“Raise your head up high, you’re a free Syrian” goes the chorus of the Arabic song that has become the unofficial anthem of the new Syria. It’s everywhere in the capital Damascus – blasted out from loudspeakers in the markets, chanted at celebrations in the main square and even sung by the man handing traditional coffee to passengers landing at the airport.
Many Syrians kept their heads down under the tyrannical reign of the Al-Assad dynasty for more than half a century. The ruling family enforced a sprawling surveillance state where the notorious mukhabarat, the intelligence apparatus, struck fear into people’s hearts. Silence was the surest survival strategy – until Syrians rose up during the Arab Spring and Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters led the country into a decade-long civil war.
Now, Syrians are loudly and proudly celebrating the first anniversary of their liberation from Assad’s regime following a lightening rebel offensive on December 8 last year led by former jihadist turned President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
For the first time in 16 years, I took the opportunity to go to Damascus, where I was born but have never lived. I was expecting an emotional reckoning of the weight of reconnecting with a heritage I’ve been severed from for so long. Almost everyone here has been struggling – before and after Assad – to pay for electricity, food, water and the basic costs of living in a country trying to get back on its feet. It was bittersweet to reunite with my extended family at my grandmother’s house for the first time since she died just three months before she could have seen the unthinkable: her country without Assad.
Once I was there, the challenges of daily life were abundantly clear, but as I roamed the city with my father, I was surprised to find a largely triumphant and joyful atmosphere.
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