Accept the tea. Ask before you photograph anyone. The rest follows from treating people as hosts rather than scenery.
Dress modestly, accept hospitality graciously, and ask before photographing anyone. Syrians are generous to visitors in a way that can be overwhelming. The things that cause genuine offence are few: photographing people without asking, photographing anything military, and treating damaged neighbourhoods as a backdrop.
Syrian hospitality is not a cliche written by tourist boards. You will be invited in, fed, and refused payment, by people who have far less than you do. Understanding how that works, and how to accept it well, is most of what etiquette here amounts to.
Accept the tea. Refusing it is the one small rudeness visitors commit without noticing. If you are invited to a home, bring something: sweets, fruit, or something from your own country. Do not offer money for a meal in a home, which turns a gift into a transaction. Compliment the food, eat with your right hand, and expect to be given more than you asked for.
Shake hands with men. With women, wait and follow their lead, since some will not shake hands with a man and will greet you with a hand over the heart instead, which is warm rather than cold. A hand on your own heart is a graceful way to greet anyone.
Syrians will ask about your family, your country and your impressions of theirs, usually within minutes. Politics will come up, and people now speak far more freely than they could before December 2024. Listen more than you offer. Do not assume everyone in the room shares the same view of the last fifteen years, because they do not.
Dress modestly, remove your shoes at the prayer hall, and keep your voice down. Women need a scarf and will usually be lent an abaya at larger sites. Avoid visiting around Friday midday prayers. Do not walk in front of someone praying, and do not photograph people at prayer.
Ask before photographing people, always, and accept no as an answer. Never photograph checkpoints, soldiers, military sites or government buildings. Be careful with damaged neighbourhoods: people live in them, and treating someone’s ruined street as a backdrop is the kind of thing visitors are remembered for.
Not in daily life. Syrian women dress across a wide range, particularly in Damascus and on the coast. A scarf is needed at mosques and shrines, and larger sites usually lend an abaya at the door.
Yes. It is legal and sold in restaurants, bars and shops in Damascus, Aleppo and on the coast, and the country has a long winemaking tradition. Be aware of where you are: what is normal in one street is not in the next.
Let them lead. Some will shake hands, others will greet you with a hand over the heart instead. Mirroring that gesture is polite and perfectly normal.
Refusing outright is the small rudeness most visitors commit. Accept at least a little, even if you cannot manage more. Hosts will press you to eat more than you want, which is affection rather than pressure.
People speak far more openly than before December 2024, and many will raise it themselves. Listen more than you offer, do not assume everyone in a room agrees, and remember that for Syrians this is not an abstract subject.