily lives. We believe the spread of vegan living can reduce animal suffering, lessen our environmental impact, support healthier and more harmonious lives, and bring us closer to a world where we no longer need to kill or exploit animals.

Our Values

Love, compassion, honesty and justice. We respect people even when we disagree, and we try to make our words a bridge that carries the idea rather than a wall. We commit to reliable scientific information, honesty in sharing our experience, and standing up for animals and human causes because, to us, compassion cannot be selective.

How did our story begin?

I never imagined that my childhood struggle with eating animals would one day turn into a project that changed many lives.

Like many children, I refused to eat the animals my family served at the table. I kept asking where those strange pieces that were so hard for me to chew and swallow came from. When the answer was chicken, sheep… I felt even more repulsed and refused to eat them.

But I was forced to eat them because, according to what people believed at the time, they were necessary for my health. My family includes medical and pharmacy professionals, and even among many professionals the common belief was that animal protein and iron from meat had no real alternative.

For years I was stuck between an inner feeling that rejected eating animals and what adults and society kept telling me: that meat was necessary for health.

Later I discovered that there was another choice, and that we can live healthy lives without making animals part of our food. That is where the story really began.

Childhood pain led me here

There is one moment I will never forget. It changed my life. I saw the Eid sheep we had been playing with tied up and about to be slaughtered. He struggled, but there was little he could do. He looked into my eyes as if he was asking me to help him.

I tried. I failed.

That stopped me from eating animals like him, but staying away from meat was not easy. I was living in a harsh macho culture that treated compassion as weakness and even saw an inability to kill animals as somehow unmanly.

At eighteen I started researching for myself, and the book Food for Thought played a major role in bringing me back to vegetarianism and eventually veganism.

But the change did not stop with me. I started sharing what I was learning with my family, relatives and friends. Seeing my family move toward a plant-based life pushed me to keep going. Then came my aunts, their children and many friends.

That was when I started seeing how one person changing can spread to a whole family, and then to a wider community.

People are dying and suffering, and you're talking about animal rights!

Veganism was never the only issue I cared about. I took part in women’s liberation causes, taught yoga and meditation, and was active around human rights and freedom during the war in Syria, as well as helping children in an orphanage and other work.

And I heard the same question many times: people are dying and suffering, and you are talking about animal rights?

To me there was no contradiction. Quite the opposite. I have always believed that real change starts with ourselves, and that compassion should never be selective. There are huge problems that can make us feel powerless, but every one of us can decide what to put on our plate each day and change one part of the world around us.

That is why veganism remained one of my priorities.

I began talking about my experience and the benefits of plant-based living with new visitors at the Ananda Marga yoga and meditation center. Later the idea moved to Facebook. A small group of a few dozen people began growing and reaching people in different countries.

That was how Veg’s Life began moving from a personal journey and local activism within the Druze and Christian community in Sweida into a wider project for Arabic speakers everywhere.

The people who helped Veg's Life grow

Veg’s Life could never have reached this point through the work of one person. Over the years many friends and activists helped me, some from my own community in Sweida and others from different parts of the world whom I still have never met in person.

What brought us together was a belief in compassion and justice, and a desire to bring vegan living to more people.

Friends and volunteers who built Veg’s Life with us

It started with Majda Abu Shaqra, the first person who volunteered to publish articles and vegan recipes with me on the page. Then Faten Abu Khair joined and contributed for years, Ghadir Azzam helped with coordination and administration, and Kenan Al-Aqqad worked on religious dialogue and confronting extremist religious ideas connected to animals and veganism.

Others who contributed include Bawar Havis, Louis, Rama Husseini, Lina Simoua, Nour Al-Ajlouni, Dr. Munjed Amin and Aline Al-Mir, who enriched the page with valuable scientific material.

Mohammad Sobhi, Nelly Matar, Asia Adel, Amine Ouhabi and Sandy Arej also contributed, as did Hiba Jneidi, whose creativity in image design and video editing helped take the project to a more professional level, and Omar Murshid, who carried enormous responsibility in managing the page and group and was one of the most active members of the team.

Special thanks to everyone who contributed to the website, especially Hiba Jneidi for image and logo design, nutrition specialist Shamiran Nisan, and chef and artist Manal Abdel Baqi.

And many thanks as well to Alan Shami, Mustafa Badawi, Ibrahim Al-Shami, Nour Mohammad and Islam Al-Shami, and especially Tarnim for the huge effort she put in during 2020 with the new members of the Veg’s Life team.

There are certainly more names and contributions than we can list here. Without every person who gave their time, effort and love to this project, we would not be where we are today.

From social media to real change in the community

When the project started, veganism felt very strange to many people and engagement was limited. But over time we began seeing the change in front of us: more people asking questions, trying it, and becoming vegan. As the page and group grew, so did our responsibility to provide reliable scientific information and practical support for new vegans.

But our goal was never to remain an online project limited to awareness campaigns or social media.

We began organizing vegan meetups and activities, supporting restaurants, shops and vegan initiatives, and helping create local groups that brought people together.

That was when Veg’s Life began moving from spreading ideas online to creating real change on the ground.

From the internet to teams on the ground in Syria

Veg’s Life did not stay a virtual project. As the idea spread, teams formed on the ground in three Syrian provinces. They organized meetups, outings, tree-planting campaigns, talks and field activities, while also supporting new vegans, restaurants and local vegan initiatives.

Veg’s Life Sweida team

The Sweida team was the largest and most active, and the city became one of the strongest centers of vegan activity among Arabic speakers. The team organized so many gatherings and activities that we began calling Sweida the capital of veganism.

Among the most active coordinators and volunteers were Omar Murshid, Ghada Abu Zaid, Salwa Al-Miqdad, Hind Radwan, Haifa Abdul Hai and Madeen Abdel Baqi, alongside many other volunteers.

Veg’s Life Damascus team

Even during the war and extremely difficult conditions in Damascus, vegan activism continued. The Veg’s Life Damascus team organized regular gatherings and campaigns to feed people in need. Among its main coordinators were Kenan Al-Aqqad and Sandy Arej.

Veg’s Life Latakia team

In Latakia the idea also began to grow. Team coordinator Rasha Shaheen introduced vegan living through television appearances, and the team organized a vegan gathering attended by more than 50 people.

For us, the success of these teams during years of war was one of the clearest proofs that veganism is not an idea reserved for comfort or perfect circumstances. If we could build real activism on the ground under those conditions, this experience can be repeated and developed across many places in the Middle East and North Africa and among Arabic-speaking communities around the world.