Bilal's speech told the powerful and passionate story of the protests against dictatorship and state repression in Damascus in 2011 and of the fear, loss, and struggle experienced by those who participated in them. Drawing on a surviving personal record of his own grandmother's detention and on the pictures taken by a government forensic photographer, this excellent presentation demonstrated impressive rhetorical skills. Full of thoughtful insights, it highlighted how absence and silence can speak volumes about traumatic and formative experiences in the past.